This time last year I wrote a post about Mark Boyle, a Bristol man who planned to live off the land for a year without any money. Mark describes himself as a "freeconomist", and believes that capitalism is a flawed system (something he has in common with Michael Moore!)
One year on, The Daily Mail reports that Mark has successfully completed his challenge and plans to carry on:
A man who lived for a year without spending any money said today that it has been the happiest time of his life and he intends to continue.Mark Boyle, 30, has lived for the past 12 months as a true 'freeconomist', leading a self-sufficient lifestyle in a caravan in Timsbury, near Bath, growing his own food and reusing junk that people have thrown away.
He says he has not spent a penny and has become a happier person, and today pledged to continue living without cash.
He cycles everywhere, his phone only takes incoming calls, he has solar-powered showers and cleans his teeth with toothpaste made from washed-up cuttlefish bones. He either grows or forages for his food and gets his clothes from bins or from the Freecycle website.
Mr Boyle, an Irish-born economics graduate and former businessman, blogs online about his life using a solar-powered laptop on wi-fi time he earns in return for carrying out odd jobs on a local farm. Full story >>
COMMENT
That sort of lifestyle might be possible for a single man, but I don't think it would be feasible for a family. And if the consumer society didn't produce so much rubbish, Mark would have had a much harder time of it. Still, the way things are going, we may all have to become freeconomists in the future.
