How to Live on $6,500 a Year and Love It
Show of hands: how many of you dream about moving to the country, growing your own food and living off the grid? It may not be for you, but my husband and I talk about this all the time. Our biggest obstacle? Affording the land and infrastructure and then making enough money to get by until we become self-sufficient. The people who have done it are inspiring.
Take the story of Mr. and Mrs. Phillipe-Johnson, who gave up steady employment, moved to the country, assumed a lifestyle of Voluntary Creative Simplicity and made their dream come true. It wasn’t always easy, and some commuting was involved, but with experimentation and innovation, they were able to live off-grid, grow their own food and start a small, local business selling fresh sourdough bread to their neighbors. They live happily and comfortably on $6,500 a year.
They started with the snowball approach to debt: they worked as hard as possible to eliminate all debt, one loan at a time. After that, they got creative with reducing expenses and saved up for a small parcel of land. They built their own temporary shelter; then their own home. The transition period involved a lot of testing and ingenuity – not to mention plenty of odd jobs – but they did it. They learned to garden. To build. To survive.
Admittedly, this lifestyle is not for everyone. Personally, I love access to the internet. But I also love the land. We all need to find our own balance, but we can all simplify. Remember, the lifestyle is called Voluntary Creative Simplicity ““ so how creative can you get?
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4 Comments
January 6th, 2009 at 6:17 am
Getting life to be simpler is a goal of mine.
Living off the land? Could I do it?
Not sure but thanks for this article that made me ponder it all once again…
January 8th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
Thanks for this post! I”m here to say “yes, it’s possible!” My husband and I moved to an Ecovillage nine years ago. It hasn’t always been easy, but it HAS been tremendously satisfying. The biggest challenge is making that leap from “mainstream” thinking of scarcity to believing in abundance and that you really CAN do it. And I don’t think you have to move to the country to do it – there are lots of creative options that would enable one to stay in the city or suburbs and still garden/farm and live sustainably. http://tinyurl.com/7hayol
January 8th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
Certainly moving to an Ecovillage, which has some (if not all) of the infrastructure already in place is much easier and much more feasible and attractive than doing it all yourself on a piece of empty land.
I have definitely consider moving into a partially established community if there were one around, or even jump in with some savvy friends who were getting land together. It’s just the me-and-my-husband-doing-it-all-on-our-own that intimidates!
May 7th, 2009 at 10:21 am
i love the idea of living,i mean really living,on the land,gardening,making your own food,even washing your own clothes by hand,i actually have a wash board. raising kid’s the right way with morals,teaching them the important thing’s in life. i need to find a site that teaches me more about doing all this on your own.like building a cheap green house out of the thing’s you already have,and solar,and how to make solar panels,and wind mills,things that generate electricity,any help would be greatly appreciated.thank you,chrissy
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