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??

@picklemepopcorn yes the pig is my dhs idea although I may persuade him not too 😂😂 I think chickens will be fine 👌

Sheep and goats are too noisy for me 😂😂

I agree about animals etc, I am just aiming to get food bills RIGHT down. Buy pasta/beans/potatoes/onions/olive oil in bulk, eggs and cheese/cereal for DD (all extremely cheap here) I don't really eat meat, maybe once a week. The rest I aim to grow.

The local market is so, so cheap for veggies if I failed!

@ChaoticKate ok I admit the pig was an oversight as I don’t know anything about them. But chickens is a different story EVERYONE i know feeds their chickens their boiled peelings alongside their chicken feed 🤷‍♀️

We are on well water so have no water bill but it isn't without its costs - the water needs to be cleaned/filtered - a have a limestone cylinder, filter and UV lamp. The filter and lamp have to be replaced every 12 months and the pump which circulates the water needs servicing (though my husband does this himself).

A have a wood fired stored which also supports the heating (we also have solar panels and a ground source heat pump) but cooking on the stove is very time consuming and not great in summer when you don't want a fire going! So a have a gas hob and halogen oven as well.

We don't have mains gas - we have 2 large cylinders but as only the hob uses gas they last ages.

Depending on your heating/water set up consider what you will do if there are power cuts. Water pumps use electricity so no electric=no water! Our heating system also relies on electricity to pump the water round the house. We get quite a few power cuts in winter so we installed a diesel back up generator a few years ago for the water/heat pump.

I don't keep animals so can't comment on that.

I love where I live and day to say, don't really notice not being on mains but it isn't without its challenges at times!

Please excuse typos - I'm on my phone!

What about foraging are you in a good area for that? Also fishing and finding shellfish and seaweed if you are near the sea or rivers. A beehive might be possible for honey? If you don't mind the idea of humanely killing them rabbits are an animal you can breed for meat quite easily.

@PumpkinPie2016 we’re in Ireland so most ppl rurally have wells and septic tanks (and we currently are) we take all of that into account. My dh is an engineer so extremely handy. Yes in the event of power cuts water is cut off too. But to be honest power cuts are not very often. The cottage is TINY so I have no fear that a stove will heat the whole place for now. When we extend we plan on solar panels etc.

@SmallFastPenguin yes we do live by the sea actually we are about an 8 min drive (we are rural and coastal it’s wonderful)! foraging🤔🤔

If you are selling eggs, I thought you couldn't feed them anything from your kitchen. Or is that only in the UK?

This is interesting.
www.lowimpact.org/whats-wrong-with-feeding-food-waste-to-chickens-and-other-livestock/

@bellinisurge I don’t really aim to sell eggs if I’m being honest. I would just enjoy having my own. My Dh had chickens all his life and fed them peelings alongside their hen feed! Never had any problems (and that was uk)

I live on a croft up in scotland, while we could be fully self sufficient food wise, it's not something that we do, I like eggs and fresh veg but I also like my frozen crappy pizzas and baked beans!
For the weather you will want a polytunnel or similar if your wanting to grow all year around, otherwise your going to get hungry and bored of what limited amount you can grow over winter.
You can get generators that run on lpg gas if your worried re power cuts and filtering your well water. We have one as a back uo but its barely been used.
Don't get pigs, they're the worst!

I'm a very experienced vegetable grower and it's far, far more expensive than buying them when you take everything you need into account.

Also, what will you do during the 'hungry gap'?

Pigs eat a lot of food & you won't generate enough waste food to feed them - which as others have pointed out is illegal anyway (although I know people who flout the law on this) - so you'll need to buy in pig food.

Unless you are generating your own electricity, you are not "off-grid". And that requires PV panels & storage, which is expensive.

I can see it being very hard to send your one pig to be slaughtered. It would end up as a pet for sure.

@Fjos that sounds lovely. I do intend on growing things however I am not going to limit our food to what we grow etc. I work on the outskirts of the city so I pass supermarkets on the way home and shop there.

@SmallFastPenguin I don’t really get attached to animals 🙈😬

@DoubleDaffodil I know we won’t be technically off grid ( most probably used that term too flippantly!! 😂🙈 we will still buy food I just think it would be nice to have some vegetables/herbs of our own.

And as I have said the pig was Dhs idea (I’m actually not that keen!)

The way I’m seeing it is as a reduced outgoings living I suppose

Yearly bills;
Property tax
Car insurance
Car tax

Quarterly bills;
Electricity

Monthly;
Health insurance
Life insurances
House insurance
Mobile phone bills x2

Then there’s food, chicken feed, fuel for cars, waste charges (we bring our waste to the recycling center ourselves and pay by weight as it’s much cheaper!

I've got an allotment it's a VERY expensive hobby! Far cheaper to buy fruit and veg.

You are not allowed to feed waste food to pigs any more. There are defra regulations to prevent spread of disease - also restrictions on movement and welfare considerations on housing etc. Find out about the rules first.

Sorry - someone has already pointed this out.

Look into the principles of permaculture. It sounds like you are just getting yourselves organised on this plot, so you have the opportunity to plan your space to maximise convenience and minimise work. There is a mostly US forum called permies which is quite good.

Enjoy!

Look at Doug and Stacey on YouTube. Yes they are in the US but they are nice to watch and might have some ideas that inspire.

@bellinisurge will do thank you!

@Ferrovairio thank you I’ll check them
Out!

@WendyCope
Can I ask where you are? Me and DH are hoping to do this in a few years and are just starting to look into it properly.