If things get tougher?

The_Economist

I have a question as i read peoples posts and that is WHY! WHY! WHY!

JoJoB

I am going to live in a yurt totally off the grid. Solar power, water from wells and streams.

No mortgage or leccy bills. :T

A somewhat extreme solution, granted! But will be an adventure. :eek:

JoJoB

The_Economist wrote: »

I have a question as i read peoples posts and that is WHY! WHY! WHY!

Cos we're skint?

The_Economist

JoJoB wrote: »

Cos we're skint?

I think we need to look at why we are skint. I not sure that it is because people are frittering it away may be because there is to much tax in this country!

celyn90

The_Economist wrote: »

I think we need to look at why we are skint. I not sure that it is because people are frittering it away may be because there is to much tax in this country!

I'm afraid that I don't need to look at why we have so little money. I know exactly why. I certainly don't fritter money - I don't have it to fritter - but I know that our necessary out-goings take up a great deal of what is incoming.

As much as I'd like to not pay the taxes, I have no choice but to. So I will look at how I can survive on what I have as it is the only practical and realistic thing I can do. I don't have time to lobby the government, I am too busy trying to live.

ceridwen

JoJoB wrote: »

I am going to live in a yurt totally off the grid. Solar power, water from wells and streams.

No mortgage or leccy bills. :T

A somewhat extreme solution, granted! But will be an adventure. :eek:

:j OOOOOH! Tell us all about it ....... purlease! :j Blog hint hint - hint for blog. But do please tell us how it goes anywhichway.:D

ceridwen

Just been off refreshing memory on yurt websites, eg:

www.yurtinfo.org/

www.coloradoyurt.com

Me likee! Looks good to me. Guess they must be warm enough to live in year round presumably? - since they originated in Mongolia.

lil_me

We've been suprisingly ok so far, my partners work been ok, other things sorted, outgoings are at an all time high since moving to a much more expensive house, I have a few adjustments to make as several things are either going up or have gone up, outgoings are well over £2k a month now so there has been a lot of negatives but somehow managed to get through it (my partner says probably part to do with my obsessive behaviour when it comes to working out bills, income, where to make extra money etc ). I am noticing how much most of what we buy is going up so just trying to use less of it, might reduce those waistlines aswell. We have however still been careful after being disgusted as to how much the last gas/electric bill came in at, same with how many miles we were doing, we don't go out or drink usually (DP tends to have 1-2 nights out a year) so basically what we have done so far

Made an effort to make sure things are switched off when not used
Sold what we no longer needed
Since last year reduced the grocery/household things spending by half
Took DPs car off the road over Christmas, kept the insurance but not taxed
Done a couple of months where we've eaten from the stocks at home to reduce grocery spending
I buy less meat but much better quality, the cost isn't much higher, I just try to make it go further
Kept a record of milage we have done and to where so we can see 'where' it's going
Reduced how many miles we do
Been more careful of how often the heating is on
Plugged some of the draughty gaps

JoJoB

ceridwen wrote: »

:j OOOOOH! Tell us all about it ....... purlease! :j Blog hint hint - hint for blog. But do please tell us how it goes anywhichway.:D

Heh, never thought about doing a blog - suppose it would be a nice way of keeping a record of things. Basically my plan is to have the baba first (due in April), live in rented for the first year of its life then off we go to the Welsh hills where there are like-minded folk about living in a similar fashion.

The idea came about a year ago as a half jokey thing. We both work very hard but money is always tight and it's a struggle to make ends meet, to the extent that we have worried about defaulting on even our fairly small mortgage. We joked that if it all went tits up we could join a commune or something. The more we joked about the "worst case scenario" the more it became something we thought about and investigated. Gradually Plan B became a very attractive Plan A - moneysaving and getting back to nature and having an adventure all rolled into one. Why slog your guts out just to be skint when you could expend that energy on your own veggie garden and learning woodland crafts or something equally nice?

We are not going to join a commune exactly, more of a village (but of tents instead of houses). It will be a great test of ingenuity to organise things that have previously taken no thought or effort whatsoever. But I have a a year to figure things out.

I'm anticipating about 10 grand in initial costs. This would cover 3 adjoining yurts - living room, bedroom and bathroom, a solar power kit, building of a composting toilet etc. I could probably get it done a lot cheaper though (there's a yurt on ebay now for £800), just giving myself a bit of leeway.

So we are selling our flat, hopefully will make about £15-20 grand which will be our "yurt money" - then its all systems go. Can't wait!

Yurts are lovely. And yes, if they can withstand the Mongolian winter I reckon they can manage Wales! Toasty with a woodburning stove. It will probably be less leaky then my flat is lol.

[Deleted User]

sammy_kaye18 wrote: »

*listening to the radio more and trying to find a wind up one instead to save money

My local Wilkinsons have got a small wind up radio/torch for £2.99.Can't say how good it is but it's cheap enough and if it doesn't work they will refund your money without a quibble for things