bartering. Bartering can either be an exchange of food, especially in the summer when many people have gluts, or an exchange of skills for food or skills you don’t have. I like to do it informally; work hard for somebody during the day and at the end of it receive a non-negotiated amount of food.
Some people say this sounds very risky but I’ve yet to come away feeling scammed. Sometimes I tell people that I worked all day for a fifty-five-pound bag of oats. They usually think I am crazy; you can buy the same bag for $30 and I’ve done nine hours’ hard labor. But these people are thinking conventionally. I think we need to be more aware of the real cost of food. Those fifty-five pounds of oats should never cost $30. If I had to plant, weed, water, harvest and roll that much oats, it would take me about sixty hours. Therefore, I get sixty hours of work for only nine, which I think is a great deal, as does the person I help. That’s the beauty of it. These relationships form much tighter friendships between people and I believe can play a crucial role in our efforts to rebuild communities around trust; relationships in which friendships, not cash, are seen as security.
I spent four months building relationships, either with the land on which I live or with the people of my local community. I learned where the best dumpsters were, which businesses had waste food, where I could find wild foods, who I could help, and some of the skills I would need to grow my own food. Strength lies in diversity and the more sources of food you have, the more chance you have of surviving when one lets you down.
Nevertheless, as some of the people with whom I built relationships were eighteen miles away in the city, my next challenge was to set myself up with a means of transportation.
TRANSPORTATION
There are two main forms of free transportation, although they often have hidden costs. Walking is completely free if you are prepared to walk barefoot or to make your own shoes. Otherwise, just like the pen, it is extremely cheap but not totally free. I learned how to make flip-flops out of old car tires, spare fabric and used bicycle inner tubes: I cut the shape of my foot out of the tire, clad it in some comfortable material, preferably hemp, and used the inner tube as the bit I put my toes around. Walking is my preferred mode of transportation. These days even cycling seems too fast. When you are walking you can hear the birds sing, you can check out the plants around you, and it’s a great way of relaxing and exercising. But walking takes time and, given the time restraints inherent in money-free living, I decided that unless I was really ahead of myself, I would always use my bike.
The second possible form of free transportation is the bicycle. Obviously, bikes are made from parts and if one breaks you need to replace the part or fix it. That’s not to say you can’t do it without money; you just need to build a relationship with someone who has access to bike parts, which may involve bartering. I get my bike parts from a couple of local stores that have to throw out whole bikes because one major thing is wrong, even though most of the bike is perfectly fine. Because they can’t sell a used part, such as a brake pad, they would otherwise have to send the whole thing to landfill.
As part of my year involved me using other people’s waste, I had to find a way of carrying items on my bicycle. I had budgeted only £160 ($240) for everything transportation-related, which didn’t leave a lot for a trailer. The cheapest one I could find, which was small and not very sturdy, was £80 ($120). I went to a few second-hand bike stores, where I found one of those carriages that parents normally carry their kids in. It was only £70 ($105) andwas quite a bit bigger than the trailer. Knowing that my chances of getting one from Freecycle were very slim, I bit the bullet and bought it. I also got a good pair of waterproof saddlebags for £50
Some people say this sounds very risky but I’ve yet to come away feeling scammed. Sometimes I tell people that I worked all day for a fifty-five-pound bag of oats. They usually think I am crazy; you can buy the same bag for $30 and I’ve done nine hours’ hard labor. But these people are thinking conventionally. I think we need to be more aware of the real cost of food. Those fifty-five pounds of oats should never cost $30. If I had to plant, weed, water, harvest and roll that much oats, it would take me about sixty hours. Therefore, I get sixty hours of work for only nine, which I think is a great deal, as does the person I help. That’s the beauty of it. These relationships form much tighter friendships between people and I believe can play a crucial role in our efforts to rebuild communities around trust; relationships in which friendships, not cash, are seen as security.
I spent four months building relationships, either with the land on which I live or with the people of my local community. I learned where the best dumpsters were, which businesses had waste food, where I could find wild foods, who I could help, and some of the skills I would need to grow my own food. Strength lies in diversity and the more sources of food you have, the more chance you have of surviving when one lets you down.
Nevertheless, as some of the people with whom I built relationships were eighteen miles away in the city, my next challenge was to set myself up with a means of transportation.
TRANSPORTATION
There are two main forms of free transportation, although they often have hidden costs. Walking is completely free if you are prepared to walk barefoot or to make your own shoes. Otherwise, just like the pen, it is extremely cheap but not totally free. I learned how to make flip-flops out of old car tires, spare fabric and used bicycle inner tubes: I cut the shape of my foot out of the tire, clad it in some comfortable material, preferably hemp, and used the inner tube as the bit I put my toes around. Walking is my preferred mode of transportation. These days even cycling seems too fast. When you are walking you can hear the birds sing, you can check out the plants around you, and it’s a great way of relaxing and exercising. But walking takes time and, given the time restraints inherent in money-free living, I decided that unless I was really ahead of myself, I would always use my bike.
The second possible form of free transportation is the bicycle. Obviously, bikes are made from parts and if one breaks you need to replace the part or fix it. That’s not to say you can’t do it without money; you just need to build a relationship with someone who has access to bike parts, which may involve bartering. I get my bike parts from a couple of local stores that have to throw out whole bikes because one major thing is wrong, even though most of the bike is perfectly fine. Because they can’t sell a used part, such as a brake pad, they would otherwise have to send the whole thing to landfill.
As part of my year involved me using other people’s waste, I had to find a way of carrying items on my bicycle. I had budgeted only £160 ($240) for everything transportation-related, which didn’t leave a lot for a trailer. The cheapest one I could find, which was small and not very sturdy, was £80 ($120). I went to a few second-hand bike stores, where I found one of those carriages that parents normally carry their kids in. It was only £70 ($105) andwas quite a bit bigger than the trailer. Knowing that my chances of getting one from Freecycle were very slim, I bit the bullet and bought it. I also got a good pair of waterproof saddlebags for £50
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