This is what you often see or hear, when browsing the forum discussions.
Sounds like being between a rock and a hard place. It's not fun and options sound to be very limited. Realistically what can a person or young couple does if they fit that description?
I do not have any good quick solutions. Reducing your energy consumption is a start, so is reducing purchases of consumer goods and service.
F you are not already interested and involved in outdoor activity consider starting now.
If you are reading this presumably you have access to a computer and the internet.
Look up bush craft and outdoor skills. Not everything has to be made from high tech expensive material. There are a lot of things you can make for yourself that are quite suitable despite being homemade.
At one time I belonged to a pioneer re-enactment group and we made everything ourselves. I had a rifle I had assembled from parts. I taught myself to make lanterns and knives. Other people made storage chests or clothing. It was a point of pride that we did not even allow plastic buttons or zippers on clothing. Tents were canvas not nylon.
Coolers were allowed to keep food from spoiling, but these had to be hidden inside wooden chests for appearance sakes. Nobody used plastic carriers for water. Instead we used wooden casks.
The point being such ‘primitive ‘camps were every bit as comfortable as any modern campsite.
Entertainment consisted of friendly competitions in target shooting, knife and tomahawks throwing and going ‘shopping’ looking to see who had what on their trade blankets.
Evenings were spent round a camp fire spinning yarns or telling tall stores, also the occasional sing-along or whatever, when people brought their instruments. .
Hand crafts included sewing of clothes and fancy work like beading lace etc. gun smithing, engraving and knife making. There were opportunity to trade for raw materials to make things skins for making buckskins and antlers for making buttons and utensil handles. Cow horns were a popular item for everything from drinking cups to spoons to powder horns.
Perhaps it sounds corny to a city dweller but once you get involved you start to visit pioneer museums and looking with more interest at books about the early pioneering days.
If you learn to fix things look at flea markets, garage sales, and good will stores for things you can restore to use by making your own repairs. The repair does not have to look like factory new. As long as it works it can still be useful.
I have literally found enough material in the dump swap sheds to completely outfit myself for camping.
Going camping in summer is also off-grid. There are documented stories of people starting out by camping while building their first log cabin.
Here is the first big hurdle. Low cost or free land. Its hard to find. Sometimes arrangements can be made to get permission to camp out or make other rental arrangement. If you do not have any money, sweat equity may be an option.
If you can stand it, working in a drudge job that does make some money (and savings) may be endurable if you know you are working towards a definite eventual goal and building a nest egg. The nest egg can give you the fresh start you need.
If you have prepared by avoiding the worst of the consumer society traps and been able to live more simply, so much the better.
Entertainment is geared to separate you from your hard earned money. If you can find low cost alternatives especially the kinds that produces a salable product or service that is even better. We do not have cable or satellite TV. The wife knits socks and gloves to keep her arthritic fingers limber. To her surprise people are willing to buy these items and she get the wool for free by scrounging. I tinker, make leather craft; fix old things and so on. A friend collects movies then stores them on an external drive so we can watch them on our computer screen. As it happens many of the movies we like are no longer copyright protected. We love old movies. And then there are those old fashioned things called hard copy books. Many places give them away for free.
Some of these books deal with how to build log cabins make camping stuff, and tools.
Others tell you how to use tools.
Going off grid is as much a state of mind as it is a physical action. You will not like being off grid if you feel it deprives you of something. You have to want to be living in the kind of life style being off grid requires. Mostly it means being away from large urban centers and always being entertained at high expense.
We moved to an area where the biggest population group is 300 people. We participate in the plays put on at the community center, and go to fall fairs. If you join a church other activities are also available. Granted it’s not life in the big city but that is what we wanted to get away from.
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