Comments on: Living Off The Grid

By: George

George — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 17:56:13 +0000

Excellent and intriguing article! I too have thought about or fantasized about living ‘off the grid’ for years now, although I would not or could not realistically quit my job. I would have to be gainfully employed in order to pay other bills and have other key things, like health insurance, car or motorcycle, travel, pet bills, and other day-to-day expenses. I would however, be extremely pleased to know that I am doing my part to help lower carbon emissions, and generally making the world a better place for us and our child. There is also the personal satisfaction of knowing you can run all your household appliances and electronics via hybrid solar/wind power. Even my Ham Radio (Amateur Radio) hobby could be easily run using less output power (let’s say 25 watts instead of 100 watts output), while still being able to maintain worldwide or emergency communications.

By: Jason

Jason — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 18:27:46 +0000

I’ve been thinking of going off the grid for about 15 years now, well I’m finaly going for it. Found a nice 10 acre plot and moving onto it in 3 months. Going the way of the yurt for the family and will be shareing the land with another family. Will be using propane, solar, and a natural spring and rain collection until a well can be drilled. Its a bit scary but dropping my rent by 600 a month and dropping the land loan in 5 years to 0 sounds like a deal to me. Keep on dreaming, because sometimes they come true.

By: Joe Bernard

Joe Bernard — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:53:33 +0000

If you are theoretically enabling others to do what you cannot why set up a proxy. While living in rural Africa for nearly a decade I read the guide to self-sufficiency and found it a fools errand for suburban americans. ” Ma gavta la nata” , read Focault’s Pendulum by Umberto Echo for what that means.

By: Jilly

Jilly — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 17:43:49 +0000

We’re living the dream!

I’m 27 and my wife is 34…in all our aged wisdom we realized that we didn’t want to live the “rat race” in the city anymore. We never got to see each other and our life bills mortgage=TOO MUCH $$!

We sold our place, found a cheap 5.5 acre piece with a LITTLE cabin and moved! HEAVEN!

We’re in Northern BC, running almost exclusively off solar…sometimes we use the gas generator for the power hungry items like power tools. We are in the middle of building, by ourselves, a lovely 24×24 house. We just took the pigs in to get butchered and put the chickens in the freezer after enjoying their eggs all year. We make a fraction of the income we made in the city but we don’t need as much. We are home far more to focus on sustainable living, by choice. A lot of it is physical work that we are figuring out as we go. Now we are hunkering down for winter. Gotta chop wood…hard work that my body loves. Then at the end of the day, we sit on the couch with the lights on, put a DVD in the laptop, and drink a glass of wine.

Lovely.

BTW, made a homemade solar panel this summer…works perfect and MUCH cheaper that store bought.

By: Karch Alliax

Karch Alliax — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 01:44:15 +0000

I have had many dreams of living off the grid for a while now. Although I haven’t taken the plunge yet, I have been a ton of research on it.

Based on all the comments, it seems that everybody has the notion that it will cost tens of thousands of dollars to get an off the grid house established. On the contrary, there is a huge Do-It-Yourself market out there that thrives on helping you get a off the grid lifestyle.

I love reading your articles Frugal Dad….I am mostly a lurker, but some days I just like to put my 2 cents in….

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:25:24 +0000

Well Trish, I would have never thought anybody could write words that makes livin off the grid sounding better that I dream it to be.

Wow!

By: Trish

Trish — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:39:06 +0000

Living off of the grid is more than just going green. It’s about absolute freedom. It opens you up to who you are, breaking the bond of the materialistic life. You can’t be free unless you let everything go. Get rid of everything you don’t use, and you’ll be surprised of how much that actually is. Everyone is unique, find yourself. Don’t try to live like the Rich Jones’ next door- or buy better toys than your friends, those things bind you. The more you let go, the easier it gets and your eyes open to how blind you have been. Learn to prepare and you could consolidate your life into a travel trailer (or a back pack). The freedom you have once you let go is awesome! If you own your land your possibilities are endless.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 20:43:00 +0000

I forget how I found this site, but I have made it my home page, a frugal life style is my dream, I am married to a big time credit card spender, who has spent my retirement twice, I am waiting on God to help but patience is running low.

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:53:31 +0000

I can fully say this post has me pegged. I feel very much the same and have made my first attempt at vegetable gardening this year.

However, I’m finding the irony in the fact that I’m participating in this post with energy from a coal fired plant, sitting in front of an electronic box when I could be improving my homestead and spending time with my wife and four kids.

The bottom line is, I have to work and participate in society to make a living. I doubt that my kids would be happy if I pulled the plug, or my wife for that matter either. I would probably starve if not for my meager paycheck, because I probably wouldn’t eat my neighbors (aside from the deer that eat my tomato plants routinely).

It is an admirable trait to keep your desires in check and get control of your spending. The thing I have been struggling with is what do I really want, economic freedom or the time to be with family? Can living off the grid give you either of these things when you have a family to support?

Thank you for the article.

By: Living Off the Grid With Kids | Frugal Dad

Living Off the Grid With Kids | Frugal Dad — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 10:00:58 +0000

[...] enjoyed the video because it was one of the first stories I have heard of someone successfully going off the grid with a full family. Often times we hear about the lone hermit, or even the occasional couple, who [...]