Freeconomy Blog
Wed
04 Feb
How to beat the Credit Crunch...
| 31 comments |
Last night myself and Kath Kelly, author of 'How I lived for a year on just £1 a day', gave a talk in Bristol (UK) regarding ways to not only beat the credit crunch, but simultaneously tackle climate change and resource depletion all at the same time.
It was titled 'How to beat the Credit Crunch! – ways to survive and thrive on the tiniest of budgets', but to be honest it was as much about what I call 'the Resource Crunch' along with what Satish Kumar calls 'the Nature Crunch'. We broke down life into every category that time allowed and then gave our tips and advice on how to survive and thrive in each one.
Here is a list of some of the organisations at the heart of the tips I gave in each category, and whether you are concerned about the Credit Crunch, the Nature Crunch or the Resource Crunch, I hope you find some of the following very useful and that they help you build more sustainability and community in your own life.
1. Transport:
Liftshare – sign up and find people making the same journey as you on the same day, and do the same for others.
Carshare – same as above.
National Carshare – more of the same.
City Car Club – a 'pay as you go' system making driving much cheaper. Offer it up as a lift-share and help the environment at the same time.
This is one for students, and it also lets you share other stuff.
Freewheelers – in their words “Linking drivers and passengers to share the cost of travel... Saves you money, helps other people and reduces pollution”
Hitching Guide - for advice on hitch-hiking in any part of the world
Ramblers Association or Sustrans - for info about amazing walks around the country and advice on walking and trekking
Life Cycle UK - for information about safety when cycling and other useful bits.
2. Food:
Foraging:
BBC's Roadkill Chef, world famous forager Fergus Drennan's raison d'etre is to forage, and it has taken him the guts of twenty years to do so. His course is inspirational, informative and incredibly insane. Expect to be fascinated by foraging by the end of it.
Andy and Dave Hamilton, co-authors of 'Self-sufficientish Bible' also run a great foraging course. Check out their very popular forum on all things 'self-sufficient'ish' for more details.
Growing:
Contact your Local Council, ask for the allotment department they will tell you where your nearest allotment is. Apparently they are legally obliged to do everything they can do help you find one, and most of them are very helpful and supportive. However, they are constrained by the amount of land they have and so waiting lists may occur at your allotment
G.R.O.F.U.N. (Growing Real Organic Food for Urban Neighbourhoods) is one of best, and most inspirational, projects around. When you join you collectively help other people to grow food, learn how to do it yourself, share the harvest with those you helped and make lots of great friends in the process. A great example of how you can learn the skills you need and get free food in the same process.
Volunteering on a local organic farm allows you to not only help a project that is most likely in dire need of the help due to the competitive pressures of the large supermarket chains, but it also enables you to learn from people who often have spent most of their life doing it. More often than not the farm will usually feed you for your days work as well.
Two projects which have inspired me in this respect are Radford Mill Farm and Leigh Court Farm, though you will have no problems finding similar projects wherever you live.
Urban Foraging / Skipping:
For more information on 'urban foraging' or 'skipping' check out the Freegan website.
3. Skills:
The Freeconomy Community – Now the fastest growing and largest alternative economy on the planet, and the world's largest skill-share community. Sign up, it's obviously FREE!
The LETS Scheme, which is a system where you get credits for work done. In effect it is a local currency, which I love, except that it is still based on exchange.
Timebanking – similar to LETS.
4. Material Goods:
Freecycle – an amazing organisation you really should join!
Also if you have a bike and trailer you can go around and check the things people have left outside the gardens and the local tip!
5. Accommodation:
Couch-surfing – stay on someone's couch for free anywhere in the world on a 'pay-it-forward' basis. Over half a million members worldwide.
Hospitality Club – similar to couch surfing but has slightly different user.
Global Freeloaders – again similar to above, and with a big membership also.
6. Energy:
LILI (Low Impact Living Initiative) – run courses on how to make wood-burners from gas bottles amongst, many other things.
Alternative energy website - for advice on all things solar.
The Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) for info on all things regarding alternative technology, and great source of info for compost toiling.
Using a rocket stove is a great way to cook for free, especially if you use waste wood. They are very easy to make and this video shows you how.
7. Shelter:
WWOOFing – Willing Workers on Organic Farms. You usually work 20hrs per week in return for food, board and education you receive through working there.
Yurts and Tipis – for information about sustainable housing on a shoestring.
8. Communications:
Skype – through this you can phone anyone in the world for free who has a computer and who has downloaded the programme, which is also for free.
Your local library should allow you a certain amount of time on the internet for free every day.
Free Texts – here you can send text messages for free
9. Cleaning:
Soapwort: this is a natural soap and is usually found close to lakes and old Roman baths as back in the day they used to grow this plant in places where the used to wash.
Hairdressers: many hairdressers will be looking for models to work on so you can quite easily get a haircut for free. You can also search for 'Hairdresser' here on the Freeconomy website or go to Gumtree
10. Books and Paper:
ReaditSwapit – amazing website where you can swap the books you have and don't want for ones you don't have and do want.
Bookhopper – similar to above
Book Crossing – brilliant website, I'll let you check this out for yourself.
Toilet paper: Newsagents throw out bin loads of newspapers every single day – make use of them.
Writing paper: For leaving notes, use the old till receipts from your local shop as they usually throws them in the bin.
11. Clothing:
Swishing - an excellent on-line tool to organise great clothes swapping events.
Swaparama – another great idea on how you can make clothes swapping fun. Why not start up your own locally.
12. Computer Operating Systems and programs:
Linux - No need to pay for a Microsoft operating system that doesn't always work, Linux is free.
Open Office – spreadsheets, word processors etc just the same as Microsoft's versions but completely for free (instead of a couple of hundred pounds)
13. Entertainment / Events:
Streets Alive – help organise a street party in your neighbourhood and help bring all your neighbours together.
I hope that is of use to someone!
THE FREECONOMY BLOG is written by Mark Boyle, founder of The Freeconomy Community. If you want to respond, debate or ask questions, please just comment below; you will have to sign in first.
Comment on this Post:
ed comments ...
www.book-cycle.org is great donation book charity.
The bush buddy is great lightweight and less bulk alternative to the rocket stove, you can make them out of old whiskey tins (or beans probably)
check out: www.bushbuddy.ca
a really useful list you've created....
hows things at your end?
love
x
Jane comments ...
If I could make a (hopefully) positive criticism of this blog, it would be that it is doesn't really tell us much about your day to day routines and the all important 'HOW?'. Presumably one of your aims in writing this blog is to show people how you are doing this money free thing, day by day, week by week in order to provide them with inspiration and show them how they might do it for themselves. I would find that much more inspiring than links to 'LETS' schemes, Freecycle websites, info on how to contact my local council etc. There's no reason not to write about this stuff sometimes of course, and some of it is very useful, but nothing I couldn't find out for myself by using any search engine.
This blog would be so much more interesting and touching on a more human and personal level if you really showed us what it is like to live without money on a very day to day level. Do you ever go to bed hungry? Cold? What are the great stories you have to tell in terms of what people have given or shared with you?
This blog is too full of details about Ghandi's ideals, links to other sites and paragraphs of stuff about your spiritual and political ideals. I'm not saying you shouldn't include them, as you should, but If you really want people to get inspiration, you need to show them far more of the 'what?' and the 'how?', with details of the daily realities of walking the walk, rather than just the 'why?'. Wouldn't it be a shame if after a year, nobody really knew how you had done it, but had twenty five links to other sites showing them how to start thinking about doing it? It would be great if you could give us a write up of a typical week for you!
Fergus comments ...
Jane, that's a very good point - and delicately put. All I can say is, you have to wait for the book - hard back £25 in all good book stores from 2010! Ha Ha! Sorry Mark, couldn't resist that!
It's a valid point though. How are you dealing with those endearing mice and there inevitable contraction of time. Very good organization and friendship are surely crucial for success as well as strong ideals.
Much love x
Fergus
Mark Boyle comments ...
*To Jane*
The links I give are intended to show you the 'how' as you call it - these are the tools I use! I could re-write everything that the people in my links say, but I don't have the time and don't see the point either to be honest. I have written about how I survive in older blogs, I don't think there is any point repeating myself on that front.
Also, I am more interested in why a man digs a hole in the woods more than how he digs the hole. Until you understand, and I mean really understand, why it is ecologically imperative that people move away from using money asap, no amount of practical knowledge is going to persuade them. You can no break the addiction until you understand why you need to. This is the process -
1. Understand the rationale
2. Have the desire to learn more
3. Learn
4. Go and do.
I try to help with the first two parts - the theory and the tools you can use to put into practice. And then hopefully prove through my life that is possible (I think one of your last posts a while back you said it was impossible). I can show you the door, I can't force you to walk through it, and wouldn't want to if I could.
Not a criticism either but I don't think you understand that process. I am not an expert compost toilet maker, forager, grower etc. I know enough to get by, and am learning daily. But there are many out there with specific expertise, so I think I should make you aware of them through links. What I bring to the solution is the rationale - the reasons I am doing what I am doing is what I bring to the world at this moment, and I believe that I should concentrate most of my efforts on explaining that, and not on the stuff that I can leave to those who do it better than me.
For example, I could say *today I went and got a veggie steamer from a skip on my bike*, but instead I tell you how YOU can do it through the links. I prefer to show you how you can do what I am doing than just mundanely talking about my little day. Would anyone really be interested in the details of my tiny life? I will write about them in a different format, the type of writing that involved isn't suited to a blog format (if a blog is over 1,000 words most people won't even read it, so it really isn't suitable)
By the way, if it is cold I put on a jumper, if I am hungry I go and get some food from the methods I've outlined in this post. Same as most people really. People don't give me things, so no stories there. Sorry to disappoint!
And this isn't a criticism, it is very unimportant, but can someone please explain to me why roughly 99.9999999% of people spell Gandhi 'Ghandi'! It would seem I need to talk about him a bit more!
Thanks for the feedback.
*To Fergus*
You should know better :-) xx
Jane comments ...
Actually, it’s the other way round with me. I fully understand the rationale and have a desire to learn more. It’s the doing that I need to come to grips with.
You ask, ‘Would anyone really be interested in the details of my tiny life?’
If you wrote a thousand words about washing with soapwort, perhaps not, but on the other hand, a good blog about the ups and downs of it all would (for me at least) make interesting reading. The funny bit about the mice and your food supply, or the annoyance of spending hours fixing your bike, actually bring the whole thing to life.
You also say ‘I am not an expert compost toilet maker, forager, grower etc’
OK! But it is precisely for that reason that your efforts in trying to make this whole thing work would be so interesting to read, because….guess what? Neither are most of us who are reading your blog! Reading about how an expert compost toilet maker, organic grower etc does their stuff is very different from reading about someone who, like us, knows very little, gives it a bash and comes up with something that may have taken ages and be full of faults but works nonetheless.
Also, having looked at lots of clay oven, composting, foraging, freegan, freecycle etc sites, I can honestly say that none of the ‘experts’ were trying to live on no money for a year.
Definitely keep saying why you are digging the hole. Some occasional words on how you are digging it will bring a bit of colour.
PS, thanks for the correction, I now know how to spell Gandhi.
Mark Boyle comments ...
*To Jane*
Yet thats a good point, I will keep it in mind from now on. I often write about the things that really interest me, and I never know whether that is what other people want to read.
Having said that, I used to write about my days and I got a lot of flak for being egotistical! So it is a bit of a no win situation sometimes!
much respect x
Wren comments ...
Mark,
One small criticism if I may;
The ‘free’ text messaging service is free only to the sender – the recipient is charged a whopping £5 to read the message you just sent them!!!
Try http://www.cbfsms.com/ instead – long winded but completely free to both sender and recipient.
Wren
Mark Boyle comments ...
*To Wren*
Thank you for that, I hadn't actually used that service before so had no idea about the £5 charge - definitely wouldn't recommend that.
Thanks for the link!
Mathew George comments ...
Regarding sending free sms ... there are so many drawbacks... sometimes the receipient get charged for it.. and it is also not reliable way of sending messages...
instead of free sms it is better to use paid sms services like www.viawebsms.com which are reliable and low cost and has guranteed delivery. i have used many sms services and found that www.viawebsms.com has many excellent features.
mathew george
free sms comments ...
Send Free SMS messages to UK mobile phones, any network, no signup, login or payment required.
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