I enjoyed the thread about off grid living, but I wonder what the experience has been as far as saving money in off grid living. When I think about it, and when I've seen other people do it, it seems some money must be spent to be self-sufficient. My friend TF raises Chickens. She has 15-20 chickens and gets enough eggs for her large family every day. She does say that it costs her about 50 dollars a month to feed the chickens the type of food they need in order to be healthy enough to lay eggs. That along with water, shelter, occasional vet expenses, special lighting/heating (they live in a cold climate) it seems expensive. I just pay 3 dollars per dozen and buy my farm fresh eggs from her. That saves me money. I do realize it does not make me self-sufficient, however, I'm really thinking about the financials of it, Maybe there are cheaper ways to raise chickens?
There are pros and cons as it can be cheaper, but it also depends on the size of the family or whether you live alone. These days there are more areas that are set up for this style of living, but once you have a good set up it can be cheaper to maintain. One issue I see is winter and how people cope, so if you are in an area with harsh winters it probably won't be as cost effective. My friend had chickens, but foxes came and they all died. Then her sister thought of buying a goat so they could have fresh milk, but that didn't work out to be cheap at all, plus there was no guarantee of how much milk they would get. As they are a family of five, they needed milk and it wasn't reliable as a source.
Living off the grid will save you money only if you are a homesteader. It actually is a lifestyle of self-sufficiency. Homesteaders unlike those who just want to live off the grid, go a step further. They produce most of the food their family eats, They hardly buy anything and they can sell surplus farm produce and use the proceeds to buy anything else they need. So while living off the grid will save you money, homesteading will save you more money.
If living off the grid means being self supporting then I that is the dream of my husband. When we retire, he wants to buy a farm lot where we can raise our own food that would include goats for the milk. But come to think of it, what if we have plenty of eggs to spare? Can we sell 8 extra eggs that we couldn't eat? And how about butchering the goat, what to do with the extra meat? Now my husband is thinking that it might not be cost-effective to raise your own food especially so when there are only the 2 of us who would eat our farm produce.
I too, enjoy learning about the off grid and homesteading life style. I'm fascinated with how dedicated and how creative these people are. I'm assuming there's probably a high cost for anyone starting out, but after some trial and error, I believe many people can spend a lot less money than earlier on.
As in many other ventures, the art of living off the grid needs to be perfected by the participant to enable its success. It's not just simply engaging in the process, but you may need to be able to be innovative and creative in order avoid some would be expenses that could derail the cost effectiveness of being off the grid. Many persons have been successful at it, but it does require a bit if ingenuity.
Living off the grid saves you from the potential taxes. And it can keep you active in collecting resources. Which frees up dependency on the other places. So that also reduces the overall expenses. If you are physically active and strong then that can be surely of help. And it can collectively get the spending low as possible. So it's definitely possible to save your money this way.
