Help with radical new moneysaving lifestyle

FiHoL · 25 August 2007 at 8:27PM

I'm planning to give up my job some time between now and Christmas, to try and make a living as a freelance writer. I've got some savings, enough to live on for a good year I reckon, but I'm sure it'll take some time before I can get my first book published and hope to earn a decent living from magazines, and I want to give myself that time by surviving on those savings for as long as possible. Obviously I'm soaking up all the tips I can from this brill, brill site. I've got the cashback card and the lentils, and I'm unplugging everything when it's not being used... so I know you're already full of amazing advice, and I'm going to use it to the full, believe me.

But I'm prepared to go further change my life in unusual ways, if it's going to help me get where I want, and I'm trying to make the scrimping more bearable, and even fun, by turning it into a mad project for 'alternative' living. So I'm after any radical ideas (radical, legal and ethical, I mean of course) that I can find for reducing my living costs and taking up an extreme money-saving lifestyle.

My biggest single cost is rent, for instance: is there any way I can give up my flat and live rent-free, or really cheaply? I'd consider living more or less anywhere, in an odd place, in a small space and under odd conditions to achieve it. I currently have a car and use public transport but am thinking about cycling - but is there any way I can use my car to make money, or get a free bike? I'll need to get hold of new books, not all of which are in the library, and I'd like to learn to design a website, so any free or ultra-cheap training I can get would be good, too. As for everything else, I'm prepared to have trainees cut my hair and explore feeganism, even... Plus of course I'm on the look-out for anything I can do as a freelance that will take up little time but earn me some cash.

Please bombard me with your most extreme, alternative lifestyle ideas!

Lazy_Runner · 25 August 2007 at 9:10PM

Well there was that chap that had a job in London and commuted to his tent in the woods. He lived there for a year. Has now given it up to go and live in a tent in the Amazon.
More details here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/6172788.stm
(Not sure where your manuscripts or royalty cheques would be sent?)

FiHoL · 25 August 2007 at 11:36PM

That is radical! I'm not sure I dare replicate that... but I'll think about it! It makes me wonder whether there's anywhere else warmer and drier that belongs to no one, and where you can just set up home.

Lazy_Runner · 26 August 2007 at 12:51AM

Hmmm

Well in no particular order:

1) I read the book Ring of Bright Water by Gavin Maxwell over 20 years ago. Remember something about somebody going to live in a remote part of Scotland on the coast. Got to know an otter. But behind this idea, there are occassionally places for sale in the wilds, with no running water, electricity etc. If you don't mind the hardship, it should be moneysaving. Don't know if you can rent these places or if you have to buy them?

2) Have you seen the site where the aim is to be like the Goods from The Good Life. Grow your own veg, make things cheaper etc.
See here:
http://www.selfsufficientish.com/

3) You could look after someone. I am sure there are ads in the paper where somebody is looking for a carer in return for accommodation etc. Depends on the level of involvement, but this might be enough for money, roof over your head plus time to write.

4) Learn how to match bet. There are descriptions of matched betting on this site. Matched betting seems to provide some people with sufficient monies to either live or at least supplement their income. There seems to be more things to bet on during the football season, therefore increased income.

5) Learn how to trade. A lot riskier than my other suggestions, but if you are successful, you won't worry about your expenses in the future.

frivolous_fay · 26 August 2007 at 10:47AM

Seem to recall hearing that it isn't legal to rent a place out if it doesn't have running water. I could be wrong.

Interesting idea - is it at all connected to the pending book?

Here's a good story - perhaps extreme:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,,2113478,00.html

ceridwen · 26 August 2007 at 12:49PM

frivolous_fay wrote: »

Seem to recall hearing that it isn't legal to rent a place out if it doesn't have running water. I could be wrong.

Interesting idea - is it at all connected to the pending book?

Here's a good story - perhaps extreme:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,,2113478,00.html

A little tale to cheer you up then?

On a more positive note - then accommodation is the main financial bugbear - I guess you could buy a cheapie caravan perhaps and park up somewhere suitably isolated?build yourself a bender (ditto)/squat in some unwanted house owned by a Council because its in an area awaiting redevelopment.

I have just bought the book:
Self Reliance - a recipe for the new millenium
by John Yeoman

(should think that would give you a few useful ideas).

Hope it works out.

FiHoL · 26 August 2007 at 1:48PM

frivolous_fay wrote: »

Interesting idea - is it at all connected to the pending book?

I promise, Fay. I'm not planning to write about me me me.

frivolous_fay · 26 August 2007 at 2:02PM

I don't mind if you do, as long as it's a good read

frivolous_fay · 26 August 2007 at 5:39PM

Here's another idea ;-)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,,2153976,00.html

Lyndsay_21 · 26 August 2007 at 7:01PM

i rememeber watching a programme on tv about people who paid very little rent ie £50pw in london! to live in wierd places like warehouses that are going to be renovated and old castles basically so yobbo's dont break in thinking they're unattended and it saves paying a security guard.

Help with radical new moneysaving lifestyle

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