Follow this Woman’s Journey of Going Moneyless!

One year ago, I shared a story titled “This woman is dumpster diving her way through her PhD” She was living completely off food from dumpsters while earning her PhD and also started up a food rescue program to donate food to people in need.

She struck me as a really noteworthy person doing wonderful things for her community and the earth. We’ve stayed in touch during that time and I’ve seen her continuing her path of simplifying her life and dedicating more of her time to others and the betterment of society. Today I am happy to bring to you a guest blog written by Liselotte on what she has been up to for the last year!

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With last year’s story, I was about 6 months into my Stop Shopping Challenge, a challenge to stop spending money for one year. I managed to complete the year and it has been so rewarding that I have now turned it into a lifestyle. This means I will continue to live moneyless and I want to keep taking it to the next level.

Soon after my story got published, I found my first free home with a generous family who offered me a spare room to support me on my mission. This also helped me downsize a lot, which was very liberating! The moneyless lifestyle has made my life so much less complicated because I feel now more than ever that my life has a purpose and that makes it a lot easier to know which steps to take and what to do next.

With a life of purpose also comes joy and fulfillment. Now I am doing all the things that I have always wanted to do, but previously I never really thought I could make any of it happen, so I just forgot about my dreams. Now I see that it is all possible! I think taking it step by step has been the trick for me to get the ball rolling – and to keep on going.

One thing I have been wanting to do for many years is to take up a nomadic lifestyle and travel around with a horse. So my next challenge will be to do just that (with or without the horse – depending on whether I can find a suitable horse). To prepare for this next adventure, I was looking for a new place to live at the beginning of this year, somewhere where I could keep a horse if I would find one. I found an organic farm nearby and the owners, Astrid and Halfdan, have been absolutely wonderful. We met and we instantly knew that we had the same mission in life: to support the earth and to create a better world: a world in which people respect food (instead of throwing it in dumpsters) and respect the earth that provides for them. There are 5 horses at the farm at the moment and there is room for a sixth one.

This is my new home at the farm:


And this is my view:

The sunsets are amazing! I am so happy I can see them from my tiny house. Now I get to enjoy them every day, even more so because I have no internet in my cabin, so there are no distractions.
I am also helping out with the animals and the plants and crops as much as possible, which keeps me in shape and it is teaching me a lot about farm life.
It is also a lot of fun!

The supermarkets where I used to pick up food to distribute to people in need are left in good hands too. They have been placed into the care of a dedicated person who was often picking up food from me. She is now in charge of the shops and she is making sure that the food doesn’t go to waste and that it gets used by people who need something extra. I am still dumpster diving regularly but at the moment I am also learning a lot about foraging so that I can get ready to live completely off foraged foods, in preparation for the nomadic life. Right now I am still supplementing my wild harvest with dumpstered food though.

To motivate myself even more and encourage myself to learn as much about wild edibles as possible, I have recently started a new challenge: the foraging challenge. The idea is to learn enough about wild edible plants and trees so that I can support myself fully on foraged foods for at least one full week. I am not at that level just yet, but I have already discovered that it is amazing how much food is out there and how nutritious for example weeds can be. And foraging can be good for the plants too, because if you harvest weeds you make room for other plants. You also get a chance to help some plants spread their seeds.

My foraging efforts create a great symbiotic relationship with the farm too because with the foraging (mainly for weeds at this stage) I can help keep the fields a bit cleaner and that way make space for the planted foods.
It’s a win-win!

I am hoping to start my nomadic journey sometime next year. I intend to continue living moneyless during that time also – and for a long time to come.
Feel free to follow my journey via my blog, or follow me on Facebook, Tumblr or Twitter.

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I hope that Liselotte’s story inspires you. Feel free to check out her FAQ where she answers many of the questions you might have!