Tag Archives: freedom

Becoming Self Sufficient

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Self-sufficiency is about taking care of your basic needs all by yourself. As with any lifestyle, there’s a broad spectrum of what it means to be self-sufficient. Some people are content to simply grow their own vegetables and cook their meals from scratch. Others generate their own electricity, collect their own rainwater, and live without gasoline. The totally self-sufficient person, however, can survive entirely apart from human civilization. He does everything himself, from building his own shelter to making his own furniture to growing his own wheat.

The path to self-sufficiency can be broken down into five major categories:

  1. Shelter — Shelter can range anywhere from a primitive teepee to a rustic log cabin to a two-story house to a luxury mansion. Most homesteaders buy land to construct their house on. Some will build their own houses with local materials such as wood or clay, whereas others contract the work out to professionals. Ultimately, the luxury and comfort-level of your shelter depends on your expertise, effort, and budget.
  2. Energy — This includes all the energy you’ll need for cooking, heating water, lighting, powering appliances, and heating and cooling. Energy solutions range from high-tech photovoltaic cells and biodiesel-powered electric generators to low-tech solar-cookers and firewood (1).
  3. Food — You can forage, hunt, or grow your own food (2). If you don’t own any land, community gardens are a great way to start your first vegetable garden (3). However, for those who desire total self-sufficiency, there’s no substitute for owning your own property. With your own land, you can grow fruit trees and staple crops like wheat, potatoes, and rice. You could even raise your own livestock for meat and milk (4).
  4. Water — You’ll need to collect your own water for drinking, cooking, hygiene, and possibly irrigation. In moist climates, rain catchment systems can provide enough drinking water for the entire year (5). You can also drill wells to tap into groundwater. You’ll probably need a water purification system and a system to treat sewage. Your set-up can include luxurious indoor plumbing for sinks, showers, and toilets; or, you can build a sustainable composting toilet and collect rainwater with a simple barrel.
  5. Transportation — Self-sufficiency does not imply isolation. You’ll still want to meet with other people, so consider walking, riding a bike, taking public transit, or producing biodiesel for your car (1).

Self-sufficiency is simply a guiding principle, so your own execution will vary depending on what best fits you. Most modern homesteaders aren’t totally self-sufficient: many of them own cars, shop for clothes, and use satellite internet. You can include modern technology if it makes the transition more enjoyable. Homesteaders today often own laptops, refrigerators, and photovoltaic solar panels. Many of them even hold regular jobs while living full-time in the woods.

Why have so many people opted to live the self-sufficient life? Besides enjoying the romantic, pastoral lifestyle, there are plenty of practical benefits for being self-sufficient. Here are just a few:

  • You’ll pollute less. By being self-sufficient, you’ll learn to compost food scraps, grow your own organic food, build with local materials, generate renewable energy, and avoid shopping. Each step makes a difference towards lowering your environmental impact.

  • You’ll save lots of money. Imagine if you didn’t have any more expenses: no more car payments, no more auto insurance, no more utility bills, and free food and housing. If you practice extreme self-sufficiency, you could literally live without any money.

    You don’t need to do everything yourself, nor do you need to quit your job. If gardening is too much hassle, for example, you could always buy produce from the farmers market. Likewise, it may be prudent to keep your job to help build savings. However, the more self-sufficient you become, the more you’ll save, and the fewer financial obligations you’ll have. Every little bit of self-sufficient frugality can increase your freedom.

  • You’ll pay off your debts quickly. If you work full-time in addition to homesteading, you’ll have an income with virtually no expenses. Undeveloped land is cheap, so you can often purchase it without a mortgage. After a few short years of hard work, you’ll own a house debt-free. A self-sufficient homestead can provide freedom from the turbulent state of the economy. After all, wouldn’t you rather spend your mornings gathering firewood than worrying about loan payments?

  • You’ll be more independent. Once you learn self-sufficiency skills, you’ll no longer depend on modern conveniences like restaurants, department stores, and gas stations. You’ll also no longer need the utilities company for water and power. Not only is self-sufficiency convenient, it could save your life during an emergency. During a serious crisis, such as a hurricane, earthquake, or a terrorist attack, you might be left stranded for weeks without basic necessities. By being self-sufficient today, your family will be much better prepared for future emergencies.

  • You’ll learn to be more resourceful. Many of us today can’t survive without cappuccinos and WiFi internet, let alone life in the rural countryside. But if you’ve ever wanted to explore different parts of the world or buy back-country property, it helps to learn self-sufficiency skills. As a benefit, the cost of living will be far cheaper. You can combine this with a telecommuting job to build savings.

  • You’ll enjoy the learning experience (hopefully). As you become self-sufficient, you’ll acquire practical skills that teach you about the environment and sustainable development. Up until the last century, these primitive skills were mostly common knowledge; we’re merely re-learning them today. This knowledge can help us better understand both historical cultures and the world around us.

Self-sufficiency is a fusion of many related ideas. It’s half low-cost lifestyle and part do-it-yourself ingenuity, mixed in with sustainable development and a touch of emergency preparedness. Really, it can be a lot of fun.

There are plenty of books available on self-sufficient living online, with much of it totally free. Not surprisingly, self-sufficient living hasn’t changed much in the last two hundred years. As a result, there are many useful books that have fallen into the public domain. There are also many e-books that have been donated by governments and NGOs to help the developing world. Today, we literally have thousands of books at our very fingertips.

Here are some books that have made it into my summer reading list:

Paid:

Free:

  1. Learn to make your own biodiesel and build your own solar cooker. Biodiesel is only green if you grow your own crops using no outside energy inputs. Biodiesel produced from biomass raised in conventional farms might be worse than gasoline.
  2. The US Army Survival Handbook teaches you how to hunt and forage wild foods. Just make sure to follow your community’s local laws!
  3. Search for a community garden near you!
  4. The Backyard Homestead provides a gentle introduction for newcomers. You’ll learn to grow and cooking your own food.
  5. Catching rainwater is quite simple, really.
  6. Photo credits: anoldent, CC BY-SA. Hardworkinghippy, CC BY-SA.

Are You Chasing After the Wind?

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Minimalism can be a powerful tool for helping you chase your dreams. Once you start living a low-cost lifestyle, you’ll find yourself with more time, money, and freedom than you could have ever imagined. By passing up on the American dream, you’ll suddenly have the ability to quit your 9-to-5 job, start your own business, travel the world, and live life on your own terms.

Which, actually, is why I’m worried.

Living life on your own terms, while it can be more fun, isn’t much of an improvement over the American dream. In the long run, it’s still a chasing after the wind.

Many minimalists teach us to chase our dreams today because our time on earth is limited. Anything that stops us from achieving our goals is just wasting our precious time. So we’ve learned not to let our house, car, television, or career stand in the way of what’s important to us.

It all makes sense, except for one aspect. Have you ever stopped to wonder why we’re all in such a rush to accomplish our dreams?

It’s because we’ll all eventually die.

No one wants to admit that death is looming in the background of all our major life decisions. We prefer euphemisms instead: time is limited, seize the day, live a radical life. But we’d be more honest if we just bluntly admitted the truth: one day, death is going to take away all our life’s joys. And there is absolutely nothing we can do about it. So we’re all in a hurry to make the best with what little time we have.

The problem with chasing your dreams is that, even if you accomplish them, it won’t make a difference. You can live a life full of exciting adventures, but when you die, none of it will matter. Life experiences are just as futile as the American Dream. It’s just a less materialistic version of the same pointlessness.

I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. (Ecc 1:14)

For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity. All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return. (Ecc 3:19-20)

It turns out that there is an eternity ahead of us, awaiting us after our current life. Pursue life today as if eternity matters, because one day God will judge us for what we’ve done in this life, whether that’s living the American dream or escaping the rat race. Our ultimate fate in life–death–is a result of the sinful, evil nature of man. Eventually, the Bible teaches that we’ll face the wrath of God for whatever life we choose, conventional or extraordinary, if we lived it apart from the Christ.

Greenimalist living can become a trap if we squander all our new-found freedom and wealth for endless world travel and life adventures. But Greenimalist living can also be used for the glory of God, if we use it to love God and our neighbor. The key difference is to not live for today, but rather for the eternity to come.

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. (Ecc 12:13-14)

Life Without a Cell Phone

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This year, I’m making the effort to live without a cell phone. It’s part of my overall effort to save money while simplifying my life. As a backpacker, all my possessions must cram into a normal 30L bag, so I’m very picky about what I keep. My possessions are evaluated by two main criteria: it must be extremely cheap, and it must be undeniably useful . Cell phones didn’t make the cut.

Mobile plans are far more expensive than most people realize. In the past, I was spending $30 per month on a basic voice plan, which translates into $360 per year. The typical smartphone user pays even more. An average 3G data plan can cost around $85 per month, or $2000 over the lifetime of a 2-year contract. To put these figures in perspective, I’m currently only spending $150 per month on groceries. An extra $2000 could pay for a year’s worth of food. Cell phones are not how I want to use my money.

So I don’t own a cell phone or landline telephone anymore. Instead, I’m relying entirely on my laptop to receive phone calls. I signed up with a VOIP provider to get an incoming number (1). This allows others to call my laptop using a regular phone number (no computer required). With my plan, I get unlimited calls to the USA and extremely cheap international calls. In total, I only spend around $70 per year for the entire plan, for a savings of $650 each year compared to my original plan. The set-up was simple and didn’t require any new electronics; all I needed was my existing laptop and WiFi access.

The trade-off is that I lose perpetual, 24/7 mobile connectivity. When my laptop is turned off, I don’t receive calls; they go straight to my voicemail. But in a way, I find beauty in the solitude of living cell-free. Each night, I enjoy the luxury of escaping the world of ringtones, text messages, and telemarketers. No one can bother me now; I return calls only when I feel like it.

Living without a cell phone might seem inconvenient, but in many ways, it’s a more peaceful way to live. Having a mobile device with instant access to unlimited media–phone calls, text messages, music, movies, apps–would be a total drain on my life. I’m already suffering from digital sensory overload; I don’t need a smartphone to bombard me with more useless trivia.

So I’m finished with my cell phone for this year. My wife decided to keep hers, so I borrow her phone on occasion when traveling alone to foreign places. As for the other 95% of the time, I’ve done quite well without a cell. In fact, I’ve only had one minor incident in the last two months. While I was taking the train to visit my in-laws, I accidentally overshot my destination by 20 miles. It took me an hour and two train transfers before I got back to Taichung.

Why didn’t you call me, Hsinya asked, to let me know you’d be late?

I shrugged. No cell.

1 Skype is probably the simplest to set-up. Buy a subscription for unlimited phone calls, then get an online number. Skype currently offers 50% off the purchase of an online number with a subscription. Once it’s set-up, you can cancel your phone subscriptions and easily save $1000/yr.

2 I once worried about not being able to make emergency calls. Later, I realized that any unused cell phone without a data plan can still make free emergency (SOS) calls, even if you lack a SIM-card. So you can keep your old cell around for emergencies without paying the phone company.

3 There are definitely cheaper VOIP providers that will support open-source, but you’ll need more technical knowledge to set it up. Since Google Voice doesn’t allow you to receive incoming calls, it can’t completely replace all phones like Skype can.