One year without the use of money?

Butterfly_Brain

7roland8 wrote: »

Don't you still have to pay Council Tax - even if in a caravan.

No, only if it is on a site with full amenities such as running water, toilets and electricity but if it is on someone's land with none of these things then you don't pay

paddyrg

Living moneyless - that means other people are subsidising you one way or another.

MandM90

I've watched a couple of Youtube videos of that chappy up in Bristol. He's very personable and interesting. I'll definitely give it a read MrsLurcherWalker

[Deleted User]

I love that he keeps his carvan on some land and that he pays his rent by working for the landowner rather than giving cash. There was a TV programme a couple of years ago and he came across as a very community minded and nice man.

nursemaggie

Perhaps if you are young and healthy and can get the people who you work for to pay you in kind you could live without money. I agree with paddyrg you would just be scrounging off people.

As a person who has been retired for nearly 9 years I don't see how I could do it.

good_advice

We as a family cannot live without money but I have cut down what we spend over the last few years even more.
House bills always have to be paid and the running of x1 car.

I am always trying to keep the gas/electric bill low. Turning off lights and unplugging.
Supermarket shop once a week. Always with list and coupons.

Using what we have first before going to the shops.
Rarely use the phone.
Making do and mending.
Looking. for voucher codes and cashback sites before splashing the cash.

Reading MSE - lots of helpful money saving advice.

So the list goes on....

thriftwizard

I was lucky enough to attend a talk by Mark Boyle & Sean Chamberlain last year, at an upmarket music festival I was working at. He was very impressive, in a quiet & humble kind of way. Afterwards he fielded questions from the audience; this is quite an expensive event in a huntin' shootin' fishin' kind of area, so a number of the questions were less than kind and some of them quite loaded. But he answered them all, with patience & intelligence; he's a qualified academic economist who believes that our money system has gone horribly wrong and is now working against, rather than for, the vast majority of us.

He completed his year without the use of money, and went on to do another two years, organising regular free food festivals (using public spaces, loaned equipment & donated on-its-sell-by food) for the homeless and all comers in Bristol along the way. He is now using money in an attempt to set up a money-free community, which is a huge paradox, but as he says, it can't be done anywhere that actually matters without some money, thanks to our property laws.

The most interesting thing he said, to my mind, is that he did what he did to make a point; that money has come between us and the fruits of our labours. The direct relationship between effort in and rewards out has been skewed by other people (employers, government) taking huge cuts, some for good things like the NHS, but the vast majority of it for purposes that we ourselves may not approve of, like subsidising arms companies & other polluting industries or attacking countries which pose no conceivable threat to us apart from owning lots of oil.

His point was that to some extent, we can all control how much we "buy into" this system, but many people are simply not aware that there is any degree of choice. We can choose to earn a lot, pay high taxes & spend a lot, buying the latest car, gadgets & a home big enough to house an entire tribe, or we can concentrate our efforts on the things that are important to us, like home & family, as people did in the past. But we are heavily conditioned not to see that choice, and to feel like failures if we or our children "achieve" less than we could have, in purely financial terms, and so the system perpetuates itself.

So he's not actually advocating that we should all suddenly stop using money. He's saying that we should take a long hard look at what it really is & does, how it's working for us individually - or not - at the moment, and whether we want to carry on like this. More power to his hardworking elbow!

Dilly

We could all do much more to live more economically. I find if I go out to town I spend. If I stay away its easy. Years ago you didn't shop every time you went to the shops, because there was only market day to do so. The 20th centuary changed all that and we are living with the consequenses. Everyone wants everything NOW!!!
Even if we feel we are being more frugal I don't think we really understand what that really is

tain

It all sounds very Buddhist. Certainly not anything new.

Hermia

PasturesNew wrote: »

There's always a big flaw in these people's stories. What is the "use of money" - living in a free house is using money .... money converted into the free house.

If I lived in a free house, in a hot country, by the sea, then I could live without the use of money too ..... it's not rocket science. But nobody's going to give me a free house in a hot country by the sea are they.

And the woman on £1. Same thing - she was poncing off people and in a big city with access to stuff.....

I agree. I have read a lot of these books and the people usually do seem to be either 'poncing off people' or there is a big hole in their story. The authors always seem to tell their friends/family that they are doing an experiment for a certain period and so of course people want to help out. I doubt people would be willing to provide endless lifts, free accommodation, food and gifts for ever.

I could not live on a desert island with no money as I would need to buy my medication. I am not a big shopaholic and don't own a huge amount of possessions, but I don't think I could survive without some theatre/film/concert/exhibition trips.