Living without Money (nearly)

RAS

Thought this might give people without families a few ideas, even if it is a bit un-MSE

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jan/02/katherine-hibbert-living-without-money

imamoneysaver

what an interesting read RAS! thanks for posting it!

pink_numbers

This was such an interesting read, it lead me on further reading around the internet for hours!! Thank you

ceebeeby

Wow - amazing and inspiring story!!

Thanks for posting!

rictus123

Just read it all. Good read thanks for posting. Ready for bed now!

mostlycheerful

Thanks Ras for posting the link and well done Katharine Hibbert for doing all that and then writing the Guardian article and book to explain it and share it with everyone. It’s good to hear of someone making a go of living without money and doing it by squatting, recycling stuff off the street and freeganning ie using free food from shop bins. I’ve done some squatting and a lot of recycling, binning, skipping and only buying reduced food bargains etc. I’ve found loads of great stuff and saved literally thousands of pounds over the years. The keyboard, mouse and monitor and the table the monitor’s on that I’m using to type this are all off the street. And I’ve been helpful to other people on dozens of occasions by giving them useful stuff that I’ve found dumped by the bins. Loads of bicycles, electrical goods, furniture, all sorts. Recently I found a load of rare early 1960s American fantasy comics worth between £5 and £60 each according to the adverts selling them on ebay. The more recycling we all do the less landfill, incineration, CO2 and other pollutants. And the better off we are by saving our money. All good.

mostlycheerful

There's an inspiring and interesting article in a similar vein and taking it a whole leap further in today's Daily Mail called Family slashes food bill by £6,000 by not setting foot in supermarkets...for a YEAR. I tried to post a link but sadly this site's anti spam software failed to let me post it as apparently I count as a new user and apparently there's too much rubbish spam posted here. Anyway, have a look, it's well worth reading.

It's about self sufficiency, renting an acre field for £150 a year - £150 a year, gosh that’s cheap, that’s only £3 a week for a whole acre, wow!, growing their own, doing barter for other stuff, and buying cheap shares in whole animals, in order to avoid having to use and spend money in supermarkets. Interesting what you can do if you set your mind to it. A bit of motivation, dedication, some work, a bit of ingenuity, intelligence and thinking it through and being inventive and it looks like you can pretty much achieve anything. If you’ve got what it takes. Very inspiring.

Yeah, I must pull my finger out and do some more of this kind of thing and on a bigger scale than I do at present. Y’know, get a bit ambitious and make some plans like this and then do them and develop it to some logical extremes. I’ve been researching and thinking about land and what I’d do with it if I had some for 15 years but poverty, inertia, laziness, habit and being realistic and sensible have stopped me bothering to do anything. Or even try. But there’s so many opportunities and possibilities. And what else am I going to do with the rest of my life. Watch this space, I feel something erupting deep in my brain. Maybe this time I’ll actually manage to prod myself into action and do something. Time to dust off those old plans and rejig them and tart them up and then take the plunge and get on with it. Time goes marching on. It’s now or never. You only live once.

bloodofareptile

That was a really interesting article.

I do find it a bit amusing that someone who has no interest in money... has done a book deal. :-p

mostlycheerful

In case anyone wants to read it the Daily Mail have changed the title of the article to : Living the Good Life: Couple snub supermarkets for grow-your-own and save £110 a week

mostlycheerful

Further to these ways of living cheap or free, here’s another article in the Daily Mail today re foraging for free food that people may find useful or inspiring :

Finders eaters! How to feed your family for free by foraging in Britain's hedgerows

http://www.dailymail dot co.uk/femail/article-1304172/Finders-eaters-How-feed-family-free-foraging-Britains-hedgerows.html#ixzz0xG7CVfuq

Of course take note, as the writer makes clear, be careful not to just eat any old thing without checking what it is as a lot of mushrooms and plants can be fatal or make you very ill. Happy hunting.

Hannah_10

The original article RAs linked to has been removed, anyone know of another way to read it for free?