Reply #12: Voluntary simplicity is one way. [View All]

[Speck Tater]

Here are some of my methods for living on an income that is low enough I don't have to pay income taxes.

I drive a 12-year old car that gets excellent MPG.

I do not buy ANY prepared or packaged foods, and that includes canned soups and packaged sauce or gravy mixes.

I buy dry staples (rice, beans, oatmeal, flour, etc.) in bulk from a restaurant supply store.

I grow veggies in my back yard.

My local supermarket has 18 or 20 aisles. I only ever visit 2 or 3 of those aisles.

I use a prepaid-minutes cell phone that costs me $8.50 per month, on average, instead of a land line phone that used to cost me $30.00 or so per month.

I subscribe to Netflix instead of cable TV giving me more viewing choice and no commercials trying to entice me into wasting money on crap. I haven't set foot in a Sears, or a Wallmart, or a shopping mall in years. (I did buy two new pairs of jeans a few months ago at Target, on sale approx. $8.00 each)

I buy my books used through Amazon and after reading them, sell them to someone else, again through Amazon. That way I read good books essentially for free. (I live outside the area covered by the nearest library, so I can't get a library card.)

My TV and stereo and other appliances that waste "standby" power are plugged into power strips that get turned off when I'm not using them. (When the fridge isn't running my electric meter outside often has that little spinning wheel standing stark still showing ZERO kilowatts being used.)

I often cook over my backyard grill using sticks and twigs harvested from my property so I don't have to burn kilowatts using the electric stove top.

There are dozens and dozens of other tricks and methods for getting free of the "consumerism" mentality and living life more simply and pleasurably.