earn a living from home.......

[eco-mick]

Well, time is coming to think about moving off the commerical ladder when I get to downsize life within the next year or 5.. at the moment I am a yard person at the place of work. I can be either doing the shunting of trucks or on the road doing a store delivery... yes I like the job - but its consuming too much of my time and I have woken up the the big con of the mortgage and the life in this world at the moment.

Camper is on the drive in the middle of the conversion and I am thinking... what could I do to earn the pennies on the green way of live.. Ideally I would love to own 12 acres of land and live off the land. And live in the camper as a "home". But in the meantime I would need to earn some cash somewhere. I not going to be packing in the current job tomorrow.. I wish to learn a skill/trade as I don't really have a passion at home at the moment. That I can transfer to the off the land living... I have the idea that living off the land I could do the hens/flowers/growing business to please the planners with the business model... In past life, I've always being told... not to put all things in one basket on the business front, have something for everything (hence doing flowers/hens/xmas trees/turkeys/veggies etc... or sheep?)

I can cook, I can garden, I can sew, I can make things... but I don't know where to turn to and what to do?

Ideally... I wish to make something with my own hands... and sell as another source of income... but the question is... what and in what market ;)

Any tips or advice?

Mick

[Sky]

None, but I read your post and thought I should reply and wish you good luck. If you have the enthusiasm you will succeed

[boboff]

Agreed.
Take the plunge, it's fun.
If you have a local paper try an advert for a handy man, decorator, driver, gardener, some one to take crap to the "recycling centre". You can keep working and see what comes up. If you are good and friendly, and cheap, then word of mouth might help, and then once you have a few in the bag, you may feel happier about giving up work.

The biggest thing I learnt was actually how much money you save by NOT working.

[Potter's Farm]

We have sold up and moved to 2 acres in ireland. When pushed, its amazing what you discover you can do to earn a keep. We make and sell herb planters from pallets given to us for free, and filled with herbs we grow on the farm. We make oils, chutneys, pickles etc to sell, and at next week's market we have sweet williams and wallflowers to sell which i planted as catch crops in the veggie garden. My husband also makes logboxes, bird houses, bug boxes and the like from pallets which sell really well. As a point of interest, he's made me a lovely pantry shelving system from free pallets today!! All sanded down and waxed, you'd never think it was a pallet.

[Ellendra]

I work at a virtual call center and telecommute from home. I don't think my company hires outside of north america, but you could look for a similar company that hires from your area.

[Thomzo]

I think Potters' idea is a good one. See if you can learn woodwork. It's a great skill that you can use to earn a few pennies by doing odd jobs. Then, as a sideline, you can make stuff to sell. If you go round collecting scrap wood, pallets etc, what you don't use to make stuff from, you can burn to keep warm and cook on. Sounds wonderful to me.

Although, on second thoughts, the making is easy, it's the selling that's tough. How about learning to be a salesperson?

Zoe

[greenorelse]

A few more details might help, eco-mick. You mention a mortgage. How big/how long to run is it?

Additionally, do you have other debts? You should go hell-for-leather at getting rid of those, then get rid of the mortgage. You are then a free man and you'd be surprised how little money you need, particularly if, in the meantime, you examine every last outgoing and debate how to reduce or eliminate it.

As you've realised, our slavery to money is what holds back many ambitions. Yes, you need money to buy land but how can you do that when you owe money here, there and everywhere?

Our minority world future is one of 'negative growth', where money is far harder to come by and, in many cases, less useful than skills, fixed assets and neighbourliness.

[eco-mick]

A few more details might help, eco-mick. You mention a mortgage. How big/how long to run is it?

Additionally, do you have other debts? You should go hell-for-leather at getting rid of those, then get rid of the mortgage. You are then a free man and you'd be surprised how little money you need, particularly if, in the meantime, you examine every last outgoing and debate how to reduce or eliminate it.

Hi duck - this is very true... my plan to be honest - I do relise that all I seem to be doing at the moment is working for the company to pay another company off... I don't want it anymore. :D

Mortgage wise, I got another 20 years left on it, or 5 years on the fix term contract owing in at £65k - doesn't sound alot I know.. but it needs to go. I am now in a good sitution of where I can pump a fair bit off cash into this cashcow. But like everyone else I do have debts that need paying off first (the car, minibus and few other bits and bobs) - aiming to be out of that trap by Spring next year.

In the mean time, the minibus is going through a conversion to a camper for winter use so its fully spec'd for me and how I want it. And when she is done I would be looking to rent out of the house for the reminder of the term of the fixed part of my mortgage. Writing a few figures down on paper I can in theory have the mortgage and all debts paid off by 2016 then I will be free.. But I have to work hard though by doing 2/3 days of overtime every month for the next few years.

As you've realised, our slavery to money is what holds back many ambitions. Yes, you need money to buy land but how can you do that when you owe money here, there and everywhere?

Our minority world future is one of 'negative growth', where money is far harder to come by and, in many cases, less useful than skills, fixed assets and neighbourliness.

I can "do" woodwork. built my coop for the hens (someone wants to buy it for £100 (doesn't cover the cost of wood) but not at the moment as chooks got no where else to go lol)... but something I like to have a go at is craving etc... as there is a nice bit of woodwork I love to do and fit it into my camper.. I will be at the bootsale tomorrow so will see if I can get a few tools and have a go and see what I can do (I like celtic design stuff ie inter knots etc)

[greenorelse]

On the face of it, the fact that you see yourself out of debt except for the mortgage by spring is very good and positive, I'm sure you'll agree.

It's easy to say 'if I were you'! If you do that (get rid of debts other than mortgage), then if I were you I would get rid of that mortgage and fast and don't let anything stand in your way; put off all purchases unless crucial; you'll be on the pig's back then, all your money coming in, you'll be in control of.

There are lots of people I know who manage with very little and their key is to not be handing over money to others. Ever since I got out of debt (my mortgage will be gone before the year end) I seem to have had far more money - yet we don't earn that much between us; we've just cut out everything we didn't need, we save for whatever we really want and we don't want foreign holidays or tvs or jet skis or whatever people crave these days.

Some of the people I know who live on little do so by doing bits and pieces everywhere; labouring is a good way of getting by if you're fit - a day here, a day there, all under the radar.

Can you grow any of your own food, or forage for it? A meat-based diet is expensive - try to get away from it as much as possible, cheap carbs are what you need if you're labouring.

If you can do one-off wooden crafty stuff that's easily transportable, see if you can get somebody on a farmers' market to sell in on commission - or even help out a farmers' market stall holder in exchange for having a bit of your stuff on display. Who knows where it might lead?

[greenorelse]

BTW, I just have to say that I admire anyone thinking along these lines, eco-mick. It's the new normal.

[lindsay]

Mick

Our thoughts, too, are turning towards getting off the treadmill and living on our own land. We have nearly four acres (we've paid off half the loan, still another six years to go) but have been told we are not allowed to live on it due to planning laws. We are looking at renting a house near the land instead, renting out our house in town (still 10 years left on the mortgage) and living as cheaply as possible, using the land to be as self-sufficient as we can. So I can understand exactly where you are coming from.

In theory, owning 12 acres and a camper van should be simple, but how will you pay for the 12 acres? If it is agricultural land you won't be allowed to park your van on it and just be left alone to live your life quietly (which is what we want to do). Twelve acres will cost a heck of a lot of money, so I would say you need to buy the land and get it largely paid off before giving up the day job. The idea of just scraping a living together, growing veg and doing odd-jobs and keeping chickens, sheep etc is exactly what we want to do, but land is not cheap and the law won't let you do what you want to do, even if you just want to keep your head down and get on with things without bothering anybody else. If you want to go along the lines of proving that you can earn an income off the land, in order to be allowed to live on it, I think the test for this is very rigorous and it depends what it classed as 'an income'. I have an idea it is about £12,000 or something?

Anyway, I don't mean to be negative, but I am currently racking my brains to come up with a way to live the same life that you imagine, but unless you are able to live mortgage-free, rent-free, debt-free and have THE RIGHT PIECE OF LAND, ALREADY PAID FOR, AND WITH PERMISSION TO LIVE THERE, I can't see how it can be done. I've put that in capitals because that is the crux of the matter for us -- I reckon you have to meet all three of these criteria before you can really live the dream, and this means staying on the treadmill for the time being.

Lindsay

[pelmetman]

The problem with land, life and a camper is something we have struggled with for the last few years .....................even doing it mainstream is a struggle ..............As the dam veg wont wait to be watered until you get home especially as we now want to go for a month or more not just a week

[greenorelse]

Hah! You mean you haven't set up an automatic watering system? Nor a kindly neighbour? I'd do it for you but I'm a bit far away...