Living without money

Are you up for the challenge of living without spending money? Get to know life in a new way. Challenge yourself to come up with solutions for everyday things: where do I get my food from, how will I sleep and what is that what I can offer to others? What can I exchange, for example? But also: how does real giving work?

Jo Nemeth lives without money to reduce her environmental impact. How much would you be able to do to reduce your environmental footprint? Jo Nemeth is an Australian who decided to live her life without money, possibly the most drastic way to worry less about money.

Is there a place in the world where you can live without money? Yes, in fact there are many. One of these places is Twin Oaks, an eco-village and intentional community in North America. Most members of this community do not touch or deal with money at all. Twin Oaks has been around since the late 1960's.

Elf Pavlik gave up money in 2009 after he had come back to Europe from San Francisco. In California he had been working for a highly competitive internet company that was mainly trying to compete with other companies, without really producing anything to make people happy.

Living without money, how does that work out in practice? The Irishman Mark Boyle has been doing it since November 2008 and he's having a great time. He's living in England in an old caravan given to him. He start symbolically on Buy Nothing Day, a yearly day to not buy anything together with others.

Living without money was the way to live in the past. Money is only a recent phenomenon. But since we live in a money economy it's a big challenge to live without money. Heidemarie Schwermer from Germany has done that for 20 years, since May 1996, until she passed away.