dbd33

A poster on another thread said this was possible in rural Nova Scotia on $1000 a month. I didn't want to hijack that thread but I'm interested in the topic.

It seems to me that previous posters have come unstuck living rurally down east, there was one who had "heritage sheep" and ended up supporting them by commuting to Fort McMoney and another, a woman who had a well written blog, who moved to a smaller place and then stopped posting. I assume that neither of these stories ended well.

I think living in the country is expensive and ecologically unsound. I think it takes a certain level of bloody minded commitment and I think $1000 a month per person after taxes and mortgage are paid would only support a pretty grim existence. Like the poker work sign says "Behind every successful rancher is a woman who works in town".

Anyone care to explain how they live minimally?

chumley

I am the the poster who lives on $1000 a month and its for two people not one plus 2 dogs who also need their pocket money and vet insurance

however Im talking about day to day living or month to month living expenses not the big stuff


initilly our outlay was somewhat vast
ie buying a home , vehicle, furniture and absolutley everything else you need to live comfortbaly plus insurance tax etc all paid for the year and paying all with cash so no montly debt outgoings or mortgage

we came with only 2 bags and 2 dogs

the $1000 a month does easily cover food, elec, net phone and TV we have no other outgoings
we dont have a farm or anything and we dont live off our own land but we do live off the land of local growers
disagree with the eco unsound but each to their own

our existance might be grim to some eg no malls, no fancy resturants well none for about 20 miles, nothing sophisticated at all really and a step back in time that you would not imagine still exists
social life based around community events and fundraisers

if I was 20 I would hang myself but nearer 50 than 40 it really suits

now if we did farm and lived off our own land that would be an entirely different life but getting up in all weathers at all hours and physically working is not my thing at all

whilst waiting for the PR process we can have a very relaxed life spent reading walking relaxing and doing our voluntary work it sure aint grim

dbd33

Are you saying then that the $1000 a month only works until the insurance runs out or a car needs replacing? If so what do you think the ongoing cost is likely to be, the sort of income needed to sustain that lifestyle over a decade or so?

My thought that country living is ecologically unsound is that everything in the country is powered, a car is needed to fetch even basic food and a house must be heated for just one family; an apartment near a supermarket is more environmentally friendly. This loosely relates to costs, for example it's more expensive to get a salad from Kenya (where it's formatted) to rural NS than to central London. Hence everything in Newfoundland or Alaska is expensive and has a gazzilion food miles on it. Note though that I'm not even vaguely concerned about the environment, I do live in the country.

iaink

How do you heat? Im paying $300 a month to Esso! And thats with using a wood fireplace to use when its really cold. Now, our house could (and will be) be better insulated, but I dont know only one paying less than a hundred a month for gas or oil or firewood.

Car insurance is $100 a month, and you also have to budget for the major maintainence items like redoing the roof, replacing the car periodically etc. Property taxes might be another $100 a month or more that is fixed expense. I would also be concerned that $1000 a month is not budgeting anything for retirement planning.

dbd has a point about groceries etc, but its probably overstated, you can get by with one or two grocery shops a month I would think. For people like me who live out of town a bit and drive in every day there is probably an environmental impact in that, and the lawnmower doing 3/4 of an acre instead of a smaller patch of town yard. If I worked at home and grew my own vegies it would probably be environmentally beneficial. Not major though I wouldnt think.



I just cant get my head around an average monthly outgoing of $1000

scrubbedexpat091

More to life then money and possessions.

I don't make much more then 1,000 and get by fine, all my basic needs are met and that's all I need.

I rent an apartment- 475
Electric/Heat- 35 in summer/50 in winter
Car- 210
Gas for car- 60
Food-100

Total-895/month approx

dbd33

Me, overstate a point?

It's not just groceries, everything has to be fetched and carried by vehicle, first the lane has to be cleared with a powered tractor, then the powered car be driven out, to go and fetch petrol for the chainsaw. That chainsaw petrol costs more because it's been trucked to a rural location. It's all expensive and resource intensive.

dbd33

Do you live rurally?

scrubbedexpat091

Semi-Rural city of 70,000 but I am within walking distance of most stores and live in an apartment within the city.

Zoe Bell

The point is the more rural you go , the more "possessions" you need to be able to function.

In the city you can get away with a plastic snow shovel. I'd love to see Dbd clearing his place with one of those!!!
A tractor with snow plough becomes an essential , if it breaks , you have to replace it and so on

iaink

Nothing "semi rural" about 70k people Im afraid.

Im my case "Town" is 45k people, and its definitely not rural.


Zoe is dead right. Somehow I doubt that if I lived in town I would now own a chain saw, 5kW generator, 20HP lawn tractor and 2 cars (as independent travel is pretty much an essential for the wife and I living where we do)

G586

Umm, I grew up on a small farm, albeit in Mid Wales and we had no money. We sort of really never left the place except for the weekly shop and school. Once something broke, it stayed that way.

I'm with dbd, it's great in one way (things I appreciate now but didn't then, homegrown food, scenery, chickens) but pretty grim in others and that was without a truckload of snow.

dbd33

I can never find it, it just disappears in the avalanche!

Lots of "possessions" is I think accurate. The militant wing Mennonites up the road from us don't have any sort of engines but even they have all manner of horse drawn, or pushed, equipment for dealing with snow, hauling logs and so on. And then they have to feed a .9 horses per person, that's probably less eco-efficient than growing a crop mechanically and feeding it to people.

AlexInBC

We're not *too* far off that figure for a family of 4 and numerous critters, way out in a very rural area. I'd say, after mortgage and property taxes (which is a combined payment) we have about $1500 a month to live off, so yes, more than the original amount being discussed, but for a much larger family.

We heat with (completely free) wood and we only run one car (despite living 20km from the nearest village!) We sell enough eggs to pay for all chicken feed, so they break even, and we have a one-off payment of around $600 for enough hay for the large animals for the year. Vets bills, car repairs, etc., are dealt with as and when they occur. We're very fortunate that our income can increase, if necessary, pretty much on a month by month basis, simply by me taking on more work from home, but for the moment we're happy with the balance.

dbd33

Ours do that, $200/month in egg money, $37/month in feed, but they'll have lay a lot harder to make us a farm for tax purposes ($7,000 gross receipts needed in ON). Is there a property tax break in BC for being a "farm"?

AlexInBC

Oh I wish... I guess that's the real difference between rural and city/town living. For us, $60 gets us one tank of gas and we have to fill up around 6 times a month on average, so even running just the one car, we still pay $360 per month for fuel!!