restricting our dependency on money

[junee...@gmail.com]

   Is anyone else in the group trying to limit their dependency on cash, as a lifestyle choice rather than 'just' to save?

   Who barters as well as buys? What ways have you found to prevent spending, and therefore 'needing' money?

   I expect most of us try to live on local produce as much as possible. In what other ways can we avoid dependency on cash?    

[[bo]]

You can limit your cash dependency, but you still have to have some cash income, as currently there is no way to live totally detached from the system.

If you're looking for ways to spend less money, go talk to an average Bulgarian pensioner. 70+ years old and surviving with as little as 50 Euro/month :)

Joking aside (although that's not really a joke, but the actual state of things), in small Bulgarian villages bartering is a way of life. Most people find selling their produce an dishonorable act and are usually caught in an escalating spiral of gifts. You bring them a dozen eggs, they give you a kilo of cheese, you send back a bottle of rakia, they give you a jug of wine and a basket of vegetables, etc... ;)

[Ilze Mezniece]

The situation in Latvia is quite similar - maybe the average pension is little bit higher - around 120 Eur/month, but for families with kids it's hard to go over 70 EUR per person per month (and the basic products (food) is at least twice as expensive as in Bulgaria). Massive emigration (at least 10 % of population in last 10 years) empties our countryside and the spiral effect of social regression is going on faster.

Surviving strategies in countryside involves being out of the system as much as possible. My family is trying different things.

First of all we are growing vegetables and keeping animals to provide us with FOOD. Goat, cow, sheep, rabbits - it's meat and milk products

I was "paying" for tomatoes (I didn't had my own this year) with  milk. We were satisfied both...

My husband have skills for building - he was helping a farmer to repair a roof for agricultural building. Farmer gave us a grain - wheat, oat for feeding animals in the winter.

Firewood is the main heating agent in countryside. And Latvia have lot of unused agricultural land where bushes are growing. cleaning the bushes and cutting them in firewood- it takes little money but lot of work - this was one of the "BARTER" elements thru this year -  husband made firewood and gave it to neighbor, who gave us grain for animals, fuel for chainsaw (to cut more firewood), helped with his tractor in our fields. NO money involved...

One of our neighbor have guest-house (for tourists) and have some great things for kids for spending time (water-bike, swimming beach, atractions...) - we are sometimes helping this guest - house people with some small jobs in the territory cleaning  and useing their territory and tools for our pleasure.

I have a good ram and my neighbor have sheep - in the autumn they take sheep to my herd for almost 2 month. They give some sheep food and "pay" with services (the men is professional sheep-killler, we always ask him when we need a meat).

The main thing is to be in the good realation with Your local society (some of my "neighbors"live 8 - 10 km form our farm) and then You can start to build your "help network".

Greatings from Latvia,

Ilze

 

2013/9/6 [bo] <boby.d...@gmail.com>

You can limit your cash dependency, but you still have to have some cash income, as currently there is no way to live totally detached from the system.

If you're looking for ways to spend less money, go talk to an average Bulgarian pensioner. 70+ years old and surviving with as little as 50 Euro/month :)

Joking aside (although that's not really a joke, but the actual state of things), in small Bulgarian villages bartering is a way of life. Most people find selling their produce an dishonorable act and are usually caught in an escalating spiral of gifts. You bring them a dozen eggs, they give you a kilo of cheese, you send back a bottle of rakia, they give you a jug of wine and a basket of vegetables, etc... ;)

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[junee...@gmail.com]

 Bo, and Ilze,

It's true that some income is needed the way the world works today, but as you both say, it is possible to use quite a lot of barter in the villages.

Bo, maybe my being an older woman helps, but I have found some babas on pensions are happy to take payment for the veg as it helps with tok bills etc. Transactions are always done discreetly, however. I would far rather given cash to a baba than a supermarket..

I was wondering how people in towns can manage to restrict their dependency on cash. Maybe it's all down to co-operation. If students cook like a big family they will spend less on fast food etc. In fact, the rise of the nuclear family may have contributed a lot to dependency on 'the grid' and all its ramifications.

Ilze, sounds like you have several good things going there, giving mutual satisfaction. Possible at village level, less so on 'global' village level..  

[nellie simeonova]

ReUse, ReDuce and ReCycle.

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