I love the idea of moving to a rural location either in the UK or ROI and making a little homestead, DIY solar, rainwater collection, keep running costs low, not have to work a huge number of hours to sustain a low cost lifestyle etc, but my family look at me like I’ve grown a second head if I raise this.
Would you ever want to move out into the sticks, if not what’s the lack of appeal/ what’s holding you back? Family? Kids? Enjoy city living? Luxuries?
If you’re already living/have lived this way what’s good/bad about it 🙂
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To note, off grid can mean many things, from complete Amish levels to high-tec but always through your own provision / not connected to mains gas, electric , water etc.
31 comments
I love the idea of it but having spoken to some people that live this way, winters sound really tough!
No, not at all, sounds awful. I’d rather spend my time doing what I enjoy not treating my own drinking water, burying my own shit then cycling 16 miles to get a pint of milk or see a doctor.
How do you even socialise? Do you just chill with the other hermits?
Love the idea of it but don’t have the money to do it. Getting permission is also practically impossible.
I wouldn’t do off-grid personally, I think you gain very little in the UK from doing so, unless you’re so rural you have no choice.
I’d stay connected to the grid (electric and mains water) but have zero reliance on them.
That way the £200/yr standing charge is my insurance in case things go south.
My retirement plan is to buy a house in Norway, in the middle of nowhere, just me and my dog.
Not sure what my Fiancé’s plans are haha.
I don’t think that’s really possible in the UK unless you’re willing to go to the Hebrides or an overseas territory, the population is just too dense for you to be really off the grid.
This is something I’m working on, but without the off grid bit, because houses that come with land are unaffordable and our planning permission system blocks us from legally living on our own land so the most realistic solution in my view is to buy some land that’s within walking distance of a house you could afford, then buy a house. This also has the advantage that you’re in both worlds.
>not have to work a huge number of hours to sustain a low cost lifestyle etc
I think you severely underestimate how much work being fully self sufficient is. Medieval peasants worked 8 hour days and you’d do the same (if not more cuz you don’t have te experience)
I do have the escapist fantasy quite often but in reality, nah. I like my luxury & comforts.
Not at all, my husband was entertaining the idea before we were married and I jokingly said I’ll visit him occasionally if he goes off rid.
Truth be told we both are a clear mix of introverts and extroverts. The pandemic, where we were long distance made him realise he needs a healthy social life to be sane. So as much as we like having some weekends in, we love going out with friends and family.
I also come from a 3rd world country so I know what ‘off grid’ can entail. I don’t want to go back to it.
I absolutely love the idea of it, but I do think I would get tired of it pretty quickly. I think the novelty would wear off after a couple of months and I’m not cut out to be eating nettle soup and blackberries because they’re in season and living in darkness after 8pm because the solar power has run out. I’ve been spoilt (like most of us) and it would be tough to break those things even if it sounds idillic on paper.
I wouldn’t want to live off the land in that way but I would like to come off the grid and be self sufficient with energy. That has always been a dream of mine. I would also like enough land to have a passive income. My uncle lives in the country ona couple of acres and he had solar power put on 3 of his buildings at peak tariff. I think he makes like £12k a year which was guaranteed for 25 years. He also rented out a field to a builder who stores bricks in pallets on it. He’s probably making £13k a year sitting on his arse which sounds good to me.
I guess for most people the effort of generating/getting your own utilities makes not being connected to the grid too time-consuming.
Its a lifestyle choice, Not something to be taken lightly. r/vandwellers
No I love socialising and meeting new people.
Off grid is good for a weekend or maybe even a week when the world gets too much, but living off-grid for me would be boring.
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Give me a rural cottage and thick blankets along with a neighbour or two and I’d do it, also a lifetimes supply of tea
I’m taking steps toward it. Current plan is:
1. Buy house
2. Rent out house
3. Buy van
4. Convert van
5. Move toward partial or full WfH
6. Become migratory bird, enjoying the summers in Scotland, and winters on southern England, or even in Europe if I can
I suppose I’d still be partially tethered to the grid, but I’d be much freer than otherwise. Being able to avoid the bleakness of Scotland’s winters is the biggest selling point to me.
By the time you can afford to do it you’d be too old to withstand the hard physical work and discomfort a life like that entails.
If I didn’t have kids, I’d consider renting out my house and doing a van life thing for a while to say I’ve done it. But going completely off grid looks like a lot of hard work for very little gain.
I would definitely would make my house still have some water and electricity when the power and water goes of
I would love to live in a cabin in Alaska or somewhere snowy so I can be left alone and be with nature while reading my huge collection of books.
The main thing is to consider when you start getting older and you start to break at the seams as suddenly you can’t drive, need regular medical intervention and thus start to require friends and family to help out as theres no buses or taxi service to get you where you want etc.
Its the dream of the 40 year old in good health but the nightmare of the 70 year old with a dodgy ticker who’s just been widowed.
Too much of a pain in the arse for me personally.
There’s an off-grid community not far from me (Scoraig) and I’ve visited a few times for work.
Either a boat or several miles trek over poor terrain to get there. They rely on wind and solar with diesel back-up generators.. the generators can be temperamental and it’s a chore getting fuel across to the community so they often conk out, and when they do there’s no quick or easy way of getting more fuel across.
It’s not uncommon for locals to have no power for extended periods of time. I enjoy the trappings of civilisation/modern living too much to want to go through that ballache.
I would absolutely love to live off-grid, however, my physical health is not great, which means I wouldn’t be able to sustain it at all.
I’ll just continue to dream of a log cabin with handmade furnishings, homegrown veggies, reading by candlelight and a stone fireplace full of crackling logs 🤗
Really think about it…
You will need to work full time cutting wood, collecting rainwater, washing clothes, growing food, cooking food, cleaning etc etc
It would be a lot of work for probably a very basic (and miserable) way of life.
I suppose you could try it but have a plan B.
Oh just give me a well, a few batteries, a wind turbine and a couple solar panels and a small hut an an outhouse and I’ll be laughing.
No, I love being human cattle that everyone makes money off.
Doing my part for those shareholders
I have done it for a year or two in South Scotland. I lived 10 minutes walk from the road in a shack in some woodland. I now live in a house.
As with all things there are good and bad aspects. But the main thing is that it does not work if you have a full time job. There are just not enough working hours left in the day after work to do the necessary chores.
Once you get over this and accept the low income lifestyle, then there are huge benefits . Waking up with the daylight and going to sleep with the darkness gives an external rhythm to your life. In winter you sleep lots and have to concentrate all of your daily chores in the daylight. However when the spring comes you really feel it and have loads of energy.
Some of my best memories are from this time. I had set up a bath outside with a fire underneath to heat the water. The bath gets hotter the longer you are in it! One autumn evening I was having a bath and it started snowing. Magical.
Other days are not so good. There are still necessary chores even if you are ill. Chopping Wood and lighting fires and collecting water are lovely on a summer camp out but a lot less fun with a streaming cold in February when your house is freezing.
Another aspect is that it’s hard to fit in with other local people. I always felt like the weird outsider even if people were being friendly. Most people really really don’t understand and think you are mental or a charity case. It’s hard to keep as smart and clean as the rest of society and this is fine in the woods, but uncomfortable in the town or city.
I recommend you give it a go. Try volunteering on organic farms, many have low impact shacks to stay in.
[wooff](https://wwoof.org.uk/)
Aye, I’m up forrit, when we moving?
If by “living off the grid” you mean “pay taxes and NI so we can upkeep the roads grid public services etc” then yeah, but if you mean “make everyone else pay but I still want to benefit from what they’re paying for” then no
And if you mean dont pay into any of those things but truly don’t use any public services, then sure that sounds kinda fun
In an ideal world, this is something I would absolutely love to do. I keep saying to my friends “give me a house out of the way, ability to drive and a stable Internet connection and I’m gone.”
I recently came across a self sustained community on social media and plan to visit them next year for a retreat to see how I actually find it. Occasionally go on free living camping trips (as we call them) with some family or friends. And have been learning to grow again in my garden.
Right now though is not possible, as I have a child to get to school and family commitments but it is something I am looking to do once he’s making his own way in the world!
This resonated with me deeply. I’ve got a well paid job in the IT sector dealing with technology every day and each day I wake up wishing for something more. The more I work with technology and computers the more I want to escape it. If I was single rn with no Mrs and kids id sell up, buy land somewhere where there’s still space to be had for a moderate price (i.e not here in the UK) and do exactly this and if I lasted 10 years before I succumb and die starvation,disease, whatever then it would still beat a lifetime of being spiritually dead in capitalist world chasing shit I don’t actually care about lol