Freeconomy Blog
Mon
31 Mar
How to live money-free in a city…hhhmmm
| 23 comments |
During the last few days I have been wondering about how I can life in a city and use as little money as possible. The less of it I spend, the less I need to earn and hence the more time I can devote to non-paid voluntary work, which to be honest is where my passion and heart is.
Being relatively new to all this myself, I went on the Goodsearch search engine to see if I could find out more information about people who are living it out right now. Goodsearch, by the way, is a search engine that is just as powerful as Google, the only difference being that when you search using it, they donate money to the cause of your choice. Not exactly Freeconomy but a great way of supporting important positive organisations in the transiton period.
The first group of people I investigated were Freegans. The word ‘freegan’ is compounded from "free" and "vegan". Vegans are people who avoid products from animal sources or products tested on animals in an effort to avoid harming animals. Freegans take this a step further as they believe that in a complex, industrial, mass-production economy driven by profit, the abuse of both humans, animals, and the earth abound in just about every product we buy.
Freegans, to quote themselves, are people who employ alternative strategies for living based on limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources. They embrace community, generosity, social concern, freedom, cooperation, and sharing in opposition to a society based on materialism, moral apathy, competition, conformity, and greed. Such strategies include waste reclamation and minimization, squatting, voluntary worklessness, bin skipping, growing their own food and using only eco-friendly transportation.
Whilst these guys are a growing movement nowadays, I also came across an amazing guy called
Suelo who has been living a similar life all on his own! He’s hasn’t touched the stuff for over 7 years (money, not beer, that is!). He doesn't use or accept money or barter and won't take food stamps or any other government dole. Like myself, he doesn't see money as evil or good. He explains “how can illusion be evil or good? Attachment to illusion, called idolatry, is certainly tragic. I simply got tired of acknowledging as real this most common world-wide belief called money! It's one of those intriguing things that's real because you believe it's real.”
What he is doing is real organic food for thought, and I would recommend you check him out if that way of life intrigues you.
One great organisation, set up to support people who want to choose a more money-free lifestyle, is 'Food not Bombs'. Often people who devote their lives to volunteer activities for the benefit of the planet and her inhabitants don’t have much money to survive on. 'Food not Bombs' cooks food for these kinds of people (and anyone really who needs it) for absolutely free. I kid you not! For the past 27 years they’ve been also feeding the homeless, those involved in protests and sit-ins and they’ve even gone to the Gulf war to feed survivors and to New Orleans in the wake of Katrina.
All inspired from these pioneers of waste-free living, I endeavoured to find out how little money I need to survive in the city give my current circumstances. I’ve come up with what I see as my potential bills for the year -
Rent etc - £3000
Food - £2600 (organic food from a local grocer)
Hosting this site - £400
Transport - £100
Other - £100
Right, that’s just under £6,500. So from this point on I need to decide where I can cut bits out of there – for example, can I go skipping food that is getting thrown out and wasted instead of buying stuff that is fine for others. Should I squat instead of rent? Decide to walk or cycle everywhere and not even take public transport?
I also need to decide if I want to invest in this web-site in order to bring it to another level for you guys - I've had so many emails of ideas over the first 6 months and now I need to decide what is possible and what isn't.
I am going to have a think for a while. I want to go as money free as possible whilst remaining part of this society enough to help those of you who want to make this transitional journey with me.
If anyone has any idea or thoughts you can email me at saoirse@justfortheloveofit.org, phone me on 0775 886 1783 or just leave a comment here. I am up for all sorts of suggestions.
The life experiment begins here…
Comment on this Post:
paul brown comments ...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8484911570371055528
Interesting lecture on money, banking, control and the desire for power.
Ulrich Zwingli comments ...
Is it moral to use Goodsearch when in fact all it’s doing is scalping money for Yahoo!
Also - do you propose to pay tax in your calculations?
Finally - why pay more for organic food - aren’t you just pandering to the vagaries of the soil association. Fine - grow your own food using natural methods, but don’t go head over heels about an inorganic radish.
And correct me if I’m wrong - is this almost a plan???
Joe comments ...
I’d recommend reading a brilliant and inspiring book called ’How To Be Free’ by Tom Hodgkinson.
And in response to the person before, I’d say if you want to avoid GM contamination, pesticides and all the rest then it’s worth getting organic food. We need to support it so that farming methods in England and the rest of the world start to change. Current farming methods are destroying the land and so we must support organic farming.
Joyful comments ...
I have to say that the figure you quoted for food is large enough to feed a family of four! I suggest there as a good place to start. I personally don’t agree with squatting as I believe you are taking something without permission. Can you also not rent somewhere at a lower rent and in return give of your time? Even better stay with someone who has a garden and grow your own organic produce.
Dave S comments ...
In response to Joyful "I personally don’t agree with squatting as I believe you are taking something without permission."
When you consider that literally everything around us has been taken from the people at large and put in control of the wealthy few - over millennia, often by force, by murder, by laws that protect the rich and persecute the poor (eg. repossession), or by other unsavoury despicable means - I think your concerns seem somewhat turned upside down!
The entire world has been stolen from us without our permission, and it is our duty to stand up and take it back for the good of everybody!
I live in the East Midlands, and there are around 60,000 empty homes in the region - which isn’t including empty industrial buildings etc. We don’t need to build new homes on greenbelt land, and nobody needs to go homeless - we simply need to eliminate greed from the equation.
Squatting has a very important role to play, and I believe with the repercussions of the "credit crunch" (which actually I think is the start of the oft-predicted "never ending recession") it is going to be something that happens a lot more in the next few years.
When you consider the amount of homes that banks are likely to foreclose on and repossess (literally taking people’s homes and making them homeless), squatting is going to become entirely necessary for many people, and very much justified too!
A few more quick points:
Organic is about much more than just our own health - it’s about the health of the soil in which we grow food. That soil has been pumped so full of petrochemical fertilisers (which provide short term yield increase at the expense of devastated soil ecosystems in the long term) that when they run out, it will turn barren. We need organic, natural growing methods long before then, otherwise huge swathes of humanity are going to starve.
GM is even worse - it flies right in the face of centuries of farming knowledge which tells us that our best defence against problems is to grow many different varieties of things. Instead, it places all of our eggs in one basket, with a few strains of plants growing under corporate control.
If you don’t believe that, ask yourself why the GM companies produce "terminator gene" crops whose infertile seeds cannot be planted the next year, thus ensuring total corporate control of crops? Before the terminator genes, the GM companies even sued farmers who practised the age-old art of seed storing. GM has never been about "feeding the hungry" - because the real problem there is unfair distribution and waste, as we in the rich countries throw away literally mountains of food. No, GM is entirely about corporate control of crops - nothing more, nothing less.
Once it is here, there’s no going back.
Finally, "How To Be Free" is an excellent book, and I thoroughly recommend it!
Saoirse comments ...
To Joyful -
Yes, growing food is definitely the ideal but I’d need to start now to get anything for this year and there is a three year waiting list for allotments in Bristol!
How on earth can you feed a family of four on £2,600 - that’s only £11 per person a week! Will be looking at how I can use others waste to cut down the bill but will not compromise on local organic.
Squatting is not as clear cut as that. I’m no expert in it but a lot pf property developers buy up buildings, leave them derelict and run down for years on end waiting for prices to rise. Which is immoral in itself and also leads to inflated property prices for everyone else.
Also, many squats are with the consent of the developers as they really keep the place in good condition, contrary to the belief that squatters ruin them down. It’s often mutually beneficial, otherwise the buildings get damp and thrashed.
Lastly, rent somewhere lower than £3000 a year in Bristol is unheard - that’s the cheapest there is in Bristol by a long shot. Long term I am obviously examining all the possibilities though.
But good advice anyway Joyful, see on testimonials you are doing a lot of veggie growing - good on you, you are a trojan worker!
Joyful comments ...
I take both your comments on board about Squatting. I think it’s a disgrace if there are that many empty properties but perhaps the government should do something about that ie arranging to rent then out for people in need. I can also understand if builders want people to do this- then fine -but that would be their decision. I do not think though just because of all the wrong things going on in the above posters posting that two wrongs make a right but everyone is entitled to their opinion and we shall have to differ on this subject.
In reply to cutting costs a great forum is MSE.com. Here are 2 threads
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=768979
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=824645
Thanks for the comments Saoirse. I have fellow Free \economists to thank for help in the garden. We are just at the beginning so hopefully we will make it productive.
paul brown comments ...
If you want to avoid participating in the use of herbicides and pesticides, avoid wearing cotton. It is one of the industries most reliant on the use of these products.
ldicarb, a powerful nerve agent, is one of the most toxic pesticides applied to cotton worldwide and the 2nd most used pesticide in global cotton production. Just one drop of aldicarb, absorbed through the skin, is enough to kill an adult.
Endosulfan is widely used in cotton production and is the dominant pesticide in the cotton sector in 19 countries. In a single province of Benin, at least 37 people died from endosulfan poisoning in just one cotton season.
Monocrotophos Despite being withdrawn from the US market in 1989, it is widely used in developing world countries. In 1997, Paraguay’s Ministry of Health and Welfare identified it as being responsible for causing paralysis in children living in cotton growing areas.
Deltamethrin a nerve agent is applied in over half of the cotton producing countries. Medical analysis in a community in a South African village located on the edge of a major cotton production area found traces of deltamethrin in human breast milk.
paul brown comments ...
There is plenty of food to be found by just foraging in the "wild". All it takes is a bit of knowledge of horticulture. Living in Italy in the country, one gets used to seeing the locals collecting wild asparagus, salad, fungi, etc. Whatever is in season. It seems to be a dying art as we rely more and more on the supermarkets. I speak to the locals to find out where one is likely to find such treats. What sort of habitat supports what food group. It is the older people who have this knowledge. Those who struggled in an agrarian environment especially during the war years. It used to be that this information was passed form generation to generation but is now being gradually lost. It is a useful skill to have and develop.
Anton in Hastings comments ...
Good to see moneysavingexpert.com get a mention, it is a very useful site, but remember that the priority of the site is to save money, sometimes at the expense of the environment, but a good site nevertheless.
Paul, your cotton and foraging posts were interesting. However, I thought that as a natural product, cotton was a good thing to wear - what fibres or products would you recommend instead?
I completely agree with your foraging comments, although would be wary about which mushrooms to choose myself! Whereabouts do you live in Italy?
Friend comments ...
May I suggest a visit to Balin, who has lived without money or possessions of any sort for 15 years or so and during that time has done nothing BUT everything you talk about, and more than you’ve imagined. He is the real thing, mate.
You could do a lot worse than listening to what he has to say. He does not blog or have a website or a computer or a phone or a house or a flat or electricity. He ACTS, he IS. He is currently occupying Parliament Square.
Helena comments ...
Balin is an amazing soul and not enough people are doing what he’s doing. That is rejecting all that he doesn’t agree with and, like Friend says, acting out what he believes as much as he can.
People could do a lot worse than go and support him and the others in Parliament Square but the fact that not enough people do - compared to the amount of people that write comments on here and the amount of London Freeconomists - Parliament Square obviously not being glamorous and exotic enough for many peoples’ preferences.
Ah well, nothing like the comfort of a computer screen and the frantic tapping of keys to make you feel like you’re changing the world... What was it that Gil Scott Heron said? "The revolution will not be televised"!!
Anyone can start a virtual revolution, it’s so much safer.
I don’t do enough because I can’t be arsed. What’s your excuse?
Reis comments ...
\\\"Rent etc - £3000
Food - £2600 (organic food from a local grocer)
Hosting this site - £400
Transport - £100
Other - £100\\\"
Hah, wow, what about:
Medical
Dental
Clothing
Washing + Grooming
Water + Electricity + Gas
TV
Cable
Internet
Mobiles Phone
Entertainment (Cinema + Books + Mags + going out)
Holidays
Car Maintnance
Road Tax
Insurance
uh did I forget any?
TR comments ...
Now this is what I call a useful blog. No silly fantasy comments, just useful tips and website links. Much better.
paul brown comments ...
Using nettles as the basis for fabrics is making a comeback. Nettles were used for thousands of years before cotton took over around the sixteenth century if my memory serves me right. Also, the use of wood pulp and bamboo.
http://www.brennels.nl/NL/ukpage.htm
I guess that once these fabrics become "trendy" there will be more outlets distributing them.
In reply to the question, I live in the Colline Pisane between Pisa and Firenze.
paul brown comments ...
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/index.php/Latest-News/Back-in-time-Nettles-for-clothing-again.html
Souzielou comments ...
I’m not sure I’m really convinced by arguments regarding squatting... If property developers welcome \"squattors\" in their properties, then it seems to me that they are there by the owner’s consent - and so isn’t really squatting.
There are other ways of getting free accommodation though. I used to work for a young people’s charity that sometimes needed residential volunteers. These were people who would live in a house with young people who’d been in care or homeless. They wouldn’t have to pay rent, but were expected to be a \"responsible adult\", on hand to help young people with everyday living skills such as managing bills etc. if they needed extra support. Just a thought...
Société Royale d'Horticulture comments ...
There is nothing wrong with squatting, property is theft, remember???
Seriously though, best of luck to you finding a squat, the houses are just sitting their decaying whilst their unoccupied, basically your doing the house a favour and its not actually a criminal offense, its a civil offense, the police cannot press charges against you whatever they’d have you believe.
Also I don’t see that you’d have to live alone, share your squat and start a commune!
Christine comments ...
If you are going to squat then you have a responsibility to repay the free living by looking after the property and leaving it in far better condition when you leave. If you don’t have the skills or the friends with skills to do this for you then you are not living by your own ethics and should be calling yourself a sponger.
Just a thought even if a hard one.
funlovingnomad comments ...
Thanks Saoirse for your amazing openness and warmth, and for making it possible for so many of us to be part of this experiment with life.
I’ve been working as a volunteer for much of the past couple of years and have therefore spent almost nothing on rent and very little on food. Giving up a well-paid job to "earn less:live more" has been a liberating experience, changing me from the inside and helping me see from new perspectives. Making the original decision to live differently was the main challenge, as well as being willing to live wherever there’s a need. Bizarrely, I haven’t had to go looking - wonderful opportunities seem to have found me. I’ve lived with people running NGOs and charities, as well as with strangers and friends in luxury and in squalor! There are plenty of folk who value live-in support, whether in a caring capacity, house-sitting, helping with rennovations or simply being a companion and listening ear. I realise this is easier for those who don’t have a family to look after and I’d love to hear stories from freeconomists with kids about their adventures living with less and "being the change" (to misquote the Mahatma).
I think this community offers a real possibility to do things differently. It’s so much easier than feeling you’re doing it alone, especially for those who might not otherwise make the leap. I’ll be spreading the word...
Seb comments ...
Hi All,
I agree a lot about the idea to live simply and to spend less money, but I think it is a wrong way to go to sacrify everything we have (car...) to try to spend less money. It is very usefull to have a car, even if it is expensive. The solution is not to get ride of it but to share cars between neighboors. We could have 4 cars for 5 famillies. Everybody could pay for them and it is very unlikely that everybody want to use them at the same time. The solution is to share everything and create big comunities!
Seb
Ofa comments ...
I came across this article whilst trying to find out if there’s anyone living in a yurt in a city. It’s about a man in south London who converted some disused land into an area where he and others grow food and he teaches people about permaculture for free. They’ve also built a yurt on it although it seems like it’s used more for teaching and socialising than for living in.
http://www.timeout.com/london/features/2616.html
I guess it’d be pretty hard to get planning permission to set up a yurt in a city but maybe it’s possible.....
Rae comments ...
Did you get my email about how we might be able to slash that hosting bill?
#400 is way too much money imho,
Rae x
