Why live on a Shoestring?

Why indeed? But it's not always an option, is it? This is how we live on our shoestring.

There’s been a lot of discussion recently in the papers about poverty in this country, particularly among pensioners, but being state pensioners ourselves we can’t see it.

Most of the great prophets of our time have extolled the virtues of being poor, claiming it is the only way to freedom and true happiness, and though most of us pretend to believe this we don’t really go along with it. Because, it is only the voluntarily poor man who gets a shot at that happiness. The involuntarily poor man is often deeply dissatisfied with his lot, envious, bitter and resentful of others who have more.

We humans like to have the money to spend on the things we want and many of us are prepared to sacrifice a great deal of time, energy and stress to that end. People say ‘I only want enough to live comfortably’. But enough is a relative thing and for many people living with little money isn’t something they opt for or not. They simply don’t have the ability to earn more so they have to make do with what they have. The trick is not to mind.

So, the simple answer is to down-size your life to suit your income rather than the other way around and live within your means. As Mr Micawber from Dickens’ David Copperfield so famously said:

‘Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness.

Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.’

First, you have to assess how important stuff is in your life. For some it is absolutely vital; an exponential indication of their status in society. Most of us are or have been like that. We certainly were once upon a time, but no longer. Our breakthrough really came when we sold our pub in 2000 and bought a 35 foot yacht.

Though the yacht itself was not worthless, we did have to give up a lot of security - an income, our place on the property ladder and most of our ‘things’. A bit scary, perhaps, but actually incredibly liberating. The less you have the less you have to worry about. It may seem trite but it’s true and it makes life so much simpler and more straightforward. It took a while to deal emotionally with the loss of many cherished items - inherited from our parents, wedding gifts, bought ourselves over the years - but we never think about them now. During those years abroad, we had to live on our continuously depleting capital and additional cruising money earned as we went (marina yard work, cleaning boats, pruning fruit, teaching English), and we learned never to spend more than we had or could earn. They were the best years of our lives and we don’t regret it for one moment. You can read all about it on the blog I wrote after the event.  http://theslowtracktoeverywhere.blogspot.co.uk/

After our seven years of cruising and having achieved Mike’s incredible dream of sailing around the world, and having completely run out of money, we returned to the UK and made a feeble attempt to re-enter mainstream life just as the recession hit in 2008. I spent two years in the care industry and then a brief and unrewarding stint at a bank before retiring. We managed to sell our boat for half its worth, paid off a few debts, took a couple of great holidays, and invested the rest in the name of Mike’s daughter. So, now we are penniless and remarkably happy for it. I don’t judge people by their possessions and feel that those who may judge me by mine are not likely to be my kind of folk, so no loss there.

Of course, it helps that I love gardening, growing fresh produce, cooking, preserving and generally making my own things. And it is true that I have entered this new life from a very privileged position. I had a wonderfully free outdoor childhood in Africa followed by some youthful travelling in Europe, four decades of hard work in rewarding and interesting careers, seven years at sea cruising around this fabulous world of ours and, most important, I have the man I love to share it with. I have been lucky enough to achieve much in my life, so it is easy for me now to sit quietly in the countryside and practice self sufficiency. It is a whole new challenge.

I invite you to join me (from the sidelines of course) in this interesting new journey.