Off Grid Living How to Guide: Saving Money In 1 Year

Off Grid Living How to Guide: Saving Money In 1 Year

I have said it before and I will say it again, living off the grid is not truly expensive. In actuality it is much cheaper than living within society. The big problem is off grid living deals with real money if you are doing it properly. These funds are not electronic credits, they don’t belong to a bank, they are your hard earned dollars. This off grid living how to Guide will discuss ways to save money (in order to move).

Reality

There are people out there right now with houses worth over half a million dollars that they won’t actually own for 30 years maybe longer if they refinance. Credit and loans have given the standard person a skewed perception of money. Let’s think, if you buy a $500,000 house and have a 30-year loan at 6 percent. You will pay roughly 3 thousand a month, not bad for a half million-dollar house. Over the year that is $36,000.

Now if you decide to move off the grid you may spend 50-200k just to get your property, build your house, get solar panels, a battery bank, furniture, build a perimeter fence etc. and it will all happen right up front. This makes it seem like the more expensive venture. That theoretical $200,000 can be spent in 3 months. The key is that it is all over after those initial purchases. No monthly fees, no interest rates, just ownership. With that loan you will end up paying close to $1,100,000 over the life of the loan and if you miss 3-4 payments in a row the bank can take the house and all the money you put into on the spot. Not to mention it’s 30 years… yikes.

I saw all that to express that although so much money up front seems expensive, it’s the financial freedom and low overall cost that makes it off grid living more impactful and cheaper long term.

Possibilities

This exercise will be a simple one but very useful. It is a bit time consuming but should be worth it in the end. The goal is seeing the savings possibilities so you have an idea of how much you can acquire within a given period.

For this exercise we will choose a year. Pull hard copies of a year’s worth of bank statements, credit card statements, venom, cash app statements, and any other avenue you use to spend money. After you acquire that incredibly large stack of papers get a nice little 3-hole punch, a pack of high lighters and a 3 ring binder. I need you to be reasonable in the next steps in order for this to work properly.

You will use a green highlighter and highlight every transaction that’s a requirement for you to live at the moment. This means rent, mortgage, gas, medical bills, car notes, utilities, groceries, credit card bills etc. Next go through the list and highlight in blue the entertainment purchases, restaurants, movies, clubs, vacations, shows, alcohol and recreational drugs, etc. Then you will highlight in yellow everything else, clothes, shoes, fast food, drinks (Starbucks, Jamba Juice etc.), online shopping (amazon, ebay etc). At the end highlight any cash with drawls with orange.

Everything should fall into a category. Next you want to tally up the overall price for each category and keep those figures. Theoretically the amount you could save is the amount of the 3 other categories (blue, yellow, orange). I know it’s an astounding amount but the info is right in front of your eyes.

Pragmatism

I want you to take that figure and divide it by 12. This will be the amount you can save monthly.

I don’t expect you to be able to save it all, that would be ridiculous. The idea behind the exercise is to show much excess you can have if you did absolutely nothing but went to work, paid for the necessities and went home.

What I do think you can do is save 50% of those 3 other categories. That may mean cooking rather than eating out and only going out twice a month instead of 4 times, but if you are serious about moving off the grid, it shouldn’t be difficult. Feel free to try and save more but this is a good goal to start with. If it seems easy after a month or so, up the amount to 55%. You can raise it 5% monthly until it becomes unbearable or you feel like you are not enjoying life enough.

The goal isn’t to make you miserable, it is to help you attain other goals by helping you focus. This one is up to you and your level of restraint.

SIUDN (Sell items you don’t need)

Most people have a ton of things that they hardly use, never use or forgot about. During this next year you will be getting rid of the excess. The sky is the limit with this as the amount you can make is based on what you have and are willing to sell.

This is a key aspect of your saving journey. Consumerism is an affliction that everyone in society deals with so try and combat it by needing less and getting rid of the surplus clothes, furniture, appliances etc. You aren’t in a rush but you want to start right away. As the money comes in you will begin to feel better about things.

Don’t forgot those storage units you haven’t visited in months!!

New Ways (This method is optional because not everyone has the capacity or skill to do it)

Find new ways to make money. If you have an extra car rent it out. If you have an apartment and go out of town Air BNB it. Find new ways to add to your income. Get another job (online would be easiest), start a small business etc.

The possibilities are endless in this age. You can make money I so many different ways and every extra cent you make adds to the amount saved.

Let me know what you think of these methods below and if you have tried them, tell me about the results.