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| Mark Boyle |
I once did a post on how to live without spending cash. And I have posts giving 101 tips on spending less cash in Nigeria.
Now, the question is this- IMAGINE YOU ARE PREVENTED FROM BUYING AND SELLING, HOW LONG CAN YOU SURVIVE WITHOUT SPENDING CASH?
In this post, I will show you examples of people who have lived many years without spending cash, with hope of helping us find ways of surviving without spending cash.
And there are now many online communities dedicated to doing this globally.
Let us check this out together with some useful ideas.
PEOPLE WHO LIVE WITHOUT SPENDING MONEY
1. MARK BOYLE -he stopped spending money in 2008, for many years after.
The Moneyless Man: A Year of Freeconomic Living by Mark Boyle is a first-person account of living without money.
He has also written blogs, a book called ''The Moneyless Manifesto'', and merged his online Freeconomy community with the sharing website Streetbank.
He is also working on establishing a physical Freeconomy village in the UK.
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| Mark Boyle |
2. DANIEL SUELO -he's been cashless since 2000.
''The Man Who Quit Money'' by Mark Sundeen is a biography of Daniel Suelo, a man who has lived without money for over 14 years.
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| Daniel Suelo |
3. Late HEIDEMARIE SCHWERMER -she did not spend money for 20 years before she passed away in 2016.
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| Heidemarie Schwermer |
Heidemarie published the book Das Sterntalerexperiment – mein Leben ohne Geld (“The sterntaler experiment – my life without money”)
4. TOMI ASTIKAINEN -went cashless for only 4 years, and learnt a lot on the way.
He has a free ebook called ''RICH WITHOUT MONEY'', and a blog about his experiences.
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| Tomi Astikainen |
If they could achieve it individually, we also can!
Rob Greenfield is another environmental activist and Food-waste recycling entrepreneur who lives mostly without spending cash.
ONLINE COMMUNITIES THAT PLACE EMPHASIS ON RECYCLING AND SHARING, NOT CASH
1. Streetbank founded by Sam Stephens and Ryan Davies in 2010, merged with Mark Boyle's Freeconomy organisation in 2014.
2. Freecycle: coordinates a worldwide network of "gifting" groups to divert reusable goods from landfills. It promotes the ''Gift Economy''.
3. Freegle: some UK freecycle communities broke away to form Freegle. It also concentrates on encouraging recycling.
4. Other BARTER Apps: TradeMade, ReUseIt Network, TrashNothing, LetGo and BarterSugar.
5. FOOD Apps: TooGoodToGo, Olio, Unsung, Veggieswap, and NoFoodWasted,
6. SKILLS: Skillshare, SharingSkills
Justpark is a website that catalogues a lot of other companies in the sharing economy including Swapdom, Gifteng, Ask&Give, Ditto Reuse, Gomi Co.
You can also check out Wikihow's 5 ways to live without money.
Some of the ideas include:
a) Sharing accommodation with others, and/or house-sitting for people.
b) Hitchhiking, carpooling or using a bicycle.
c) Living in caves, in tree-houses, in caravans.
d) Trade-by-Barter and utilizing the sharing economy (which some experts refer to as Uberization).
e) Grow your own food.
f) Learn some basic home-keeping skills such as knitting, sewing, carpentry, plumbing, gardening, etc.
g) Start slow, find a community of like-minded people and then move to a place where the weather is more predictable.
WHAT COMMON THREAD RUNS THROUGH IT ALL
1. It is easier to live without money in rural areas than in a city. There is more peace in countrysides.
2. You must give up your desire for materialism, and the need to use possessions to show ''success''. Quit the rat race.
3. Value every single human being; place emphasis on relationships- quality, loving relationships.
4. Life is about constructive interdependence, not competitive independence.
5. Live day to day- no worries about the future; denying you the joy, and blinding you to the blessings of today.
I look forward to hearing your own story of how you tried any of the above methods in not spending cash for days at a stretch. Or, if you have a unique method that has worked for you- not listed here, please share with me.
Cheers.
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