I see people asking about going off the grid with no money all the time. From discussions in Reddit forums, to questions in Facebook groups, people want to know: can you go off the grid with no money?

The short answer: No.

The long answer: Kind of. I can’t say with absolute certainty that someone isn’t living a cash-free lifestyle somewhere in Appalachia, but having zero cash doesn’t make living off the grid any easier.  You need to have something to trade for goods and services, and cash is most common. At the very least, you will need an initial start-up fund. You can, however, live an off the grid lifestyle with very little money once you are set up.

What is your current standard of living?

If you live in a 5,000 sq ft house with a mortgage, car payments and student loans, going off the grid is going to be culture shock. You can buy a couple of acres in nearly every state for what a monthly payment on all that could be. But going off the grid with no money means lowering those standards. Get rid of the fancy house and cars, buy some raw land and a serviceable vehicle paid for in full.

Figuring Out Needs

For basic survival, all you need is shelter, water and food. How will you get each of those without money? Do you have other needs, like internet and healthcare? My monthly costs living off the grid include a phone bill, car insurance, gas, and groceries. Eventually, gas and groceries will be cut down by using solar and wind power, and having a larger garden and animals. My phone also provides internet and a way to call for help in emergencies, so that is a need on my list. Speaking of, we just cut our phone bill by calling and asking about current plan options. Any bill can be negotiated if you call and ask about different plans/pricing options regularly!

Cheap Shelter Off The Grid

How much house do you really need? When we started our adventure we built our cabin at 250 sq ft. Now 2 adults and 2 growing children mean we’ve expanded to around 500 sq ft. And when we build our dream home, we’ll go even bigger with the addition of planned guest space, a pantry and a room for a solar battery bank. A single person or small family could easily live in a much smaller space than the average American home (roughly 2,500 sq ft!).

If you have any building skills at all building a small cabin doesn’t take much. There are lots of online plans for tiny homes, ranging in price from $5-20,000. Using recycled materials can also help keep things cheaper. Upkeep costs are minimal after the house is built.

What About Water?

I’ve written a whole bunch on getting water off the grid, and it can almost always be had for free! From collecting rainwater, to utilizing a creek or pond, the most important thing about getting water off the grid is to make sure it is drinkable. This can be done either by boiling or running it through a filter, like this DIY Berkey Filter I made. At only $35 it doesn’t cost much to make at all. Also, there are plenty of options to purchase water filters (affiliate link). Just be sure it is the proper type for the kind of water you are filtering. Filters will need to be changed regularly depending on the quality of the water going through them, so this is another cost that will need to be planned for.

Food Options Off The Grid

Our largest monthly bill right now is groceries. Between a drought this summer and not having any animals this year, we hit the grocery store a lot. Feeding a family of 4 isn’t cheap! Fortunately, once a garden area is set up, animals have been acquired and feed planted for them, it can minimize those costs.

Becoming sustainable in this manner takes years, but it will make for a cheaper grocery bill in the long run. Planting native food forests and cultivating wild edibles that are already growing on the land will help speed this process along and make starting out cheaper. There are seed exchanges to expand garden variety, and manure and wood ash are great free soil amending products. Don’t forget that hunting and fishing are also available to help fill the freezer. Alaska even has special subsistence hunting and fishing areas set up for residents. Other states may have similar practices, or low-income hunting and fishing licenses.

Cutting Costs In Other Ways

There are lots of other ways to cut costs. Especially when living in an area where the off-grid or homesteader mentality is prevalent. Bartering, trading a skill or product of your own for a skill or product from another, is a common way to get goods. We often trade labor in return for building help out here. Sometimes a project needs more than two sets of hands. Anything can be bartered as long as both parties are happy with the outcome of the trade. Meat, eggs, vegetables, time, labor, experience. We can trade all of them for other things we may need!

Avoiding buying anything new is another way to cut costs. There are many cheap places to find homestead and off-grid living goods. Look for free goods posted online or in newspapers, or even placed out on sidewalks. There are even often farm animals such as chickens and goats offered for free or cheaply. The old adage to use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without is very true for living off the grid cheaply.

What About Other Types Of Off Grid Living?

If you want to go off the grid without all the onerous setup required, there are other options. There are Communes, Intentional Communities, and WOOFing. Each of these has its pros and cons, and there are many options inside each category.  But they are ways to live an off the grid lifestyle without forking out the startup cost. Most of these are barter-based, exchanging time and labor for a place to live instead of paying “rent” in cash.

In Conclusion

Going off the grid with no money is not really possible. If I had to start this journey over again, I’d start with 100k for setting up. Buying land, building a cabin, digging a well, clearing land for a garden, and meeting animal needs. All of these cost more than you’d expect. Once a place off the grid is established and has worked out all the kinks that come with a drastic lifestyle change, it’s possible to live on nearly nothing. We’ve figured that $1000 a month is more than enough for our family of 4 to live off of once we are fully settled in. That’s less than my mortgage in the city was!