Living off grid (kind of)?? As few bills as possible?

[Cottagelife1]

Ok so I have had a little revelation? We are moving into a small cottage for about a year while we save and build a new house? So I have decided to try to live with as little bills as possible?? Has ANYONE ever done this?? Aibu to think this is possible?Posting here for traffic but there may be a better group??
So we will have no rent/mortgage, no tv or tv license, no water bill, we will need electricity obvs, but we will have a stove and our own wood, and a gas bottle for the hob.

We were thinking chickens , a pig to feed our waste food too (and the compost heap obvs). Am I missing anything?? Any ideas from those who try to be self sufficient??

@Raspberry10 yes most houses around us have wells it’s the norm rurally here! Curt we work off one at another house and all is perfect. Water butts would be used for sure! My in laws use them to collect rainwater and water their veggies.

@SonEtLumiere I haven’t suggested that I don’t work. We both do and our kids go to school. I just mean living as independently as possible and with as little bills as possible I suppose. Yes we have health insurance, life insurance and house insurance.

@Cottagelife1 I was totally wrong- I was thinking the US!

It’s sounds like such an idyllic life. I think as long as you have WiFi, you can do it. Because if you have a question, query, problem when you are there, there’s always somewhere/someone to turn to on the net, that can help.

Do it, you’ll look back in years to come either with loving memories or thinking ‘what were we thinking?!’ But it’s better than thinking ‘what if we had tried it, we may have enjoyed it?’. But you said, you’ll save money to build a house- it’s a no brainer really!

I’m so tempted by this way of living, and think about it all the time. Following with great interest!

Surely a TV Licence is less than a Netflix subscription though?!
Nope. So many people think that Netflix subscriptions are some great extravagance while paying their TV licence.

TV licence = £150.50/year
'Standard' Netflix = £95.88/year. You can also get 'basic' £71.88 or 'premium' for £119.81 - still cheaper than a TV licence!

@WyfOfBathe yes!

The secret with chickens is to run a surplus to sell. We have a dozen and sell enough at the gate to more than pay for feed and anything else we need/have bought.
Same with surplus fruit and veg, it all comes in at once. Luckily we have plenty walk/drive by know we have eggs etc to sell.

@Ariela good idea thank you 🙏

Growing your own food is actually a skill. It’s been years, but I remember seeing a breakdown of the setup costs and growing costs (water, fertilizer etc). It was a tight margin on a small scale. Then you have to add in the odds of something going wrong and either getting nothing or a low yield. Over time, your knowledge of your particular soil and growing conditions will increase and increase your odds of success, but that can take many seasons.

My mother grows her own fruit and veg and it does work out more expensive and she spends a tonne of time at the allotment and can only go on holiday in winter. Go figure.

You can’t feed waste food to a pig (or chickens). It’s illegal and is a disease risk.

Think about replacing other disposable household and hygiene products with long-lasting versions. Proper dusters and dishcloths, for instance.

I'm not sure I would bother with a pig unless you have a waste land area. They are very destructive and I think the cost of keeping it would far outweigh the benefit.

Goats may be more useful. That would give you milk.

Will think on meantime. We are quite remote but on a farm. So we have cattle and sheep which provide meat. Goats for milk. Chickens for eggs. Veg garden and fruit trees for jam and baking. MIL can make butter and cream. FIL has bees and we now have honey although that's hit and miss. My favourite saying being I've lost my bees have you seen them

Transport wise we have vehicles but kids ride ponies and cycle most places.

We do have internet but that's a choice.

SIL and I batch cook a lot. So we look out for reduced veg in shops as well and came then make soups and stews to freeze. Costs way less if you do it when reduced.

We swop a lot of things as well. We don't have pigs so swop meat with a neighbour who does. We don't have ground fruits as stock tend to escape and eat.

Sounds interesting OP. I suppose like anything it will be about a balance. What's your essentials and what can you really manage without. Some stuff is just cheaper to buy these days.

Read a book called Make the Bread, Buy the Butter - it's a good read and you'll get some idea of what is cost efficient to grow/make yourself and what isn't.

@ChaoticKate if course you can, what I mean is peelings from fruits and semi old bread etc

@bliminy ooh I’ll have a look thank you!

@Chaotickate how is it illegal to feed your peelings (boiled of course) to your chickens?

I also think if you're only planning to do this for a year, there will be some things that just aren't worth the investment, and others that don't bring all that much saving. Like growing your own vegetables, for instance. Great idea but you'll need something to eat before you start harvesting, because (I assume) you don't have a larder full of vegetables you harvested and stored/preserved/froze from last year. And investing in infrastructure for animal husbandry may not pay off that much within 12 months. I'd do some really careful budgeting before you start.

A goat is much more manageable than a cow if you want to go down the dairy route. But then all of your dairy products taste of goat. Personally I don't mind but it's definitely not for everyone.

There's a book called the Art of a frugal headonism which I'd really recommend.

@Cottagelife1
www.gov.uk/government/news/pig-keepers-warned-not-to-feed-kitchen-scraps-to-pigs-due-to-african-swine-fever-risk

Read the whole article. It is illegal to feed catering or domestic waste of any kind, INCLUDING SCRAPS, to farm animals, including those kept as pets. If you’re going to keep livestock you need to know the legislation. If the food has been through your kitchen, you cannot feed it to livestock.

With animals comes work and vets bills.

Also- you are not allowed to feed waste food to pigs anymore. It's to do with foot and mouth (or swine flu?). We looked into it a while ago.

What you can do is get your food bills right down. Make your own yogurt, buy dried beans and peas, eat a lot of porridge etc. It's all really nutritious, and much cheaper than other foods.

Corguettes, mange tout peas, rhubarb, cherry tomatoes, raspberries, strawberries- they are all easy to grow and expensive to buy.

OP I am possibly doing this next year. Sick of renting/huge electricity bills various insurances etc. I have a house 'off grid', no mortgage, with a sceptic tank. We've had it 20 years and had it emptied once. It is fine. Until recently we have rented it out and now want to go and live there.

Also have a very efficient wood burning stove for winter and gas bottles for kitchen (they last around 4 months each) Very hot here most of the time.

Own fruit trees and will grow as much veg as possible. Tomatoes/herbs/lettuce/courgettes in pots etc. Planning to shop once a week for staples only (which are very cheap here) probably get away with 60 euro max for the three of us (including wine)! I don't have a car. Will use a bike. Want to make my own bread.

Only have a pay as you go mobile with wassap for calls to friends and family. I will pay for broadband (29 euros every two months) don't watch T.V. Most things you can watch on youtube anyway. Will obvs continue to pay house insurance.

No council tax, just a nominal amount for rubbish collection twice a year.

Got equivalent of NHS.

Will need to buy chlorine for the pool. DH has a car, so he'll deal with that and petrol to take DD to school. But that is all it will be used for.

Am a bit worried it could all be as simple as it seems. Got to persuade DH a bit more now!

@picklemepopcorn if course I have taken that into account although to be honest I wouldn’t be bringing a chicken to the vet, I would probably just put it out of its misery tbh 😬

Sorry, wasn't thinking of chickens so much as pigs/goats/sheep.

Chickens are ok.