Five years. Sounds like ages, but suddenly it doesn't seem that far away. An amazing number of things can't happen in five years. World poverty will scarcely have reduced. I probably still won't have eaten the frozen kipper stuck to the inside of our freezer. Our son will only have got a little bit bigger (I hope - he's bloody enormous!). But in the same time span, we are planning to be a self sufficient family.
Given that we're currently living in a two up two down rented terrace in the middle of a city on the south coast, we're not exactly close to the eco-dream. But never mind. Aim high, what's the worst that can happen? Besides bankrupting ourselves in pursuit of an impossible dream, of course.
We're coming to the self sufficiency dream for two reasons. The first is, unsurprisingly, green. We worry about climate change and, at least as much, in the total rape of the planet by human beings - we are using up all the resources our planet has to offer far more quickly than they can be replaced, and we as a family want to stop contributing to this (well, Adam and I haven't asked Teddy, 9 months and with limited debating prowess, whether he wants to, but he's small and can't talk back yet). The second reason is financial/sociological. We want to stop spending all our time earning money to spend on things that we can produce ourselves. This means the obvious of growing our own fruit and veg, and probably having a couple of aesthetically pleasing chickens clucking away, but also some less obvious things. We'd like to do things like recycle any paper that comes in to make our own birthday cards and buy wool and knit rather than buy finished jumpers (I suspect I may be doing most of the latter - keen as Adam is, I suspect his talents tend more towards DIY than embroidery). Where we do buy things, we will try to source ethically produced goods so that where we are creating a market demand, it will be for responsibly produced goods with more than a passing nod to the planet and the people who live on it. I should add, we're not planning on removing ourselves from society entirely. We want to still be a part of a community, and be able to afford the odd new (ethically sourced, natch) t-shirt. As such, Adam has no intention of giving up his job, but rather than both of us working full time in stressful jobs and paying for childcare and for things that we should be able to do ourselves, Adam will stay in the job he enjoys, rather than taking a higher paid, more stressful one, and continue to be home at 5pm every evening, and I will continue as a freelance journalist, working while Teddy is asleep (ha!) and during the 10 hours a week he is at the childminders.
I should qualify this a bit. We're not intending to grow a cow, or cotton to weave our own clothes. But we do have a list of aims (which will almost certainly alter hugely over the next five years as I discover how much I have missed out/been over ambitious about). I've termed our particular brand of being self sufficient Efficient Sufficient. Think of it as self sufficiency, with the really nasty bits (compost toilet, anyone?) taken out and a bit more financial cunning and money saving chucked in.
All of which means we want to:
- Generate as much of our own electricity as possible, with solar, wind or some other hitherto unthought of eco method
- Grow our own fruit and veg for as much of the year as possible
- Keep chickens for eggs and (if I can persuade someone else to knock them on the head) meat
- Keep any other animal that seems sensible. A goat maybe? A pig? I'll think about this one
- Reduce our water consumption as much as possible and recycle waste water
- Look into (I'm making no promises!) dealing with our own waste in some way. I don't know much about this, or even if you're allowed to keep your own poo. Wouldn't like to deprive anyone else of it if they want it more...
- Buy any meat and other food locally, apart from the few things I'm not prepared to abandon, like bananas and tea
- Be as carbon neutral as possible, possibly by building an active house, which attempts to offset the carbon emissions created in building it
- Do anything else that makes green/financial sense that I happen to uncover en route to living the Good Life
As you can see, the whole thing is more than a little on the vague side at the moment. I'm hoping that all the research I plan to do will help clarify our options and help us make decisions when it comes to technology, planting methods etc, as well as helping any readers who might be facing the same choices and incredible quantity of information (google 'self sufficiency' and go be overwhelmed).
The biggest hurdle we have to overcome to make all of this happen is the financial one. Since we decided that I would commit my energies to freelancing, helping us work towards our self sufficiency dream and looking after Theo, our budget is stretched almost as tightly as it can possibly go. The salaries of a yacht designer and a newly freelance journalist/stay at home mother are not exactly impressive, believe me, and we're a really really long way away from being able to buy or build anywhere, never mind the eco home of our dreams. So this blog will probably be as much about ways to save the money to pay for the dream as much as it will be about working through the logistics.
This is all a little frustrating, as obviously once we get to the point of being more self sufficient, our outgoings will drop hugely. But we need the chunk of change to get to that point. it's a tedious and vicious cycle, which we are determined to break.
So this blog will provide a record, not only of the research we do and experience we get on the way, but also of how we manage to get there financially. I hope, assuming we are successful, that we will provide inspiration to others on pathetic salaries and prove that it is possible to make a massive lifestyle shift. On the right, you'll see The Compost Bin, a running total of the money we have managed to save/get given/steal (only joking. Honest!) and of anything we acquire that we would otherwise have to buy later down the line. For instance, if we happen to get given a chicken run, it will go into the Bin (in real life it will go to my parents', who have room for storage) to mature until we can use it.
When we're a little further down the line I'll also try to find a sensibly way of showing a list of things that we have achieved/bought/decided on so you can see how we're getting on at a glance.
This blog will be updated every time I gain a new bit of information/research/experience. I expect to focus on certain areas at certain times, depending on where we are in our journey. For instance, at the moment, at the very beginning of our five year deadline, you can expect a lot of posts about my steep gardening learning curve. Before this year I had never grown so much as a chrysanthemum, this year I am growing any vegetable that I can persuade to flourish in a pot on my patio.
I hope you enjoy following the ups and downs (please, more ups than downs!) of our mission to be Efficient Sufficient. Perhaps, when (notice the use of when, not if. I am optimistic) we manage to prove that an Efficient Sufficient lifestyle is possible, other people might copy us and I can revel in the Efficient Sufficient community. Hey, I told you, I'm aiming high.
Given that we're currently living in a two up two down rented terrace in the middle of a city on the south coast, we're not exactly close to the eco-dream. But never mind. Aim high, what's the worst that can happen? Besides bankrupting ourselves in pursuit of an impossible dream, of course.
We're coming to the self sufficiency dream for two reasons. The first is, unsurprisingly, green. We worry about climate change and, at least as much, in the total rape of the planet by human beings - we are using up all the resources our planet has to offer far more quickly than they can be replaced, and we as a family want to stop contributing to this (well, Adam and I haven't asked Teddy, 9 months and with limited debating prowess, whether he wants to, but he's small and can't talk back yet). The second reason is financial/sociological. We want to stop spending all our time earning money to spend on things that we can produce ourselves. This means the obvious of growing our own fruit and veg, and probably having a couple of aesthetically pleasing chickens clucking away, but also some less obvious things. We'd like to do things like recycle any paper that comes in to make our own birthday cards and buy wool and knit rather than buy finished jumpers (I suspect I may be doing most of the latter - keen as Adam is, I suspect his talents tend more towards DIY than embroidery). Where we do buy things, we will try to source ethically produced goods so that where we are creating a market demand, it will be for responsibly produced goods with more than a passing nod to the planet and the people who live on it. I should add, we're not planning on removing ourselves from society entirely. We want to still be a part of a community, and be able to afford the odd new (ethically sourced, natch) t-shirt. As such, Adam has no intention of giving up his job, but rather than both of us working full time in stressful jobs and paying for childcare and for things that we should be able to do ourselves, Adam will stay in the job he enjoys, rather than taking a higher paid, more stressful one, and continue to be home at 5pm every evening, and I will continue as a freelance journalist, working while Teddy is asleep (ha!) and during the 10 hours a week he is at the childminders.
I should qualify this a bit. We're not intending to grow a cow, or cotton to weave our own clothes. But we do have a list of aims (which will almost certainly alter hugely over the next five years as I discover how much I have missed out/been over ambitious about). I've termed our particular brand of being self sufficient Efficient Sufficient. Think of it as self sufficiency, with the really nasty bits (compost toilet, anyone?) taken out and a bit more financial cunning and money saving chucked in.
All of which means we want to:
- Generate as much of our own electricity as possible, with solar, wind or some other hitherto unthought of eco method
- Grow our own fruit and veg for as much of the year as possible
- Keep chickens for eggs and (if I can persuade someone else to knock them on the head) meat
- Keep any other animal that seems sensible. A goat maybe? A pig? I'll think about this one
- Reduce our water consumption as much as possible and recycle waste water
- Look into (I'm making no promises!) dealing with our own waste in some way. I don't know much about this, or even if you're allowed to keep your own poo. Wouldn't like to deprive anyone else of it if they want it more...
- Buy any meat and other food locally, apart from the few things I'm not prepared to abandon, like bananas and tea
- Be as carbon neutral as possible, possibly by building an active house, which attempts to offset the carbon emissions created in building it
- Do anything else that makes green/financial sense that I happen to uncover en route to living the Good Life
As you can see, the whole thing is more than a little on the vague side at the moment. I'm hoping that all the research I plan to do will help clarify our options and help us make decisions when it comes to technology, planting methods etc, as well as helping any readers who might be facing the same choices and incredible quantity of information (google 'self sufficiency' and go be overwhelmed).
The biggest hurdle we have to overcome to make all of this happen is the financial one. Since we decided that I would commit my energies to freelancing, helping us work towards our self sufficiency dream and looking after Theo, our budget is stretched almost as tightly as it can possibly go. The salaries of a yacht designer and a newly freelance journalist/stay at home mother are not exactly impressive, believe me, and we're a really really long way away from being able to buy or build anywhere, never mind the eco home of our dreams. So this blog will probably be as much about ways to save the money to pay for the dream as much as it will be about working through the logistics.
This is all a little frustrating, as obviously once we get to the point of being more self sufficient, our outgoings will drop hugely. But we need the chunk of change to get to that point. it's a tedious and vicious cycle, which we are determined to break.
So this blog will provide a record, not only of the research we do and experience we get on the way, but also of how we manage to get there financially. I hope, assuming we are successful, that we will provide inspiration to others on pathetic salaries and prove that it is possible to make a massive lifestyle shift. On the right, you'll see The Compost Bin, a running total of the money we have managed to save/get given/steal (only joking. Honest!) and of anything we acquire that we would otherwise have to buy later down the line. For instance, if we happen to get given a chicken run, it will go into the Bin (in real life it will go to my parents', who have room for storage) to mature until we can use it.
When we're a little further down the line I'll also try to find a sensibly way of showing a list of things that we have achieved/bought/decided on so you can see how we're getting on at a glance.
This blog will be updated every time I gain a new bit of information/research/experience. I expect to focus on certain areas at certain times, depending on where we are in our journey. For instance, at the moment, at the very beginning of our five year deadline, you can expect a lot of posts about my steep gardening learning curve. Before this year I had never grown so much as a chrysanthemum, this year I am growing any vegetable that I can persuade to flourish in a pot on my patio.
I hope you enjoy following the ups and downs (please, more ups than downs!) of our mission to be Efficient Sufficient. Perhaps, when (notice the use of when, not if. I am optimistic) we manage to prove that an Efficient Sufficient lifestyle is possible, other people might copy us and I can revel in the Efficient Sufficient community. Hey, I told you, I'm aiming high.
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