This has been my biggest dream since I was 20 years old, when I learned how the world really works and that money entirely controls our lives and that we are constantly on the verge of major catastrophic events like wars, natural disasters due to climate change, financial crises and so on. The complexity of our modern society brings many advantages but it also leads to many dependencies and a general vulnerability of the system.

I want to live without money but also without giving up some basic comforts like running water, electricity, healthy food, mobility and so on. Although I know it is hardly possible to achieve this completely without money, it should be possible to reduce your costs to an absolute minimum. But it would still take a quite big initial investment to get to this point in a reasonable amount of time. I think with round about 50,000 EUR you should definitely get somewhere. The problem is... my account balance is currently at -1,007.47 EUR, plus another 600 EUR I owe my health insurance and the 400 EUR I borrowed from my mother last month. So my dream seems to be quite far away at the moment. Kids... when you're grown up and you have a job... don't lose it before you kissed enough ass and got rich! Luckily it doesn't cost much to dream a little bit. So...

^Source

Over the years I've watched many many videos of people living off-grid and I even met some here on Steemit already. ( @markwhittam and @sircork, best regards!) I've had a lot of inspiration and I know it's a completely individual process. But in the end it's always centered around the following

Key Aspects

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Shelter

You need a roof over you head and a place to sleep, something that protects you from the elements. Be it stationary and built to last or movable to keep you flexible. The only important thing is that it has to be yours, sooner or later. Renting is not an option. Either built it yourself, which is cheaper but more work and you need the required skills or let someone build it for you, which is probably safer if you lack those skills. You can get something from a catalog or make your very own individual vision a reality. The tiny house movement is growing and there are plenty of options.

Water

You can live without food for quite some time but you only have a few days if you're running out of drinking water. Fortunately in most places of the world it rains from time to time. Collecting rainwater is not that hard, you just need a tank that's big enough. The challenge is to make efficient use of it. Five minutes under the shower should be long enough to get you clean and a composting toilette also saves a lot of water. At best you arrange a closed circle of usage and filtering but perhaps that is not that easy. However, a water filter to provide clean drinking water in any situation should be a no-brainer.

Food

This is maybe the most problematic aspect because it is far from easy to grow enough food to live from it and you probably don't want to eat exactly the same everyday, so a little variety would be nice too. If you don't want to be a full-time farmer you probably need a compromise here. A good trade-off between independency and a proper food supply would be to cover just some basics and then make friends with a local farmer, who keeps an eye on sustainability. Keeping chickens and growing potatoes for example seems doable and provides a solid foundation. Everything else can evolve over time or come from external sources. And when the going gets rough, look out for what nature provides for free.

Energy

Here we have an analogy with water. It's not raining every day and the sun doesn't shine every day either. So storage is key. How much storage you need obviously depends totally on your consumption. You can just sum up all the wattage of your devices and then use an online calculator to determine what size your solar installation should be. In any case you have to be more aware of your consumption as power doesn't just come out of a hole in the wall anymore.

My Master Plan

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Unfortunately I can't show you my master plan because... there is none. Whatever it will look like in the end, I know that I can't built it myself. I know that basically what I want is just a tiny house with some individual requirements.

Stable internet connection

There won't be a stationary internet connection of course so what's left? Mobile internet via LTE seems to be the only option. But this limits the potential locations due to varying quality of reception. Then there are free wifi hotspots and wireless community networks but I'm afraid they are to unreliable and it's even more dependent on your location.

Enough space

I really don't need much space, basically a bed to sleep and a desk for work, but from time to time it would be nice to have some friends over. So there should be room for at least 3 to 4 persons from time to time.

A "silent" bathroom :D

Many tiny houses' bathrooms are only separated by a sliding door which doesn't really close and I wouldn't be comfortable with a situation where me and some friends are sitting together and every time someone has to do his business you have to turn on the music.

Sufficient energy supply

Although I always try to be as economical as possible in terms of energy consumption, at least my computer will be running almost 24/7. Apart from that there are just the basics like a fridge, a stove/oven, lights... I don't even have a TV. But the Tesla that I also don't have has to be charged somehow of course. :P

Rain water purification

To be self-sufficient you need your own water supply. So collecting rainwater will be necessary.

Chicken coop

I don't know if this makes sense but an attached chicken coop would be awesome. I definitely want to keep some chicken.

And that's about it!

Well, not yet. I'll need some more food. Eggs are good but potatoes AND eggs are even better. So I totally want to grow potatoes. It's very easy and efficient. My nutritional protocol consists almost only of eggs and potatoes. I eat fried potatoes with scrambled eggs every f*ing day. :D

And everything else I can get from my beloved CSA-farm in the neighborhood. Oh... you don't know what CSA stands for? Well, it stands for

My Backup Plan

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Sorry... I mean... CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. It is basically a concept of sustainable food production for a local community but actually it is much much more! It is all about preserving bio diversity and a healthy community. And I am very glad to have such a farm right in my neighborhood and we are good friends. They have chicken, pigs, sheep, cattle, bees and horses, they grow over 80 different sorts of fruits and vegetables, they have eggs, honey, milk, bread and meat. And all this feeds more than 250 people living on and around this farm.

And in addition to the agricultural aspect they have also built a kindergarten and are currently working on a grade school and a professional school. The aim is to provide education with real value for life and to build a practical and harmonic relationship to nature and your community.

Our province of educational action is a cross-generational place for life-long-learning, where new social, ecological, economic and pedagogical approaches are developed and tested. The basis for this is the management of our community farm, according to the principles of solidarity agriculture.

We also offer a wide variety of training opportunities, such as courses, workshops, apprenticeships and internships. With our forest-kindergarten and the children's farm we are providing realms of experience and free development of personality for the next generation.

This is an excerpt from a documentary that currently gets crowdfunded. It's in German language with french subtitles but I'll translate a key statement below.

Many people feel powerless towards the system in some way. The say "I don't like it but what can I do? I can't do anything!" But here we can say: "You can take action. You totally can! You are not powerless!"

To consciously take over responsibility for this planet is what only humans are capable of. Bees alone can't do that and surely the earthworm won't consider to take over this responsibility. Only man can do it but he can also decide otherwise.

So... as soon as I have my tiny house... I know where I'll settle down. :)

Other Cool Housing Concepts

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Here are just some other cool concepts I stumbled upon.

Cube Project

QB 1

This is their first prototype, a 3x3x3 meters cube eco-home with very efficient room layout.

QB 2

This was to be their larger production modal.

QB 3

And then there is the third version, all on one level, with sliding and convertable furniture.

Unfortunately I cant find any up-to-date information on this. Neither on their website nor on facebook. I don't know if you can still buy one of these.

Earth Ships

This is a very cool concept that covers all four key aspects of independent living, shelter, food, energy and water.
An earthship is built completely from recycled materials and therefor is very cheap but also a lot of work. Only downside, at least for me, it's stationary.

Ecocapsule

This can maybe be called a mini-earthship if you want, but without the food aspect. Despite that it would cover almost all my needs. Donwside... 80,000 EUR.

https://www.ecocapsule.sk/

Bicycle Camper

And well,... for the lowest of budgets... Maybe that's where I should start. :D

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Feel free to share your thoughts and experiences in the comments. I would love to get some more inspiration and helpful advice from people who already walked along this path.

Usually I don't ask for upvotes but in this case I would really appreciate your upvotes and maybe resteems. I've really put some love in this article. :)

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Thank you for your attention!

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