Another economic crisis - and almost everyone thinks about the issue of saving money, if not at all - options for survival without means. The question in modern realities is very topical: how to live on a small salary and what to do if you are fired from work, and you cannot find a new one? There is a solution, and not one: downshifting, volunteering, barter and much more. The way to live some time without money can be found by putting a little effort.
Is it real to live without money?
A life without money and without work cannot be called carefree, but it can definitely be for the best, especially if the difficulties are temporary. Having lived a bit in the mode of reduced opportunities, you can learn how to save and plan a budget with minimal losses. It’s not for nothing that many rich people, businessmen and oligarchs, live modestly and sometimes even ascetic, saving on luxury and investing only the most necessary things: housing, health, and a car.
In local second-hand and charity stores (second-hand, household, food), there are often wealthy people who know about the most profitable points of sale. It is this forethought and modesty that multiplies the wealth of these people.
People wonder how to live out of money, for two reasons:
- Someone is forced, due to life circumstances, to know firsthand about the problem of lack of money;
- Someone attracts the very essence of independence from finance and the style of detachment from worldly concerns, gluttony, greed.
Regardless of what caused such a question, you can live without money and there are quite a few ways to do it.
Downshifting in Russia
The word “Downshifting” was heard by everyone who wondered how to learn to live without money. Imagine that a person can choose a certain way of life. There are only two options. The first one is a good job and a stable income, but with a tough rhythm and framework imposed by society, rules of subordination and constant stresses, as well as the harsh conditions of the metropolis. The second is a lower level of society, a modest income, no career growth, but in return, complete freedom and independence from the rules that society likes to set.
Downshifters - people tend to the second option: a conscious rejection of career and social status in the name of freedom of choice in the question of a place to live, a hobby and a family.
Downshifting (from the English words "down" and "shift") is an automotive term, translated as "the transition to a low border." As a phenomenon, it is a rejection of the goals that a person imposes on society and following his own worldview.
If society believes that a person should strive for success, wealth and stylish luxury items, then downshifting implies the rejection of city life or career, moving to nature or abroad and full dedication to personal values and spiritual growth.
As an example, one can cite the history of the Russian oligarch-multimillionaire Herman Sterligov. A successful politician, businessman and public figure, the founder of Russian commodity life, left his business and left with his family in the suburbs, where he built a house and household. Tired of the race for success and the position of society, he chose an occupation that gave him freedom and psychological comfort.
German Sterligov is a former Russian businessman, now a Russian downshifter.Downshifting in Russia is different from the world phenomenon, but its ideology remains the same. If in Europe, downshifters mostly travel, in Russia the idea of moving into the outback, away from civilization, joining communes or religious groups, where the problem of lack of money is familiar to everyone, is more popular.
How to live without money and work?
To live without money, and in particular - without money and work, you will have to go through several ways before you find the right one. If we are talking about a short period of such a life, then, tightening the belt, you can try to live in the usual way, looking for another job.
However, if we talk about downshifting in urban environments, then there may be difficulties, because in the period of lack of money you will have to invent where to get funds for food, utilities, travel, housing and much more. In times of acute need, options such as:
- Microcredit. Many banks provide mini loans at a small percentage;
- Loan from friends. It is always more profitable than a loan;
- Pawnshop. The practice of pledging valuables is very popular lately;
- Underworking advertisements: clean the apartment, walk the dog, fix the computer or furniture;
- Sale of unwanted property, things, trinkets;
- The work of a nanny, a nurse with neighbors and friends;
- Renting places or rooms in an apartment;
- Appeal to social organizations for help;
- Earnings for a hobby - selling home-made items.
Left without income on maternity leave, you can earn money by writing or translating texts at home.The only truly working and reliable way to live without money and work is to move to the countryside and start living as an economy. This option is not suitable for everyone, but it works without misfires. On the ground, you can grow fruits, vegetables, animals, if you try hard - you can do without utilities, and you can get some money by earning money from your neighbors, doing seasonal work or engaging in a money-bringing hobby. You can always find work through the Internet and work remotely, getting rid of the problem of lack of money.
However, even living on the ground, you still have to work, and physically. Take care of the house and garden, animals, twist, graze cattle, process food. It will not be easy to survive at the initial stage, given the fact that the household also requires cash deposits, but after a while things will get better and begin to give back the investment.
With regards to other ways of living without money and work, there are options such as:
- Volunteer activities;
- Various barters;
- Natural economy;
- Various religious organizations;
- Work for food;
- Work for the payment of utilities.
Volunteer activities
Now almost every citizen can become a volunteer. Programs are available to almost everyone and only a few projects have requirements and limitations, and for some, professional experience is required.
However, due to the growing popularity of the volunteer movement in the Russian Federation, unskilled and voluntary assistance is required everywhere: to people, animals, nature, cultural organizations. Some volunteer programs allocate a budget for sending volunteers abroad. A good option to live without money and travel for free.
The life of a volunteer is harsh, but it can help you survive if you are left without work and livelihood.
Barter
Practically in every city of Russia, money-changer groups are common in social networks. There are going to people who offer to exchange various things, household items, food. In such groups during the period of lack of money, you can exchange any unnecessary things for food or necessary household items: laundry detergents, dishes, other utensils.
In such groups, you can change not only things, but also services: haircuts, nail design, tattoo, tutoring. You can either exchange free-of-charge master services for food, or earn money yourself, building up experience, in exchange for something useful.
Natural economy
In urban conditions, it is not so easy to survive without money and work, whereas natural economy is a real salvation. You can survive by renting an apartment in the city and leaving for nature: in many villages, houses are empty and are rented, and the plot itself is cheap. In exchange for taking care of him, you can get the opportunity to live and feed on what the earth gives.
Farming and farming is an affordable, albeit difficult, way to survive in a period of lack of money.
Of course, you will also have to work on the land: cultivating the land, planting vegetables, caring for animals and getting firewood for the winter, but such a life is much more environmentally friendly and pays for itself after a year of work.
Religious organizations
In the conditions of a complete lack of prospects, work and a stable income, when there is no place to live, and the pockets are empty, there remains an option that few people think about. You can always ask for help from religious organizations, monasteries and communities.
At monasteries, there is always work, by doing which you can get shelter and food. Weeding a garden, caring for animals and birds, fields and gardens, cleaning the monastery premises is a real way to live long enough without money and work. If there is an urgent need, they can provide you with clothes - many believers bring clothes and unnecessary things to the monasteries in order to be given to those who need it more.
The advantage of this option is that it is not necessary to be a believer or to take part in the service - many monasteries provide shelter and food even to atheists during a period of acute need, following the commandment about helping their neighbors.
In the period of lack of money, if religious views allow, you can always turn to various non-Orthodox religious organizations and communities, for example, Hare Krishnas. Krishna worshipers often warmly welcome those in need, providing them with overnight stay and healthy food. In this case, you are also waiting for exciting spiritual conversations and an interesting experience of communication. Among the Hare Krishnas there are many interesting people who maintain contact even when a person no longer needs help.
Work for food
When you need not so much money as food, or rather, when there is no money even for food, you can earn some money in exchange for food:
- Provide services of a loader or a cleaner in stores or cafes;
- Having agreed with the administration of the supermarket, so that products with an expiration date can be collected before release;
- Go to the monastery and become a worker, working for food;
- Sell your creativity for food.
Sergey Balovin, a Russian portrait painter who knows firsthand how to live without money in Russia, can become a good example for inspiration.
Sergey Balovin - portrait painter selling portraits for foodSergey became known throughout Russia thanks to his project “Natural exchange”. He travels around the world, responding to invitations of youth organizations and just fans. He does not spend any money on this by painting portraits in exchange for tickets, food, clothes, and so on. He presents many things because he does not need them, and he always draws portraits in two copies, leaving the second to himself. Only once, because of the huge number of people willing to meet, he decided to paint one portrait at a time.
Inspired by his example, many aspiring artists who found themselves in a difficult life situation began to arrive as well and after a while gained fame that allowed them to adjust their lives.
How do people live without money?
Continuing the theme of the acclaimed stories of world-famous downshifters and just people who successfully survived in a civilization without money, not to mention Heidemarie Schwermer and Raphael Fellmar.
Heidemarie Schwermer
Heidemarie Schwermer was born in 1942. At age 53, this unique woman made the decision to live without money. It was a conscious decision, not made under the pressure of circumstances, but as a result of much thought about the meaning of his life. Heidemarie called the owner of the apartment in which she lived, happily told him that she would no longer pay the rent, distributed all her belongings, leaving herself only a suitcase with changeable clothes, three pairs of shoes, a small amount of cosmetics, a book and glasses, and began to live without of money. The issue of lack of money she considered not a problem, but release from the shackles.
By profession, Heidemarie was a psychotherapist and initially planned to provide psychotherapeutic counseling in exchange for food and lodging for the night, but it turned out that few people want to settle in their own psychotherapist. Then Heidemarie changed her approach and began to wash windows, mow lawns and do other household work in exchange for food and shelter.
This approach was fully justified: after a while, her talent as a psychotherapist was noticed and Heidemari realized her dream. For nearly 17 years, Schwermer lived without using a single cent. She had a reserve of 200 euros in case she needed money anyway, but she did not use them. At a certain period in her life, she was granted a pension, which she initially wanted to refuse, then she accepted, but began to give out money to those who really needed it.
The whole world learned about Heidemarie, newspapers, magazines and news channels became interested in it, thanks to which she had the opportunity to travel for free with lectures and readings on specialization.
For 17 long years Heidemarie Schwermer lived quite happily, proving to the whole world the immutability of her philosophy: money is not the most important thing in life, but also an absolutely unnecessary thing with the right approach. Necessary products, clothing and shelter can be earned by personal work, and you cannot buy time for creativity and spiritual development for money.
Heidemarie quietly died in 2016 from cancer at the age of 74, leaving the world her legacy: instructions for finding the meaning of life. It is noteworthy that in her entire life a woman rarely got sick, explaining that the disease causes stress, and stress causes the pursuit of money, which is not in her life. Refusing money, she found complete freedom and true happiness. She explained this refusal by the desire to expand human consciousness, freeing him from the evil thought that everything in this world is decided by money.
Rafael Fellmars.
Rafael Felmar is known not only as an experimenter-downshifter, who conducted the experiment “5 years without money”, but also as one of the founders of food sharing, along with a German journalist and director Valentin Turn.
Five years of his life, Rafael Felmar, a social activist, spent without money. All this time, along with his wife and young child, he ate the waste, edible. At first, I rummaged in garbage cans, then began to cooperate with cafes and shops, weekly and even daily throwing out a good, but suitable by the end of the shelf life term.
As a result of this experiment, Rafael made it clear to society that supermarkets and catering establishments are wasting a huge amount of food, which would be enough to feed the suggestive number of people in need. This is how the foodsharing phenomenon came about.
Foodsharing (from foodsharing - from food "food", share "to share") is a social and environmental project aimed at saving food in the literal sense of the word. Project volunteers associate with shops and cafes that have surpluses of unused products with people who need food.
Foodsharing appeared in Russia in 2015, while it has been known all over the world since 2012. Having first appeared in Germany, it spread throughout Europe and received an incredible amount of feedback from people from all over the world. In Italy and France, the owners of large supermarkets even obliged to enter into agreements with charitable organizations and donate surplus food, otherwise the supermarket may receive a serious fine.
Thanks to the example of Raphael Felmar, the world realized that a huge amount of food can be correctly distributed without harming any of the parties: written-off products are already losses for organizations, but are still usable.
Far from civilization
If Heidemarie Schwermer and Raphael Veelmar are excellent examples of life without money in urban settings, then Suelo and Tomi Astikainen can be excellent examples of comfortable living far from civilization. Life without money, freeganing and hitchhiking - about these two.
Suelo
Suelo is an American downshifter, or, as the Russians say, a simple one. Born with the name of Daniel James Shellabarger, in 2000, at the age of 39, he completely refused the money. He currently lives in a cave near the city of Moab (Utah).
Suelo eats berries and meat of animals, which knock down passing cars, or roams around America.
Suelo received the lion's share of fame thanks to Details magazine, The Guardian and BBC websites. In the period from 2006 to 2010, he became the hero of three biographical videos, and in 2012 his biography by Mark Sandin was published by Penguin. From fees Suelo flatly refused.
Tomi Astikainen
Finnish coaching and training specialist Tomi Astikainen decided to learn downshifting in 2009, barely 28 years old. Fully rejecting the money, he, along with his lover, went to hitchhiking around the world. Since then, they, without any means, travel to different countries, blog on the Internet and write books about their adventures, distributing them for free.
Tom's philosophy is simple to impossibility: if you need something, the Universe will give it to you.
Examples of all these people show that the statement about the impermanence of money is true. You can live without money and work, doing your favorite thing and exploring the world, but for this you first need to realize that money is not the most important thing in life.
Ударяясь в дауншифтинг с мыслью о безысходности своего положения, скорее всего вы не придёте ни к какому результату. Но, научившись видеть плюсы прежде всего в свободной жизни, вы сможете освободиться от рамок общества и поменять свою жизнь в корне.
