happily penniless

Posted on by jo lowimpact

I guess it’s time to start blogging. I have put it off long enough– not really sure why. I’m feeling self indulgent though and want to talk about this stuff, so here goes……

I have decided that, because I’m nearing the first year of living without money and have left this story-telling so late, I will go back through the journal I have kept for the last two years and insert some more interesting (hopefully) bits and pieces from it into the current story. Hope that makes sense….and please bear with me on this.

It’s been a really wonderful trip – this foray into moneyless living. I decided to do this in Feb 2014 (two years ago almost to the day). I lay sick in bed on my birthday and read a book given to me by my folks called “Changing Gears” by Greg Foyster. It was this book that was to blame. In it, Greg and his partner Sophie, cycle up the East Coast of Australia looking at a variety of different ways people were living simpler, more low-impact lives. I discovered that people can, and indeed do, do all sorts of very interesting things in the search for better and more meaningful lives – including, wait for it….living without money! What a revelation!

Here’s a brief intro to this moneyless/low impact ‘experiment’ in the form of a recent interview on Sydney’s 2ser:

Source: Living Without Money – 2SER – Real Radio 107.3 FM

25 thoughts on “happily penniless”

  2. Hmmm, I have a few questions… Do you have any children, and how do they feel about this? ;P hehehehe
    Love you! Maybe I should start a blog of my own entitled ‘living with a mother without money’ xxx

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    1. No actually, but I think they are acquaintances of theirs. I just read the Art of Free Travel (Artist as Family) and they mention visiting the Changing Gears couple to discuss their adventure. Artist as Family are certainly very inspiring….

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      1. These people are super lovely! Imagine this he taught his son to build his own tiny house! Imagine the freedom available to him from now on. Every kid should be this lucky 🙂 seriously! End this mortgage addiction in one generation. Consumerism too.

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    1. Yes, dingodreams, I have read it and Mark’s first book as well (still working through his most recent). He was my first moneyless inspiration. Then I learned about Daniel Suelo in the US and a whole heap of others around the world who are living different versions of this lifestyle. Check out http://moneyless.info/ if you’re interested. Cheers, Jo

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      1. Hello Jo, was just thinking about you. For some reason I didn’t see you replied till just now.

        I didn’t know he had another book. I only read his Moneyless Manifesto which got me intrigued to say the least. The difficulties he documented kind of put that way of living out of my mind. From memory he was too dependent on friends for my liking. I like freedom and solitude, that are the reasons I am interested in that type of living. Freedom, independence and like you very low impact to the environment.

        I guess it was an experiment for him. Still, in many ways he was and still is a hero. He forged a way that was unheard of to me outside of some gypsies in Europe but I think they hold menial jobs from time to time. From what I recall he continued to live that way for quite some time beyond the 1 year period he set out for. That really perked up my interest. I remember thinking ok after all that he must have found a way to do it or found benefits that far outweighed the annoyances noted in the book. This is when I stated to question the wisdom of me living in the city or cities.

        Also I wanted to communicate or at least somehow follow his adventure beyond the book but sadly, I could not figure out how to do that at the time.

        Happy wishes to you

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      2. He did it for 3 years. I watched a youtube video of him the other day – he was back living with money in 2015 working towards setting up the free community in Ireland. This is the most recent thing I’ve heard from him: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/dec/19/life-without-technology-rejecting-technology
        Very interesting and will make more sense to you when you read his latest book – ‘Drinking Molotov Cocktails With Gandhi’.

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      3. Fantastic, I waited for ages for him to do it but from Oz it looked like not much was happening. He also started a sharing network which was and is awesome. Cant wait to read al, these goodies you’ve shared. You are such a gem 🙂 thank you.

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      6. Oooooh I just looked up Daniel S and found his blog! OMG gold! I can see that this is going to take some time. I have heard the name here and there but for some strange reason never looked it up..till now.

        “Money only exists if two or more people believe it exists.” – Daniel Suelo

        Hooked 😀

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      7. Excellent!! A friend of mine has met him and says he is a really lovely guy. If you watch some of the interviews with him you can see that I think.

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      8. OMG i have watched his first vid and the q&a one with his editor? Yeah to say gold would be a massive understatement https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EvU46JpFlXw Daniel and his editor are both so incredible. The feeling that they have seen the light is very palpable as is the wisdom shared. The dilemma is how to transition? Massive amounts of trust required. I could go on but I am so conscious that I have made such a mess of your blog….I mean this is not really on topic sorryeeee maybe email?

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      10. Am so glad but I have an uneasy relationship with FB. Right now I’m ignoring it’s presence and prefer by far a decent blog posting the only thing is I’m not much good with those at this point.

        Actually, to be honest, I resent any centrally controlled, monitored and corporate sanctioned platform. At best they use your information to sell or further their corporate goals. FB, hotmail, gmail are all about invading our privacy for their maker’s benefit.

        Ok, rant over, it’s safe to come out now 😀

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  5. Not sure how its going to work out but I’ve just joined https://timerepublik.com/ it uses time as a currency. When you think about it its the only thing we can never buy back or buy more of. Of course its not that simple. Or maybe better put maybe my doubts are still resolving them selves still I’m going to give it a shot. It would be just awesome to prove my doubts false. 😀

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    1. I joined ages ago but haven’t really been active. I find that I deal with the people I see face-to-face and on a regular basis in this kind of sharing way. Maybe bigger platforms aren’t the way to go and we will all end up getting back to our building our local neighbourhoods…..

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I've been living without money for a while now (since March 2015) in an attempt to reduce my environmental and social impacts.....