Moneyless0.1-20260824-1633

On living with less, or none

Moneyless

Gift, barter, and doing without

0.1 · books.hitchwiki.orgCC-BY-NC-SA-4.0

Moneyless

Gift, barter, and doing without

Robino and Guaka

Cover photograph: National Park Service · Public domain — Garden harvest of tomatoes and peppers, Lincoln Home National Historic Site

Moneyless

Tips and stories for living with less money, or none. Compiled from moneyless.org. The project started as Geldloos.nl (Robino, later with Guaka). Dutch chapters are the book Geldloos (geldloos.nl); Spanish chapters are Sin Dinero (sindinero.net). French (sansargent.fr) and German (ohnegeld.net) editions are recovered if dumps exist.

License: CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0.

Dumpster diving and similar on-theme chapters stay. Reviews of other people’s copyrighted books are omitted.

About Moneyless.org

Moneyless.org is a social and experimental online project by Robino and Guaka about money and the disposal of that. The goal is to provide more creative ways to reduce the influence of money on daily life. It’s also a project to have fun, to express our creativity and do something cool. Moneyless.org was originally started as the Dutch website Geldloos.nl and now covers 7 languages, including Spanish. The idea to start a website that is centered around not using money, comes straight from the experience of Robin while living without using money consciously, while traveling and while living in the nomadic-community house (nomadbase) Casa Robino in Amsterdam. ## No money Having no money makes life in our society hard. At first sight at least. It can be solution as well. It’s challenging you to come up with new ways to satisfy your needs. Although having no money is often experienced as negative it can also be a positive thing. Our society is based on the money economy: all transactions are monetary. But does it apply to everything? No! The most beautiful things in life are free. And above all: there are alternative ways to get food, even if you don’t have money. And even if you are pregnant without money you can raise your baby in a nice and beautiful way. Many people immediately think about borrowing money when their money is all spent. Some even borrow money without any regular income. Everyone can make their own choice, but here on Moneyless you will mainly find a lot of tips about how to get around for free. Another alternative is bartering. There are many people who live without money, who made a conscious choice to give up cash and other forms of currency. They consciously don’t have money, some even live stateless. Some satisfy their needs by exchanging services, others prefer to think of doing it pay-it-forward style. Often this is an inspiration to people who involuntarily don’t have money. In other words: how to be rich without money. > If living without money is too radical for you, you can also use the tips on this website to save some money.

Life beyond money

Moneyless.org is especially about ways to live with less or even completely without money. With Moneyless we want to draw attention to alternative ways to organize society and the economy in a bottom-up, sometimes peer-to-peer way. Ways that are especially based on sharing and giving, not necessarily on money and profit. Apart from that there’s also attention to bartering. Of course Moneyless just didn’t appear out of thin air. From his studies of political science and journalism Robin has learned a lot of about topics such as the role of money and power structures in society. He’s also always been interested in social transformation, politics and economy. This is also how he met Guaka in 2003, on Indymedia, IRC and Wikipedia. Guaka has been active in building websites such as CouchSurfing, Hitchwiki and Trashwiki. We both think a world without money is possible as soon as we organize ourselves in a way that makes money superfluous.

Money corrupts? Or how we embrace the paradoxes of life

Nevertheless the dynamic duo is not radically opposed against the use of money. On the contrary, we understand why money is around and why we’re so dependent on it. The lack of dogmatism is apparent from the acceptance of advertising on this website. We use also this website to actually make money in order to sustain our subversion attempts on a wider scale. For example, through search engine optimization we also consciously attract people who do not have money, people who think they need money in order to live or even people who are looking for ways to borrow money. With Moneyless we want to show these visitors that there are also different ways to solve money problems, much better than quickly borrowing money. For example by consuming less, saving money and by changing one’s mindset. Though, if people are still seduced and want to borrow money, we will get a bit of money for this. So far, this has been supporting our families financially while being able to spread post-consumer propaganda. The bigger plan is to feed the money back into cool projects such as the lovely Wikis. If our plan works out very well, we want to use some of this money to support more projects that we love and that are aimed at bringing about more freedom from money. It might sound like a paradox. Making money for Moneyless.org. For a while I’ve lived and especially traveled without money. I like saving money and I really hate advertising. Still, on Kasper’s advice I’ve chosen for this. Consider it a subversion. Through search engines a lot more visitors arrive at Moneyless. They’re looking for ways to save, borrow and earn online money, or to become rich without money. Thanks to a good search engine optimization strategy they also arrive at Moneyless.org and with that they get in touch with other types of articles, as well as ways to kick the money addiction. At the same time this commercial stuff also creates some extra income for Moneyless. With this extra income there’s more time to write and to create more subversive products.

Main topics

Since 2015 we’re slowly moving towards dividing the website into the following different topics:

Be free

Finally Moneyless is also a tool for people who want to act and live more consciously. But what are the things you can do as a person to be freer? Money is something you definitely do not need. Freedom lives in yourself. It comes from the inside. Even when we think money provides us freedom, we’re most often just caught by money. Whichever way things in society have been conditioned, including our own existence, in the end we make our own choices. And whenever you make a choice, you choose something. If you want a freer life, Moneyless can provide you many tips to help you with your choices. You’re welcome to write to us. If you’re not a spammer we’ll probably get back to you at some point in the future. ## Write for Moneyless You are very welcome to write for Moneyless.

node/81

Moneyless.org - Life Without Money

Living without money is a great way to revalue life as it is. Let people who live without money inspire you. See our tips on how to live a simple life with little money and to reduce the influence that money has on your life. Enhance your lifestyle and reduce your money dependencies to zero. On MoneyLess.org you’ll find tips for simply reducing your dependencies on money, information on alternative currencies such as the bankless currency Bitcoin and tips for living and traveling on a very limited budget. ## Is it possible to live without money? Is it possible to live without money? How to live without needing money? On Moneyless.org you’ll find the answers to such questions, with inspiring examples, such as people who choose to live without money, tips on how to create a moneyless existence and stories about traveling and living without money. Living without money is not easy. You have to really care and also give up some things. You will give up the comfort to buy what you desire. Instead you’ll get another lifestyle: one in which you’ll be happy with what you have. One in which you are obligated to be more creative to satisfy your needs. Moneyless is more than that though. We have good tips for simply reducing dependence on money, information about alternative money such as the bankless currency Bitcoin and tips for living and traveling on a very limited budget.

Moneyless travel

Traveling without money is not just a dream. Robino, instigator of Moneyless.org, has lived without money several times. The first time was three months during a trip in Portugal. He was going around eating what people gave him, sleeping in a tent in the forest or at people’s homes. He hitchhiked and walked along the Portuguese coast. This experience was simply amazing, a real eye-opener to possibilities of moneyless existence. To obtain food he knocked on doors of restaurants for free food, sometimes at the kitchen through the backdoor, other times after lunch, to ask if there were leftover he could take. > Such a trip without money is not just a learning experience on its own, it’s also a life changing experience.

Often he was directly invited to take a seat an was fed enough for the next day. Other times he picked fruit right from trees, or took it out of a dumpster. Robin’s gratitude for what he got was enormous; food had never been this tasty.

In Holland

Afterwards he spent another 3 weeks travelling without money in the Netherlands. A foot trip from Amsterdam to the German border. He wanted to relive the experience but then in his home country. Was this also possible in Holland? How would Dutch people react? Equipped with a small pack and a hammock he started walking straight from home, and the first night he slept among the trees right outside the city.

Moneyless society

Living or traveling without money and adapt your life to this is a huge personal challenge. You really embark on an exploration by living this way. But how would it be of the entire society or even just a community would be focused on a moneyless existence? Said differently: a world without money, how would it be? Would it be possible? This is not just a question asked for the first time here. Many philosophers, anthropologists, sociologists and economists have posed this question before. Often reference is made to prehistoric times of communal living, such as nomadic tribes. But also bartering is mentioned, and how money became a replacement of that and how money has made our lives so much easier.

Communities that live without money

Beyond

Moneyless.org wants to go beyond this discussion and provide ways for living without money, with practical examples and give ideas that go beyond money. It’s going into concepts such as bartering, the money economy, the role of social money, the gift economy, abundance, social economies and peerconomy. How to develop new social economic links that make money superfluous?

node/2

Life Without Money

Life Without Money - Building Fair and Sustainable Economies is a book written from a scientific perspective on the possibilities, potential and benefits of Moneyless societies. It is written by a collective of authors who all look into this question from a different perspective. Some articles look at the urge of why we need to look at moneyless solutions, while others explore the possibilities. You can order the book online. > We urgently need to combat those who say ‘there is no alternative’ to the current system, but what would an alternative look like? The contributors to Life Without Money argue that it is time radical, non-market models were taken seriously. There are 11 chapters, each written by a different author. Some of the topics are also covered on our website, such as Living without money at Twin Oaks, focusing mostly on its labour-credit system. ## Non-market socialism The chapter on non-market socialism analyses various socialist strategies of contemporary movements, by Adam Buick. He disapproves alternative bartering systems such as LETS as a strategy to leave behind the money economy, as these systems tend not to scalable. Another chapter is about squatters collectives in Spain, whose communities are very much gift economy based and voluntary work. Yet another topic is decision making processes, arguing that collective self-management practiced at all levels of society lies at the core of a society aiming for moneyless initiatives. ## Academic teachings The book is mostly intended for academics teaching from this book, and those whom Nelson calls “thinking activists,” i.e., people who are primarily activists, but who are also interested in economic theory. It is edited by Anitra Nelson and Frans Timmerman. The book used to have a website, that you can still access via web.archive.org.

Life Without Money Reviews

Check out these links below to read more reviews about this book. - Gifting Economies - Life Without Money - Growing local economies with local currencies (pdf) - Dr. Anitra Nelson talks about Life without Money

node/273

A life without money. A Field Guide.

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? Here are 10 tips to get rid of your money addiction and to live life without the pressure of money. ## Reduce Your Needs You don’t need all that stuff. Most things you would normally buy are really impulse purchases and are not *really* needed. Take a look at it. Your first exercise: keep a list for a week or even a month: what do you buy and what did you really need? At the same time, be critical of your consumption pattern. Where do you spend money on and why? Is it mainly food, drink, clothing, new electronics, nightlife? Have a look at why you spend money on certain things. What is behind it? Is it pure survival (e. g. food) or is to feel good about something. Then again think about what you really need. And whether you can also replace buying these items or getting those services with other ways of getting those items that actually do not cost any money. Is your thing dancing, going out or yoga? How to live without money ## How to live without money? The first thing we often think of is where can I sleep? Of course, you could choose to sleep in a tent somewhere in a park or forest or just in a sleeping bag, but if wild camping is not really your thing then there are also plenty of other possibilities. For example, what about living in a house in exchange for jobs or cleaning up a house? There are people looking for a care-taker for their pets or house when they are on holidays. Often this can be free of charge. And there are even websites available where you can find these persons. You also have the option to just have a rented property but to find *someone else* who wants to pay the rent for you. Or you could even live in a house that actually is bought but that the mortgage, if any, is paid in a different way, for example through a foundation that supports your moneyless efforts. Finally, you could also build a house on wheels, or build a house made of natural material, or material that is thrown away. You then only depend on getting a piece of ground. Who knows what kind of solution you can come up with again. ## Find food for free or grow your own food Then we also have to eat. What are some of the possibilities? * Grow food yourself. With a large vegetable garden you can come a long way. You can grow a lot of food that you can keep for the winter. You can also exchange food for something else. * Go Dumpster Diving. You can find food in garbage bins on the market, supermarkets and shops. * Eat for free. In some countries there are websites and networks where you can score free food. * Ask for food. You can quite easily survive by asking people for food. But you must have a good story. You could think of asking for leftover food in shops that has to be thrown away. This is even possible in restaurants. You can also offer to exchange some work for food and build up a network. Imagine working in an organic shop one day a week in exchange of food. ## Swap clothes or make your own Making your own clothes isn’t easy, but you can exchange clothes. In most cities people organize barter parties but you could also organize them yourself and invite others. You could find a community center that can host such a party for free. If you are handy with a sewing machine, then you can also take in clothes that are too big. Or you can make new clothes from the parts of old garments. This may even become something you can use to exchange for other things. ## Do work without pay In order to get stuff you could also offer work without asking for a payment. Instead, ask for a quid pro quo. For example: offer free work at a vegetable shop in exchange for a bag with groceries. In many countries, you could also try this at a street market. You can also offer some specific job. For example as a consultant, designer or whatever your profession might be. In return, you can ask your employee if they want to pay your rent for your home or office. ## Travel without money Traveling without money is very exciting. You depend on other people and not on money. You can walk, hitchhike or cycle. Or you can go out with a horse. Food you can ask on the go, this is even considered tradition in some countries. Also think of doing a pilgrimage, for example, or you can plan a journey for a good cause and get people to support you in advance. We know out of our own experience that if you ask other persons for food and you actually have a good story, you will often get free food at restaurants or other shops. The most important thing is that you don’t always expect to get food (you can oppose a rejection) and then you are also able to wait because from time to time you have little or nothing to eat. There are also hospitality networks of fellow travelers where you can stay for free. But you can also sleep in a tent or hammock. Go somewhere where it’s warmer and you can even sleep outside without a tent. ## Go networking or search community Without a network or community, anyone’s life is difficult. If you have money then you can often buy what you want to have, but if you consciously want to live without any money at all, in many cases you are forced to be social. You simply can’t do without other people! It is essential to build a network of people who are able to help you. Offer people stuff, offer them work that you can do, or things you can make. Before you know it, you have a network of people and companies with which you can exchange or who otherwise can offer support. ## Find sponsors If you want to set up a project in which you can’t get everything free of charge or via exchange, then look for sponsors. Sponsors can, for example, pay for the rental of a room, or help to get material. You can also find a sponsor for other things, such as a sponsor who makes a piece of land available. Or a sponsor where you can live in the house. A sponsor can be another person, but also an institution, farmer or company. ## Don’t give up You don’t have to change your life overnight. Small steps is enough to stay on the road. Do it with patience but above all: do it creatively. For all tings that people usually use money, you have to think about how you will get it done without the money. The more often you go through that process of creative thinking, the more resourceful you will become. That in itself is enough reason to do this experiment. If you continue from there and are able to let go of the moneys altogether…. then you will find it liberating to never have to put more money on the counter, to no longer have to see a cash register and no need to have a debit or credit card. Money is something of the past for you.

node/224

How to spend less money?

How to spend less money? First, get an overview of what you’re spending money on.

Reduce recurring expenses

node/143

How to worry less about money

If you’re currently worrying about money you can do a couple of things to reduce your stress: - put things in perspective - differentiate between trouble and worries - avoid and reduce debt - differentiate between desires and needs

Perspective

If you’re living in a developed country chances are that you’re better off than 90% of the world’s population. You’re also living healthier, longer and with a lot less worrying than 99% of people who lived before the 20th century. We’re taking so many things for granted,

Trouble or worry?

If you just lost your job and you don’t have money to pay your rent, or to buy food in the supermarket there is an urgent need. A lot of people are not in any urgent situation and they worry about money.

Avoid Debt

It’s always best to avoid debt. But if you tend to worry about money avoiding debt is one of the best things you can do. Don’t buy a new car if the only way to do so is by taking up credit. Better leave the car for later or buy a second hand car instead. Mortgages are a notable exception, since these are a great way to start building up capital instead of making your landlord rich. Also, the rates on mortgages are usually a lot lower than other types of loans without collateral.

Reduce your debt

Or at least choose “cheaper” debt with lower interest. If you have both a mortgage and personal loan, it’s very wise to move your debt from your personal loan to your mortgage. First pay off your personal loan before making any down payments, if possible. Another good idea is to reduce your spending as long as you have any high interest loans.

Desires vs. Needs

It’s good to make a list of essentials, to see how much money you really need. Basic food, housing, heating, health insurance. Try to be “very cheap” for a week. Only buy the bare necessities in the super market, or even better at the outdoor market.

node/161

Not buying anything for one year

“Another month passed. The urge to buy is decreasing. Sometimes I see good deals and I’m seduced in a jiffy. Mostly about clothes.” Thus wrote Jannie Spruit on her blog Eenvoudigwit (in Dutch) in February 2012 about her initiative to not buy anything for one year. Together with her family she switched to not buy anything (Dutch) except daily groceries. No stuff, no clothing. Soon her microwave broke, and later also the water kettle. She didn’t buy a new one. Clothes she made herself. But she was to make some choices, for example school photos. Halfway through the year she bought something anyway… > “To have too many things. That makes you crazy. I don’t just assert it, it’s just the way. Always feeling the urge to have something new, it makes you crazy. That’s why you will simply join me. You will not buy anything anymore. No, not even that one thing. I guarantee you that you will not be unhappy by this. Okay, it’s been said. And besides, it’s also one of the best things you’ve ever done for the environment.”

Her initiative is very inspiring and it’s fun to see that she’s not the only one who is consciously not buying anything for a while. There is also the initiative Gewoon Genoeg (Dutch: Simply Enough). Jannie invites people who want to do something similar to put this nice logo online.

Don’t buy anything new for one month

There is also a Dutch initiative to not buy anything new for one month. It was started in 2012 and takes place every October, the whole month. It might be a good way for you to join the experiment to reduce money’s influence on your life. A sunny day in the park. No need to buy anything here to have a great time.

node/66

Ditch your TV

Personally I haven’t had a television since 2004. And even that was a portable black and white TV with a screen smaller than the surface of an iPad mini. Since then I have never felt the need to get another TV. On the contrary, I’ve often felt annoyed by the presence of TVs. Some people (and bars) leave their TVs on all the time. It’s often hard to not look, even when no one is really paying attention to TVs. Here are some great financial and other reasons to ditch your TV.

How it saves money

Alternatives

Even now, in the age of internet, people in the US spend almost 5 hours a day watching TV. That’s a lot of time. Selling your TV or putting it in the basement will give you a lot more time for other things. Such as spending time with friends, cooking nice meals, gardening or even dumpster diving. Of course you can also still find a lot of things to watch on the internet. But you’re more likely to only watch what you actually want to watch and you will avoid a lot of the brainwashing and advertising.

How to stop watching tv?

If you think it’s too drastic to ditch your television already it can be a good idea to leave your TV turned off for one week. If that works well you’re ready for one month without it, which will probably give you enough confidence to make the final step and get rid of your set altogether. You can give it to charity or sell it for some money on craigslist or your local internet marketplace.

More information

Main image available under a Creative Commons license, see also the corresponding blog post about Mexico’s presidential elections, found through freepictures.cc.. The following image was shamelessly taken from Forced Development’s post about Dan Ross Buettner’s set of TV pictures: > This series, entitled A Vast Wasteland (a phrase coined by the FCC > chairman, Newton N. Minow, in 1961) is inspired by a personal > awakening to the alienating and time-consuming nature of television. > The images act as visual representations of television’s power to > drain the emotion and vigor of those willing to submit to it.

node/112

Moneyless world

A moneyless society is a very utopian idea. Nevertheless human beings were living in a world without money at some point in the past. According to Wikipedia money emerged already around 12,000 BC. Though the first coins have been created quite a bit later. As many other concepts such as insurance, banknotes have first come up in China. The first banknotes were merchant receipts of deposit in the 7th century.

Is a moneyless society possible?

Currently we live in a much more complex society than anything that existed before. More and more people and relationships, it seems almost impossible to live without money. Still, that is what some people such as Heidemarie Schwermer, elf Pavlik and Mark Boyle are doing. Most jobs these days are bullshit jobs: > Why did Keynes’ promised utopia – still being eagerly awaited in the ‘60s – never materialise? The standard line today is that he didn’t figure in the massive increase in consumerism. Given the choice between less hours and more toys and pleasures, we’ve collectively chosen the latter. This presents a nice morality tale, but even a moment’s reflection shows it can’t really be true. Yes, we have witnessed the creation of an endless variety of new jobs and industries since the ‘20s, but very few have anything to do with the production and distribution of sushi, iPhones, or fancy sneakers.

Stock brokers, banksters, lawyers, insurance brokers, marketeers, politicians, secretaries, office clerks, (most) programmers, (most) designers (working for advertising). Do we really need people spending 9-5 in the office with 45 minute commutes in traffic jams or stuffed trains and buses? Aren’t there better ways to spend time?

Abundance vs. Scarcity

Humanity creating virtual scarcity by prohibiting people from sharing that what costs nothing to share meanwhile pretending that material resources are endless and can be exploited infinitely. Michel Bauwens, founder of the P2P foundation has concluded that contemporary society relies on the absurd ideas of materialistic excess and immaterialist scarcity. Humans treat the planet as infinite and exploits its resources, endangering the human species as a result. Moreover, through copyright and patents we build artificial walls around knowledge to impede sharing and collaboration. The peer-to-peer model (P2P), inspired by open source such as Wikipedia, attempts to reverse this logic as a way to establish a society in which the economy is subordinate to the general well-being…”

Moneyless society in the bible

Moneyless.org is not run by religious folks, but it’s nice to add some perspective. And the bible is the most published book in the world. It also has some interesting things to say about money: > Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

At openbible.info you can find more bible quotes related to money.

node/140

Moneyless Foundation

We believe in a world free from money. Money has its time long overdue. We would like to see the monetary system to be replaced by a variation of bottom-up voluntary organisations that are gift-economy based and rely on social mutualism. > Our mission is to promote a moneyless society that aims to satisfy everyone’s basic needs while (access to) power and resources are equally shared and distributed. The Moneyless Foundation is here to pursue this goal. It is a virtual foundation, or rather a mutual fund of the founding members of Moneyless. We sponsor projects that we love or that we think are eligable. These are projects that are in our personal interest zone (such as traveling) or projects that we adhere to.

node/268

How to travel with no money

How to travel without money? Many people love traveling. Discovering new places and meeting new people. Common belief is that traveling is expensive. This doesn’t really have to be the case. How to travel with no money? First of all, change your attitude towards money. Then change your attitude towards traveling. Here are the best tips.

How can I travel with no money?

Traveling is actually easier than living without money in one place, When done right you need less money to travel, or just no money at all. Travel, or life without money consists of these parts:

Stay with locals

On hospitality exchange websites like couchsurfing, bewelcome.org and trustroots.org you can find very friendly people who are able to host you for free. Don’t be a freeloader though. It’s a nice system if you’re a nice person. Bring a gift (which doesn’t have to cost money), be a nice person and learn, share and teach. Another way is to go WWOOFing (working in organic farms) or use a website like helpxchange. You help in a farm or in a household in exchange for food and lodging. [[nid:235]]

Traveling to the north pole without money

As if traveling with no money isn’t already crazy enough some folks go to places out of the ordinary. > June 15th 2013 we’re starting our trip from the Polar circle back to the Netherlands. A distance of 2577 kilometers. Hitchhiking, without money. We don’t have a clue where to sleep and what to eat. If we eat. But we have an especially good cause: attention for Foundation Metakids. To reach our goal we’ll be dependent of hospitality of our encounters on the road.

Traveling overseas with no money

Going to other continents with no money at all is hard. Your best bet is to have a good skill so that people, companies or organizations will pay you to go to places. One obvious way is to learn sailing and to offer your services to captains with boats looking to go to far away lands. Some folks even start begging for money.

Free food

We have an entire article on how to get free food, two thirds of those tips also work while traveling: 1. Ask for surplus food at restaurants, shops and other companies that are likely to throw out food. 2. Find food in dumpsters or in nature.

Simon Dabbico

Simon Dabbicco: “Many people believe that travelling is something that only a few of us can afford. I’d like to prove not only that money is unnecessary, but also that travelling without money is more fun.”

Further reading

[[nid:235]] [[nid:236]]

node/141

Go hitchhike

A car costs a lot of money. A whole lotta money. car insurance, maintenance. Initial buying costs are very high and gas prices are mainly rising. And many cases you don’t really need a car. Forget about it and go hitchhike! One of the alternatives for owning a car is hitchhiking or carpooling or car sharing. Hitchhiking works fine in many places. It might be tough to make the first steps but you’ll find the experience very enjoyable. Robin, one of the Moneyless.org writers has hitchhiked a lot himself. You can read some of his stories at randomroads.org. On his websites you’ll also find links to e.g. Hitchwiki.org, the website about hitchhiking, with tips tips for first timers and a world-wide database of good hitchhiking spots. Besides hitchhiking you can also make appointments with people living around you that go the same direction. Or you go by bicycle or on foot. The most important is to construct a life in which you’re no longer dependent on having your own car. Think about the things you use a car for that you could approach differently. Is your work far away from home? Might be time for a new job, or even to stop working. Another possibility is to move elsewhere. Public transport is also an option, but costs money. In some countries it’s common that employers cover some of these costs in a tax-deductible way.

node/7

Camping with no money

Living without money is easier if you don’t have to pay rent for a room or house. A tent as a temporary home is a perfect way to live without money, and if you’re traveling an excellent way to get in touch with the world. With your tent you’re very flexible. You can find very suitable places to camp, such as in a forest. In the Netherlands it’s officially only allowed on so-called Paalkamperterreinen (pole camping terrains), but in some other countries you can just camp anywhere in nature. You can get to see many places like this and you always have your own place to sleep. It’s often called wild camping. According to Wikipedia wild camping in Norway, Sweden and Finland is permitted when following certain conditions. On British islands it’s accepted with permission of the owner and in Scotland it’s officially allowed. In the United States you can camp in all federal forests and it’s quite common over there. Sometimes you’ll find a spot where you can stay for a longer period. Then you can even consider to build a hut. There’s a book called “Radical Simplicity” This is about Dan Price from the United States who was offered a spot near a medium sized city. In exchange for work to maintain the land. There he built many huts.

Wild camping

So wild camping seems to be legal in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland and Scotland. In other countries it’s mostly a grey area, although this website is promising about France: http://www.lecampingsauvage.fr/legislation.html I tried to find more information about why it’s illegal but couldn’t. It seems quite silly that you’re not allowed to camp if it’s not bothering anyone and if you clean up after yourself. If it’s possible in the North, why not elsewhere in Europe?

More information

node/15

CouchSurfing alternatives

A great way to travel without money is by making use of free hospitality exchange networks. These networks facilitate travelers who are looking for fellow-travelers who are able to host each other. In most cases you can make use of these networks free of charge and through these network you can meet the greatest and most hospitable persons in the world. In most hospitality networks you create a profile. You can then fill in all kinds of details like your interests and whereabouts. Others have done likewise and you can now search through profiles of other travelers and persons who are opening their doors for people like you. There are also groups and other discussion forums where you can meet other people online and exchange ideas and travel experiences. The most well-known free hospitality exchange (sometimes abbreviated as hospex) networks these days are BeWelcome and Couchsurfing. Another well known network is Warmshowers. That’s a very active hospitality network specifically for cyclists. Other networks include the Hospitality Club (deprecated) and AirBnB, but we wouldn’t recommend the latter if you are on a tight budget.

It’s free but no invitation for freeloading

If you make use of these networks it’s always a good idea to offer things back in return. Not always does this mean you need to spend money though. A great dinner for your host you could make by finding free food at local food markets after closure-time and you can always take a look at Trashwiki.org for local spots. You can also make art or leave a self-made postcard before you go. In addition, you can also take care of some of the household tasks, e.g. by doing dishes or playing with the baby. It’s also good to keep in mind that this works in a pay it foward. You might not be able to host people yourself now, for example because you’re travelling or because you share a house with people who don’t like the idea, but it’s nice if you will host people some time when you have the opportunity. (And if your room mates don’t like the idea, suggest having people over for dinner.) One minus point of hospitality exchange networks is that you sometimes spend quite some time searching for possible hosts and writing them. That’s why it’s always a great idea to also have a tent or hammock with you, and to be great at finding alternative spots for camping. For more information you may also find this article very informative: The Ultimate Guide to Traveling Without Money.

History of hospitality exchange

From linguistic research we know that hospitality is at least as old as Homer and the invention of the wheel [more about this]. Hospitality is still very normal in many muslim cultures, where it’s quite common to just knock to knock someone’s door and be hosted (and fed) for the night. More modern, organized hospitality stems from 1949, when Servas was founded. Servas is still around, but for most people the procedures are a bit tedious, with books and letters. Of course you can still meet great people through Servas.

From Hospitality Club to CouchSurfing to..?

In the late nineties people started organizing through the internet, especially email. From this Hospitality Club (HC) was started, which for many people the first time they experienced the wonders of hosting “strangers”. Hospitality Club had a very European vibe to it and its leadership was very strict, an official non profit organization was never started. Consequently it wasn’t strange that an American organization took the lead around 2007. CouchSurfing was also the first to grow beyond 1 million members. According to the founders it wasn’t feasible to continue as is and in 2011 they turned the organization into a for profit C corporation (a move that has been contested by many). These days CouchSurfing is by far the biggest network, but it has some disadvantages, it is very “mainstream” and in big cities the number of requests has skyrocketed while the “quality” of these same requests is reaching extreme lows (“all hotels are booked”).

Non profit, open source networks

As of 2015 there are several open source, non profit networks worth mentioning:

More information

node/117

Free public transport

In most places it’s still a far stretch but there will be a day that public transport is freely accessible. In some cities it’s already happening and for some people in some Western places, but free public transport is still something to work towards. In Amsterdam there is free public transport for the elderly with low income and little capital. In Eindhoven there’s free public transport for everyone older than 65 years regardless of income. In many other Dutch cities experiments have taken place but until now free public transport hasn’t materialized yet. In many countries there have been experiments with free public transport, check freepublictransports.com for a list. In France there are almost 10 cities offering this. In Belgium the story of Hasselt is quite well known.

Black riding

Hopping along with a ticket is possible, but if you get caught you often have to identify yourself and you get fines on your name. If you don’t pay those fines you can end up in jail. Likewise if you don’t identify yourself. If you travel without a ticket in other European countries it’s often not a big deal. Your name is noted and you’ll have to get off at the next stop. Or (for example in the French TGV) you can “buy” a ticket on your name (without spending money) and remain seated till wherever you want to go. You will have to give an address, but no one can check this address. It is not advisable to black ride but it’s definitely possible. We have an extended article about black riding trains on our site if you want to read more about this. ## Estonia Estonia will be the first country with nation-wide free public transport. In the capital Tallinn local residents have been able to take public transport for free since 2013. https://popupcity.net/estonia-to-become-the-worlds-first-free-public-transport-nation/

Future

Once self-driving cars will be more common it’s likely that they will also be part of public transport networks. The EU keeps decreasing the level of allowed pollution. In February 2018 this has led Germany to start experimenting with free public transport in various cities. For whoever wants free transport right now, legally, it’s still possible to walk, bike or hitchhike.

More information

node/136

Cheap Train Travel

Travel by train has a very nostalgic air to it - conjuring images of Poirot’s adventures on the Orient Express, perhaps. It can also be a throwback to simpler times, without the advent of Uber. Public transportation by train still stays as a choice of commute for many people. Whether you are a jaded local or an excitable traveler, the magic and convenience of an excellent train system and journey is important. Here are some hot tips for traveling in style, all aboard the train!

Choo-choo-choose your way of travel and stay chic, no matter what train you decide to hop on! Adventure awaits!

node/193

Travel trains without spending money

This article was sent to us. We don’t encourage breaking the law in any country. Use tips provided here at your own risk.

Free travel is the right of every person on the planet; why is movement restricted? One’s right to live a nomadic lifestyle is impeded by invisible borders, passport control and a monetary system that doesn’t favour the poor. Many borders exist around the world, but without the right papers or passport you will not be allowed to set foot past the imaginary, man-made borderlines. Here in Europe, borders have been dissolved and unrestricted, making travel to neighbouring countries something that recent generations have become accustomed to. I myself have grown to love travelling, and I like to think that on my low income I have made the most of free travel around Europe. When I tell people that I have travelled to different parts of Europe, they usually assume, or ask, if I flew. This question always makes the same feeling rise up inside me, a feeling of anger and confusion, I feel like saying “why the fuck would I fly?, air travel is extremely bad for the environment and I was in no rush to get to where I was heading ” - though I am usually too polite to phrase it like this. If they haven’t assumed that I flew, people often ask, “oh so how did you get there?” I reply, “you know, a bit on the train and some hitch-hiking”. Their response to this depends on which part of my answer they latch onto, if they picked up on hitchhiking, their response is generally along the lines of, “oh that can be dangerous, you better watch yourself doing that”. Alternatively, if they focus on the train travel it’s common for people to say “oh that must have been expensive!”. Knowing that I hardly ever buy a ticket to travel always makes me smile, but my response is always to the tune of, “ yes train tickets are very expensive and especially for the service that you get! Late, over-crowded trains that are dirty and old, running on tracks that are short of repair and all this off the back of privatization. We were promised better trains, more routes and more jobs, but what we’ve got from this private business is rising ticket prices, staff cuts and huge bonuses paid to the rail network executives”. Every person that I tell this to always agrees with me that train tickets are over priced and that the rail system would be better off in the hands of the public sector, run for the people by the people, for service and not for profit. If ticket prices were fair and the rail network was an affordable public service for the all of the people and not just those that can afford it, then I would buy a ticket. Until that time I see not buying a train ticket as a form of protest against privatization, an act of civil disobedience.

Free train travel laws

Due to the privatization of railways, the legalities regarding travelling without a ticket have changed. Pre-privatization it was much easier for penalties to be issued because government bodies dealt with administration and transport police were there to enforce the rules. Post-privatization, the previous laws used to prosecute passengers without a ticket no longer applied and the new owners, being private businesses, no longer had the weight of the law on their side. This means that if you get fined you don’t legally have to give railway staff any details and you don’t have to show them any identification. If you choose not to hand over your details they may call the police, issue a fine or throw you off at the next train stop. If the police are called you don’t have to worry because travelling without a ticket is not a criminal offence and if you refuse to identify yourself, the only thing the police are legally obliged to do (in the UK) is to escort you from the railway premises. However, the railway staff do have the right to prosecute you under trespass laws, so it is always best to remain calm and friendly and not to piss them off - acting in this way reduces the chances of them taking the incident any further. The laws vary from country to country but in Europe, generally the majority of train lines are privately-owned, operating under private business rules (although this may be subject to change). Specific laws in countries other than the UK will be discussed and outlined later on.

Free train travel and technology

Technology has changed Europe’s railway networks a great deal in the last 25 years, with billions being invested on security features like CCTV, with little budget for spending on improving the tracks and trains or creating jobs in other areas of the railway. With evermore security features cropping up on stations, it’s becoming harder to travel for free and for some people too daunting to even try. Whenever I come to a new station, be it huge like Paris Nord or tiny like Praia Ancora in Portugal, I always find it useful to sit and watch for a while. I like to find a nice seat, somewhere where you can see the train departure board and the ticket barriers and where you can watch the flow of the station and look for possible hazards or entry points to the platform from where you need to depart. CCTV has moved on a long way in the last 20 years, from grainy black and white cassette recordings to digital face recognition able to pick out a single face from thousands of commuters. With this new technology, security may be able to screen and recognise known ticket “offenders”, stopping them from entering the station, as well as cameras on board the train being able to relay live information back to security camera operators. Several times now as I have tried to leave a station without a ticket and failed, the person that stopped me has asked me to look up at a camera, so that they had a record of my facial measurements. I am a little concerned about this, I am actually quite interested and looking forward to testing out the effectiveness of theses cameras, to see if they aid catching people or it is just hot air designed to scare people into buying over priced tickets. Ticket barriers, especially in the UK, are commonplace even on small train stations. This not only poses a problem to travellers without a ticket, it also makes thousands of people redundant. Instead of small stations being managed by a team of 2 or 3 staff members, they have been substituted for an automated ticket machine, ticket barriers and CCTV cameras. Nowadays there is only automated customer service and no staff on hand to deal with emergencies, or even to help with simply tasks like booking tickets for those who struggle to operate or understand the machines. This is not the type of system I want and most certainly not one I am willing to pay for and contribute to.

Getting through ticket barriers

There are many ways to get through ticket barriers, and every time you succeed is a victory. It is easy to board trains at some stations, for example in France there are very few ticket barriers on the SNCF platforms, although on board the trains the conductors are a lot more active and it is very tough to avoid being checked, especially on long journeys. In the UK, most stations have barriers that pose a small problem when entering stations ticketless. If you have some money you can always buy a ticket to the closest station to the one you are at and then try to avoid the guard on the train, if the guard sees you and you have bought a ticket for just one stop, try showing them the ticket and a small percentage of the time they won’t check it properly and you can get away with your full journey. If the guard checks and realises, you will probably get thrown off of the train at the next stop (unless you can convince them to let you carry on travelling) and need to begin the process again from the station you end up at – though luckily you can miss out negotiating ticket barriers as you will already be on the platform. Ticket barriers in the UK generally have 2 or 3 modes of entry or exit depending on which way you are going:

A favourite trick of mine, if I have found an old ticket on the ground and I am carrying my bags, is to put the ticket in my mouth and as I make my way towards the inspector act as though I am fumbling with my bags and have my hands full, as I walk through I offer the inspector the ticket from my mouth. Not once has this method failed me and not once has the inspector taken the ticket from my mouth and checked it. One time I had to do it with half of a train ticket (the good end poking out between my lips) as it was the only thing I could find coming off of the train from Brighton into London Victoria. It helps if you try not to see ticket barriers as impenetrable, but rather as a challenge, a hurdle to be leaped - quite literally sometimes.

Dealing with conductors

Every time I bunk through I get an adrenaline rush. When I see a train guard walking down the train carriage towards me my heart races, I try to hold my nerve and not look suspicious. I often see other people that are clearly travelling without a ticket; their constant glances up and down the carriage and nervous disposition give them away. Suspicious, unnatural behaviour draws attention and can even cause conductors to make a bee line straight for you. It has worked in my favour in the past when the ticket inspector has walked straight past me and asked to see a guys ticket. Who had got up from his seat and stood by the door way before the train reached the station and was looking pretty suspicious. I remained calm and walked away to the other end of the train away from the conductor. When travelling with no ticket it is imperative to be alert and ready to deal with a number of different scenarios, if you do not think quickly and act fast you may not even make it aboard a train. It’s always a good idea to have stories in your head ready to tell and a certain degree of role play may be required when faced with obstacles like guards at a ticket barrier. Remember, make your stories good, many train staff have been in the job for a long time, they have heard all manner of excuses and stories from all sorts of people trying to travel for free. Luckily, in France the SNCF is still largely a socialist organisation and the conductors use their discretion to judge and deal with passengers who can’t afford the full fare. Many times on the SNCF network I have seen other passengers negotiate the amount they can afford to pay for a ticket. The passenger and ticket guard come to an arrangement on the amount to be paid; for this, France and the SNCF has my respect.

Railway tracks

Wait it out in the toilet

The toilet option: the lowliest form of train hopping. Some travellers, including myself at times, result to sitting in the toilet for the duration of the journey. It is an effective method and often works without a glitch but it is not a nice environment and is not much fun unless you are in there with a friend or partner. The toilet can be used in short bursts; often you don’t have much choice as the angry knocks on the door get harder and more frequent from the growing queue of weak-bladdered commuters waiting to use the loo. It can be a bit embarrassing and amusing to walk out of the toilet with your travel buddy, but really there’s little likelihood you will see any of the toilet queuers ever again, so walk out confidently and nonchalant and most people won’t bat an eyelid.

Take a seat

If you’re lucky you can take a seat and watch to see the conductor moving up the train, keeping your eye on the ticket inspector’s movements and roughly working out how fast they’re making their way down the carriage. As they approach within a few seats from yours, calmly stand up from your seat, walk to the toilet and sit in there for five minutes or so; as long as you think it will take them to pass by your seat. Check the coast is clear by peeking out the door and walk back to your seat. You may have to repeat this action more than once on a long journey but it means you get to travel in a bit of comfort and not sat on a toilet seat.

Free Travel at peak times

It takes quite a long time for a penalty fair ticket to be written out and in the UK there is generally one conductor to check all passengers are clear when closing doors. So, it can be very difficult for the conductor to check every ticket at busy times. Travelling for free at peak times is recommended as there is less chance of being seen and pulled out from the crowd. Although, with face recognition technology perhaps we could see this change in the near future. On the flip side, with the introduction of more barriers and CCTV monitoring all areas of stations, there has been a reduction in the number of train conductors that travel aboard trains in the UK. Therefore, once you have made it through the barriers and on to the train, it is likely you will not see a conductor for the whole journey. Train staff call trains without a conductor NCA’s (no conductor aboard) and they are becoming evermore common, a blessing for the frugal traveller.

Free fines

If you are unable to avoid the train conductor whilst travelling without a ticket, then you will likely be fined. In some situations and in particular countries, it is best to comply with the train guard and divulge your details. They will ask you for your name, date of birth, address and ask to check your ID. In most countries, train conductors travel with mobile devices, which allows them to relay the information they take from you and cross reference it against several data bases almost instantly. They check that the address given is correct and issue you a fine. Do not worry, you are under no obligation to pay the fine! It is not a legal matter and will not be enforced by law. However, they will try and use scare tactics (and/or lies) to make you pay the fine immediately, these include: threats of police involvement and arrest, threats that you wont be able to continue your journey and even threats of prison if the fine is not paid. Don’t panic, you don’t have to pay, you haven’t done anything wrong, although they will make you feel like you have committed a serious crime. Feel confident at this stage in your argument that you are travelling without a ticket as a protest against privatization, for a cheaper, improved service and as a greener alternative to car travel. I’ve had times in England where the police have been called but I have never been prosecuted, all that has happened is that i’ve been escorted out of the station by the police. Within about 20 minutes I am back on the train, after some 3-ball juggling outside the station to earn enough money to buy a ticket to the next train station - my pass through the dreaded ticket barriers. In one instance the onlooking train guards clearly knew I was going to travel further than the ticket I’d just purchased but they were powerless to act as I was acting in accordance to the rules – as I passed I smiled and acknowledged them and thanked them for their help.

Contact from rail companies and bailiffs

Letters from bailiff companies and trick phone calls are tactics they use to scare you into paying fines (this obviously only applies if you have given your correct details to the person that issued the fine). A favourite method, and a sneaky one at that, used by the UK rail companies, is to send a letter to the address you provided when issuing the fine, saying that you have received a telegram and need to call this number in order to receive it. Please do not fall for this underhand tactic! If you call the number, and confirm your name, you have provided a positive link between your name and current address. Come on, who sends telegrams these days? If you receive any mail corresponding to the event just throw it away, don’t even read it, it will cause unnecessary worry. If the train company continues with prosecution, you may receive a visit from the bailiffs, but again don’t worry, they do not have the right to enter your property as the fine is deemed a civil matter, not a criminal matter, thus they are denied power of entry by the courts. (UK) If you are not registered in the country where the fine is issued and even if you have given your correct details, ID and passport number, you wont have to pay the fine. Half of the time it will get sent to the wrong address anyway and they do not have a system in place to collect debts outside of their own country. If you are travelling without money, be apologetic when being fined, say you are sorry and you are travelling without money and that you are trying to travel home and have no other way, the conductor will generally issue you a fine or ask you to leave the train at the next station. If luck is on your side and your story good the conductor may let carry on with the journey.

Providing false details

Some people take the option of giving the conductor false information (which I believe is illegal). If you are prepared with an alternate name, address and date of birth which correspond to a real person, there is a chance you can get away with it, though you have to spin a believable story about why you don’t have ID on you, and it’s luck of the draw whether the conductor will accept your story or chooses to involve the authorities. If you use a friend’s details and they have contact from the rail company regarding the fine, they can deny it was them and use CCTV to prove so. My own brother has given my details a few times which resulted in letters from various debt recovery agencies, none of which have ever lead to any legal action and I have never paid a single fine.

How I started to travel for free

I have been travelling free on European trains for over 20 years now, beginning with my mischievous days at high school when I had to travel from my home town to a neighbouring town to get to school. I would spend my fare money on a packet of Marlborough lights and be forced into bunking the train to and from school. The journey was only about 15 minutes so it was quite easy and in those days there were no ticket barriers and no CCTV. It was on one of these journeys to school that my friend and I decided to go on further. We passed the stop that would leave us short walk to school and stayed on the train heading west towards Devon in south west England. In fact, at the time we didn’t know where we were heading, but carried on regardless, past Chichester and Portsmouth towards Southampton, dodging the guard as he made his way down the train. In those days, when I was about 14 or so, the trains in England were the ‘slam door’ stock, meaning that the train doors were not electric, you had to reach out of the window and turn a handle to open the door. There weren’t as many safety features back then either and you could open the door whilst the train was moving. This allowed for the game we called “train surfing” where you would ride the open door onto the approaching platform. On these older trains there were still remnants of the previously well-defined class structure; some of the train carriages had first and second class personal compartments, generally used by business men in their grey suits on the way to work. When these compartments were empty they made great hiding places to dodge the guard, as you could climb up on to the luggage rack, on the side that the guard was approaching from and hide. 9 times out of 10 they wouldn’t notice the foetal working class lad curled up on the 1st class luggage rack and would walk straight past. We used this method of avoidance and others but we also got thrown off a few times. We slowly made our way up to Bristol and then down through Somerset towards Devon. It was late by the time we reached a small station in the middle of somewhere and neither of us had informed our parents or schools of our maverick excursion. We sat around the station for a while and found out that there was only one more train running that day; a Great Western service to London Victoria. So when the train eventually pulled up to the station we boarded and started towards London. The guard came round to us quite quickly and by this point we couldn’t be bothered to hide or lie to him about why or where we were travelling. The guard obviously noticed that we were young and tired and didn’t bother us for the rest of the journey. The train pulled into London Victoria at about 1am and there were no more trains running to Brighton until 6am. We spent a few hours trying to sleep on benches and walked up to Buckingham Palace, where we greeted the Queen’s staff by blowing raspberries through the palace gates, much to the humour of us tired 14 year olds. We boarded the first train back to our home town and I remember walking back to my house from the station as people were making their early morning commute to work. We had completed more than a 500 mile free trip - in more than one sense of the word - and my eyes had been opened to the realm of possibilities when one isn’t restricted by the price of a ticket.

The debit card trick

Something I’ve learnt on my travels, is that a UK debit card (not credit card) doesn’t work to make direct purchases outside the UK; you can only take money out at an ATM. This can work in your favour when confronted with a train conductor asking to see your ticket. I politely and naively ask to purchase a ticket on board the train, and offer my debit card as payment. You can tap in your pin confidently in the knowledge that it will not work (please test that your debit card doesn’t work to make payments before giving your pin for an expensive rail ticket, if it works your plan is scuppered!) When the ticket machine rejects the card, you can act shocked, assuring the inspector that there is money on there, and that you don’t carry cash as it’s dangerous when travelling. There are a few outcomes to this:

  1. The best outcome is that the conductor will think their machine is broken, try a few times, and then apologise to you and let you off the fare!
  2. They might be intolerant and ask you to leave at the next station to purchase a ticket from the platform ticket machine (sometimes protesting that their machine is at fault and not you can lead to them giving up and allowing you to complete your journey – it’s worth a try)
  3. They might issue you a fine; it’s best to act shocked and saddened by this, put yourself in the mindset that your card really isn’t working and you don’t have any cash, and act accordingly. Please see ‘free fines’ section on how to deal with train fines.

There is also another possibility that could arise from this trick, it’s one that happened to me and my girlfriend when riding the trains from Amsterdam to Porto. After spending the night on a Belgian train station and waking up at sunrise to catch the first train to Lille, France, we decided to give the debit card trick a go. When confronted with a debit card that was being repeatedly rejected, and two passengers without any cash between them, the Belgian conductor began to get annoyed and agitated. He spoke very little English, and in French told us that we needed to find a way to pay for our journey. His frustration soon spilled over into full blown anger, and he forcibly yanked the debit card from my girlfriend’s hands and made off down the aisle muttering inaudibly in French. At this point I joined him in feeling angry; you cannot walk off with somebody’s bank card, regardless of the situation - that in itself is illegal. The guard was ranting about calling the police and that we were going to be in big trouble. We told him he could call the police, that was fine, but that he needed to give us back our card. He didn’t understand my south-east England accent, so I preceded to shout “je voudrais mon credit card” without a hint of the romantic French accent, still in my thick southern tongue. Eventually, at the next stop, he escorted us, still gripping onto my girlfriend’s card, to the on-site police officer. He explained his side of events to the officer, who listened intently, before turning to us to allow us a moment to portray our side of the story – luckily he spoke very good English. Once I finished telling him how the conductor had forcibly removed the bank card from my person, the officer grabbed the card from the conductor, gave it back to my girlfriend and told him that it was unacceptable and actually illegal to move someone’s bank card out of their sight! More satisfying than getting away scot-free with our train hop, was the look on the conductor’s face; a picture of utter dismay and astonishment at being made to look like a jobs-worth without a clue.

Free train travel conclusion

Travelling is fun and opens your eyes to new places, cultures and people, but it’s restricted by a financial system that favours the rich. Travelling without a ticket - or moneyless - is not a crime; it is a protest, an act of civil disobedience against privatization. There is a chance that you may get into trouble with the law and there is a chance that you will get fined. If you are worried about these then maybe you should stick to hitch-hiking, where there is much less chance of getting into legal trouble. For those of you that hitch-hike and are familiar with the way of the road, then you will know that the lifts that you get don’t always take you in the right direction, often you will get taken off route and may struggle to get picked up again. With free train travel you know where you are heading and you know that if you get aboard a train you are heading somewhere. Even if you only get one stop, its one stop closer to your desired destination. If you get aboard Inter-city trains then 100-200km is guaranteed and depending on your luck and how early you start it is easy to cover long distances in a single day. Always remember to check the laws in countries, especially with regards to showing ID to officials and police. In some countries when asked by the police you have to show them identification or you can be arrested. Remember though, always be polite and humble when confronted with train staff or police and don’t worry about paying fines and stuff, they are not legalities. It may effect your credit rating and you may receive letters from courts, just ignore them. I have never paid a fine and don’t ever intend to. My personal circumstances probably vary from yours, as when I was younger I borrowed some money from some banks and never paid it back. So my credit rating is out of the window and having outstanding debts and fines causes me no concern. If, however, you are not ready to step out of the credit system and are worried you might not be able to get a contract telephone or credit for a mortgage, then don’t travel without a ticket! It may cause problems in the future. If you are a nomadic person living a life of travel and calling home where you lie your head, then try this form of travel. You will discover places that you never knew existed and see things you never knew you would see. Luck and fate play a huge role in free train travel, as well as instinct and stamina. It took me 5 days once to get back to England from Portugal. I finally returned to London, tired and exhausted with socks made from an old t-shirt and a French man that I met in Calais, offering a floor for him to sleep on. So get ready for the long haul - it can be tough! Keep an eye out for subtle signs and signals and always be selfless, even when it is you that may be in need and manifestations will appear through thought or good will. Give it a try and see what energies find you. GOOD LUCK and happy travels.

Further reading

node/153

Bartering

Bartering is a simple and cheap exchange of goods and services between people. Bartering is also recommended if you want to live without money or if you want to save money. Bartering is also a fantastic way to get new stuff and it can be a good alternative to the monetary economy. ## Examples of online bartering {.aside} - Thanks to the internet, many apps and websites have been developed to make bartering easy. - To get started, download apps like Vinted Trashnothing, Listia, Peerby, The Gone App and many others. - For trading games, try GameTZ. For books, try PaperBackSwap. For CDs, try SwapaCD. For DVDs, try SwapADVD. > Bartering is a cheap and magnificent way to satisfy certain needs. Many people are bartering, exchanging things or services for other things or services but also companies are doing it more and more. Bartering is recommended if you want to live without money or if you want to save money. Bartering is also a fantastic way to get new stuff and it can be a good alternative to the money economy. ## Basics of Bartering {.aside} * **Bartering in the US or Europe.** “Can you fix my computer? Then I’ll fix your curtains.” In many countries there are examples of functional networks for bartering and local exchange, such as Noppes in Amsterdam, where many people participate. Often these barter networks work with a certain credit or point system. You get an amount of credit if you have offered a service successfully. This credit you can use to request other services. This is also called a _LETS system_. These exchange system consist of a group of people that barter with each other based on points. * **Online bartering sites.** There are also barter sites in the Netherlands to exchange stuff. For example games. But also audio equipment, TVs or furniture. Without introducing credits or money it can be quite hard to find a match if people need something specific. There are also barter websites for companies and independent professionals. There are platforms that work with credits and some that work on a 1 on 1 base. * **Start bartering in your own neighborhood.** You can participate in these networks but you can also start one in your own neighborhood, for example on a small scale. Create a list of services you want to offer and which services you think are needed. Afterwards advertise your needs and offerings to the right people, that can make things get started. This is a good way to start a bartering system yourself. * **Free stuff thanks to bartering.**Bartering can also be a fantastic way to get free stuff. This is easiest if you have stuff yourself that you want to give away. Inform people in your area which stuff you want to exchange and what you would like to get in return. * **Bartering to live without money.** Many people who live without money decide to use bartering. The German Heidemarie Schwermer even created a an entire network: Gib und Nimm (give and take). * **Bartering to borrow money.** Bartering can also be a great way to borrow money cheaply, if you need money. For example, you can set up a deal with friends to deliver a service in exchange for borrowing money. For example, a friend of a company gives you a loan and in exchange for that loan you deliver services for a certain period. This could work well if your credit rating is not so good and you need money fast. It does require some creativity however. * **Society based on bartering.** A society based on bartering might be hard to imagine. But it could work in combination with the gift economy and the sharing economy. You can think of a way where people share their means of existence such as food, cars and housing. Everyone who has access to this sharing circle, for example by adding something themselves, gets the right to use all of it. You could extend it with services and shared insurance. This is already happening in a small scale, for example in the Twin Oaks intentional community, where 100 people are sharing. * **Advanced forms of Bartering.** A system of 1 on 1 bartering (without a point system) needs innovation. It’s hard to find a perfect match. A solution could be to develop a system of exchange between 3 or more persons. You can also find a match if through a 3rd or even a 4th person. If that match is made, the barter happens. This could also be without a point system. * **For business.** Try BizX which according to their website their purpose is “to improve the lives and businesses of our members. At our core is a deep passion for local business, and a personal understanding of the experience of the business owner.” > How did grandma approach it? Very simple. She informed the entire neighborhood that she was going to live in a room in an elderly home and offered her entire belongings in exchange. And successfully. The neighborhood quickly communicated and within less than a week she gathered a complete new set of furniture and interior stuff. Suited for her new room in the elderly home.

How to get free bitcoins ## Get started bartering: BARTERING WEB SITES {.background}

At the beginning you can use pages on facebook for your bartering needs. Maybe you will find other people to share the same value system as you and get this started in your neighborhood. For example, it is possible you can involve your neighbors by starting a facebook trading group among some of you.

There’s a lot of option for online bartering sites and bellow we will mention some to you, which also include facebook groups. In these bartering pages and sites it’s possible exchange everything from goods (clothes, shoes, jewelry, furniture…) to services (babysitting, cleaning, pet sitting, etc).

When you start bartering you will realize how much money one can save. Items that are useless to some are very useful to other people and you will be amazed at what people find valuable. The best about this is that you don’t need money to exchange value!

* Apps like Trademade and letgo are great. * Currently existing websites that will help you with Bartering, like pages on Facebook’s marketplace, Noppes, Bliive, TradeAway, various Craigslist barter pages, Ebay, ZipCar, Freecycle etc. * Another possibility is try bartering in the local business (fairs, events, talk to neighbors, etc). Also, find out about local trade fairs and other hippy gatherings which are often places where people trade and are willing to trade stuff and services. [[nid:236]] Bartering ## Get started bartering: FREE STUFF FROM RICH PEOPLE {.background}

It doesn’t matter if you have money or not: everyone can barter. A lot of rich people exchange goods and services too and also give away stuff for free. In developed countries like Germany and in the US, it is very normal for rich people to barter things. They use bartering sites or fairs like everyone else!

* You can borrow money from friends if you are in a financial quagmire of some kind. * Rich people give away free stuff all over, including living stuff on the street and asking for little money for expensive things sold at yard sales. * Sometimes you can get stuff that rich people sold at pawnshops at reasonably low prices and resell it online. bartering ## Get started bartering: GO DUMPSTER DIVING {.background}

If you don’t have goods or services to exchange you should consider dumpster Diving. You will find things like food, clothes, shoes, furniture, etc. That is a good way to get things without exchange. You can checking bins near supermarkets, restaurants and near your house too. One good option is going at the end of fairs, they put out a lot of food out!

* Go dumpster diving by following tips here. * Try finding ways of getting 1000 free dollars in various alternative ways. * You don’t have to only go dumpster diving: here are other ways to get 1000 dollars now free. ## Read more {.aside} - Mixed fortunes as solidarity economy takes root in Greece [[nid:237]]

node/23

Gift Economy

The gift economy is the oldest existing form of exchange between people. It is based on giving without expecting anything in return. It is the way of life, the air we breath and edible food we used to find. It is circulating by nature, think of what we give back simply by breathing or pooing. Plants grow from that. We humans tend to think life is ment to give *us* something, and we don’t have to give ourselves. That we have to *earn* respect or our way up the societal ladder. Nothing is less true. Life itself is giving. We give by living. The only question is the quality of this giving. ## Basing the economy on giving Basing the economy on giving is less hard to accomplish than one think. The money system tells us to get something in return of our economy activity. It is this money that makes us do what we do. But what if it is simply giving that is the sole motivator? What would we need for that?## Read more {.aside} - See also

node/274

Social money

**Social money** is a concept of money under direct (as opposed to parliamentary) democratic control by people. Other terms are also complementary money. It’s a currency that exists on a local level. The idea is to keep money under control of people and thus taking care of local economic development. ## History of money Bartering is an old and proven way to exchange goods and services. Many small scale communities used bartering, on top of systems such as gift economy. The process of bartering was also used a lot of exchanging gifts between communities. Money came into place as a more preferred system as it was more scalable than exchanging goods themselves. It paved the way for a distributed form of administrating who owned what to whom. As time passed by, the money system itself evolved from this bottom-up approach to a more centralized system controlled by governments. > It is even said that money originated as a voucher, that people themselves created. The voucher would resemble the value of exchange and would give the future right to the holder to receive that good. It were the people themselves attributing the assumed value to money, and the people created the money by themselves. ## Democratizing money Social money is a way to bring the control of money back into the hands of the communities. Social money allows people to democratically control the supply of money and the rules of the game by which money plays, such as interest rates and inflation. A group of people can establish a currency where all members can have influence on how the circulation of money is implemented. These days with cryptomoney such as bitcoin and blockchain, this process has become easier to implement. ## Local money Another term often used to refer to social money is local money, complementary currencies or community currencies. These days there exist many initiatives around the world that offer local money. They are often intended as a way to stimulate a more local circulation of money. As such you can prevent a local drain of wealth. > A local currency acts as a complementary currency to a national currency, rather than replacing it, and aims to encourage spending within a local community, especially with locally owned businesses.

node/96

Share stuff

Networks for sharing stuff are great to get to use things such as tools. You don’t need to buy anything, because you can simply ask your neighbor if you can borrow from them. For example a bicycle pump or a ladder for painting. Many people are already doing this in their neighborhood: “Quickly ask the neighbor if we can borrow his drill.”

The new sharing

Individualization in society has reduced contact between people and people are sharing less. On the other side, thanks to the internet there are people filling up this gap. There are now social networks to share things. These networks are growing rapidly. In many countries and cities across the world there are internet applications made such as websites where people can enter which things they would like to share. Other people can see from whom they can borrow. In the Netherlands there are two such websites, Spullendelen.nl and Peerby, which is now also expanding to the rest of the world, to cities such as New York, Berlin and Barcelona. This new sharing is also called peer to peer (p2p) sharing. With Peerby you can quickly make a request through their website or phone app and then the system will ask people in your area whether they can help you. You can go collect the thing you need and when you’re finished you return it to the owner of the item. It’s already quite popular and useful in the city of Amsterdam.

Large scale sharing

This can also be done on a larger scale and without internet, such as in libraries. Suppose every neighborhood would have their own location where you can borrow tools. This could be moneyless, if everyone donates some of their own tools, but it can also be based on money. People could become a member on the base of money they can miss, or on an equal footage.

Fixed location for stuff

If done on a larger scale, more people would get closer to a moneyless life and we’d all need less money. You can also imagine a place that’s free for everyone, where stuff can be donated, something like a give away shop, but then as a massive central warehouse for stuff that the neighborhood is sharing. If you want to set up something like this, start in a small scale. In your own neighborhood or area. Find a suitable spot, for example a barn and ask everyone who wants to join to donate the stuff they want to share, maybe even create and spread some flyers.

Free stuff

If you need certain stuf because you have no money or because you want to live with less or without money, you can also consider networks for free stuff. These are websites where people offer stuff for free. You can often collect things for free.

Bartering

Sharing stuff seems like a form of bartering. But to take part in it you don’t need your own stuff. You just need access to the pool of stuff. Some people would like to make money when lending their things to people, but the majority seems to be fine with lending for free. It’s more part of the gift economy. Other common forms of sharing are car sharing and sharing hospitality.

node/18

Give-away shop

Are you looking for clothes, books, toys, pans or just something new to use? You could give it a try at a give-away shop, sometimes also simply called free shop. That’s not a store in the traditional meaning, but a place to find free stuff. All second hand stuff you can find there, clothing, books, toys, a computer or a ladle, it’s all for free! There are quite some useful things at times, give-away shops aspire to be an alternative to the throw-away economy. In the Netherlands you can find a long overview of give-away shops at weggeefwinkels.nl. There’s also a very incomplete list at wiki.gifteconomy.org.

Tips

These freeshops are run by volunteers. Don’t expect professional service. Be grateful they’re doing this. Don’t be shy but don’t take stuff you are not going to use. Give-away shops can be a great place to find gifts for anniversaries and such. Presents are often discarded by the receiver, but if the present was already discarded before there is no real extra pollution in this case. ## Starting your own give-away shop It’s easier than you think. You mainly need a space to put stuff and a somewhat regular presence.

If you don’t have a lot of space available you could also set up a smaller scale gift box. This is great if you’re involved in hospitality exchange networks such as BeWelcome.

Really really free markets

Temporary free markets are called Really really free markets. These are usually one evening or afternoon in a public space. ## More - Give-away shop at Wikipedia - Give-away shops, freeshops, free stores or swap shops are stores where all goods are free. They are similar to charity shops, with mostly second-hand items—only everything is available at no cost. - The Digger Free Store - The Diggers invented the idea of the Free Store and it became a counterculture institution. Anywhere communes thrived there was the inevitable Free Box, a smaller, less labor intensive version of the Free Store. A section devoted to the Free Store will be filled with stories of serendipitous finds and fortuitous gifts. Of potlatches and give-offs. Dumpster diving can be quite cool. It’s not just for free food, but also for stuff, especially clothes. Imagine the cool parties you can throw when you have piles of discarded clothes. This is what I was thinking a while ago. So we reserved a space in our home and baptised it Boutique Trash Chic, our own little semi-private in-house free shop. Here are some blasts from the past, when I actually started a website around this idea: ## Great locations for a give-away shop, nook or box: - at home, if you have a lot of friends come over all the time, or you’re hosting travellers - at the entrance of your building, if you live with many other people. Many buildings in Berlin are very suitable for this. - at bars - hostels - schools

node/119

Makerfox: moneyless crowdfunding

Makerfox was a moneyless crowdfunding platform. So it’s a bit like Kickstarter, but without monetary transactions. There’s still mention of things like dollars on the site though. Fortunately I personally met Matthias, one of the guys behind the site at the unMonastery in Matera, Italy. So I sent him some questions to clarify some things. Matthias is also the creator of EarthOS, a “constantly evolving open content project where I collect and orchestrate existing open hardware and open source projects and own ideas into a system with which you could manage all material and technological requirements of living, from food to water supply, mobility to clothing, health care to Internet connection.” More about that in another article soon.

What is Makerfox?

Makerfox is a young web-based crowdfunding platform and marketplace that works without money. We focus on funding projects with “collective benefits”, such as a open source, open content, open hardware etc.. And instead of money, we use a form of algorithmic barter that we invented and called “network barter”.

Network barter

Network barter is a flexible form of true barter. So, everyone gets as much as they give, in products and services and at the same time. No accounts with digitized rights (“money”) needed. In contrast to normal one-on-one barter, it can be 100 or more people in one such barter trade, and that is what makes it more flexible, more probable to happen.

How did you come up with the idea?

The 2008 financial/economic crisis made me want to fix the absurdity of economic exclusion. You know, the thing that is usually called “unemployment”: people with both needs and skills to offer are excluded from economic exchange. Just because money fails to connect them with skills and needs of others, and money is the only major tool society uses for that. A major driver was that I experienced the problem first-hand: in late 2012 I was a self-employed IT guy with no contracts to speak of, and had to sell most of my furniture to pay obligatory German health insurance. (Could’ve been worse. I heard of a guy who had to burn his furniture to stay warm.) [Moneyless.org note: German health insurance is very complex, Matthias wrote an article about low health insurance fees for self-employed Germans, there’s also this article in German with some tips for dealing with health insurance without income in Germany] At first I had no clear idea how I wanted to solve that but dreamed of a smartphone app that could make these connections. With a big green “Start the Economy” button. So I called it Economy App and entered it into the first-ever European Social Innovation Competition. When I made it to semi-finals, I needed a clearer idea, and together with my brother Daniel we invented network barter in a half-hour discussion, standing in my parents kitchen. I knew Evgeni’s Circular Multilateral Barter software and was inspired by it, and network barter is basically a generalization of it that uses arbitrary graph shaped bartering rather than pure cycles. With all that, we won a prize in the competition: in effect it was seed funding from the European Commission, enabling us to sit down for a year and code that platform.

How does it work in practice?

The short version: look at our example trade, illustrating a donation of 100 bucks to a project. It converts your phone, wrench and pocket knife to a notebook, for which your supported project has use. Instructions to make it happen: You go to the Makerfox Projects list, find a project you like, and donate a dollar value to it. Instead of cash, you offer products or services in return on the market. (Like, a used phone. C’m on, everyone has a used phone!) Then just wait. Somebody else will order what you offer, and offer what your project wants. Or a much more complex setup to the same effect (for example, 100 people in one trade, as it happens in our simulations). The Makerfox will automatically find such a trade, make it happen and notify you by e-mail. Then ship your product or provide your service, take a look what your project got in exchange, and be happy you could help it along. Since this type of crowdfunding needs no money, projects can jump over that step of chasing this scarce resource. We expect that network barter will make crowdfunding a much more powerful and ubiquitous tool, and could support the maker economy (hence the name). That was it about moneyless crowdfunding. In addition, Makerfox includes a moneyless marketplace for products and services, and in the future network barter could also power whatwever else we currently need money for, incl. microcredits, investing, venture capital. (Just not storing value, but that is a feature.) These uses are for other platforms though. Oh and, I forgot to tell you our sustainability model: When projects use their donations to purchase goods and services through barter deals, and when anyone else purchases from the barter marketplace, the Makerfox gets a 7% commission. In barter value, not in money.

How many people and organisations are using it?

We have 200 people with Makerfox accounts now and a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem. Means, not much happens because not much happens. Or maybe we are too fascinated by developing the tech side of things and too bored of marketing it? :P Anyway, we invented the moneyless crowdfunding feature to get past the problem. Anyone with a useful underfunded project can come, start a campaign on makerfox.com and spread the word. Once there are five to ten such campaigns in parallel, with people donating to them and offering something in return, we expect that automatic barter deals start to happen, funding the projects without money. BTW, me and my brother (Makerfox co-founder) browsed moneyless.org for a time today. Very resourceful, entertaining even, esp. that hilarious story about the half train ticket sticking out of your mouth. Man, you have the guts! :)

node/163

Heidemarie Schwermer: A rich life without money

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. How was she living without money and why? Hoe can Heidemarie provide for her needs? If she needs something she’s doing this by exchanging: to get bread she works with a baker and to get a roof over her head she watches after houses when the inhabitants have left. After four years she concluded: > I’m richer now than I ever was before.

Heidemarie Schwermer’s book

She also wrote a book about it. “A Rich Life Without Money” is her story. You can download the German version for free here, but that is the German version. > Heidemarie’s story starts after she divorces her husband and moves to Dortmund with her two kids. She’s astonished about the poverty there. In 1994 she’s starting an exchange shop called “Gibb und Nimm” (give and take). Goods and services can be exchanged without the need for money.

In May 1996 Heidemarie Schwermer disposes of all her possessions including her house, furniture, insurance etc. and starts a life according to the motto: “to have nothing and to be a lot”.

Motives of Heidemarie Schwermer to live without money

Why is Heidemarie living without money? What are her motives? If she’s asked about this she always explains that she’s critical about the role of money in life. Why is it playing such a big role? According to the review the book is very convincing: > From the beginning the reader is caught by the narrative style, victories of and choices in dilemmas, faith and hope about future visions of humanity and society, caring for earth and environment. Thus the content convinces: it has to be different, it can be different

Documentary

There’s also a documentary about her life. You can find it on the website LivingWithoutMoney.org.

Watch Heidemarie at TEDxReset 2013

node/9

Living Moneyless: Mark Boyle

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. For Mark Boyle it’s especially a reaction to the consumer society in which we live and the knowledge that we’re responsible for the things we do, to make the Earth a nicer place to live.

Money disconnects us

Thus he writes: “If we would grow our own food, we would no longer throw away a third as we do today. If we’d make our own tables and chairs we’d no longer dispose of them the moment we would want to change our home’s interior. If we would clean our own drinking water we wouldn’t waste it that easily.” As long as we keep on using money, he writes: >These symptoms will surely remain. That’s why I decided to give up money, originally as an experiment, and I immediately felt myself more connected to the stuff I use and consume.

Freeconomy Living

But how can we acquire our stuff and how can we satisfy our needs if we’d all live without money? Mark is asking himself that question and started the network Just For The Love Of It. This Freeconomy network enables folks to show what they want and can give. So that people who need it can use it. Mark Boyle also writes articles for The Guardian. He gives a lot of tips and describes why he chose this way of living and how it’s changing him. He also published a book about it: The Moneyless Man: A Year of Freeconomic Living.

Video: The Moneyless ManifestoThe Moneyless Manifesto from James Light Film Production.

node/16

Raphael Fellmer

Some people have consciously chosen for a life without money. Raphael Fellmer and his family have been living without money or income since 2010, “to increase consciousness about responsibility, that we all carry for hunger, injustice and environmental damage.” Raphael is living in Berlin with wife and children. He has been on TV several times. He’s also working with Foodsharing.de, a project that encourages people to stop wasting food and giving out food for free to those who need it.

Happy without money

In 2014 Raphael’s book Happy without Money was published.

Read more

all in German:

Forward the Revolution Official Trailer from Lemon Face Films.

node/157

Jo Nemeth, happy without money

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. In January 2015, after leading a normal life as coordinator of a community development program, with a normal family, stress and normal worries, Jo Nemeth made a radical decision: stop using money to give up her life as a consumer of products. “I had a good job, but I felt I was not contributing positively, on the contrary, I had to drive all the time, I did not have time to grow my food and, on top of that, I felt stressed and unhappy, working to pay the bills”.

After reading the book Changing Gears by Greg Foyster, which describes the life of a couple who travels up the east coast of Australia on bicycles and another book about Mark Boyle, who lived three years without money, she chose to start living without money. A complicated decision, as described in her blog, especially when her partner wanted something very different for his life and they parted, and her daughter left home and married soon after. It was with the help of her friends that she was able to start with her new life project. Some offered a place to live on their land and some house-sitting, others made donations of second-hand clothes and other goods, others kept the soap that they from their trips and stays in hotels. Jo’s rule is not to use anything that has been purchased solely for her personal benefit. The rest of her needs are covered by self-management and service to others. In this same line, Jo cultivates a large part of her food, reuses tools and waste from the world around her. Jo lives a gift culture-based life – helping out where she can without expectation of something in return.

When Jo stopped using coins and bills as a way to obtain resources, she only had in mind to diminish her environmental footprint of the world. She did not expect to discover other benefits such as the generosity of people, the solidarity among friends or the ability to enjoy time when you are free. Nor did she imagine how much she depended on the objects or the pleasures he had when her life followed the norm of society, such as the warm shower with running water or cereal with milk. However, she has never thought about giving up. >“Living without money has been easy and even fun. I hope I will not have a normal life again, although it could happen if I am forced for health reasons. Could you live like Jo or, at least, try to reduce your environmental footprint and stop consuming things you do not need? We invite you to contribute to the discussion.

We reached out to Jo and asked her some questions: *Was there a specific moment you made your decision to go moneyless?* Yes, it was when I was reading about someone living without money in the book, Changing Gears. *What’s your definition of happiness* When my actions and values are aligned - as they are now. Also, I think living communally with like-minded people is pretty great but haven’t quite got there yet. That’s my next plan. *What’s the best part about living without money? And the worst?* The best is the freedom I feel. I get to choose who I help and when and this feels very rewarding - being able to give from my heart rather that through a sense of obligation or financial reward. The worst has been saying goodbye to a man I loved. *How does your lifestyle work with the Australian authorities? E.g.is your health care covered, do you have to report taxes?* I don’t report taxes because I have no income and yes, there’s is some healthcare here that is free. I have seen a doctor a couple if times in the last three years to have my skin checked - I had skin cancer a few years ago. *Do you know any other Australians who (chose to) live without money?* I think there is a man in South Australia who lives without money. He calls himself Smoky Ranger.

For the past five years I have lived and thrived in this wealthy Western country without money. I have built rich social connections, consumed waste resources, grown food for myself and others, and built a tiny piece of a new world. Without money, I have forced myself into creative territory, found emotionally and mentally fulfilling ways to meet my basic needs and formed many win-wins with people, both friends and strangers. ## Read more - jolowimpact.wordpress.com

node/266

Elf Pavlik - Moneyless since 2009

Elf Pavlik gave up money in 2009 after he had come back to Europe from San Francisco. In California he was working for a highly competitive internet company that was mainly trying to compete with other companies, without really producing anything that makes people happy. Elf decided he had enough of that. First he started living in nature for a while and tried giving up money. When coming back to Europe he was living and working on wwoofing farms and decided to completely give up the idea of money. While at it he also decided to leave his passport with recycling paper, consequentially Elf lived without money or papers. No insurance, no rent, no bosses, no more personal belongings than he needs. Some people think a life without money is very sad. But Pavlik is the opposite of sadness. He’s always looking on the bright side of things. Pavlik has chosen to live in a different reality, ahead of his time, working towards a world in which money is meaningless. A world without borders and states. He’s working a lot on decentralizing the web, a proponent of open web technologies such as Persona. A lot of his code is available at https://github.com/elf-pavlik and you can interact with him on Twitter through @elfpavlik.

Watch elf

elf Pavlik - Strictly Moneyless from Side Ways Films.

More reading and watching

node/116

Living without money at Twin Oaks

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. We asked one long time member and personal friend, Paxus, to talk about it. ## Could you please explain us *What is Twin Oaks*? Twin Oaks is an income-sharing egalitarian community in rural Virginia. We have 7 businesses. We divide our work equally and share our income from the businesses we collectively own. Income sharing means that we pool together all the money we make and meet the needs of the group from this income. All the work of the members is evaluated the same, an hour is an hour. Most members on most days do not touch or deal with money at all. Your commitment to the community is 42 hours per week - if you do that the community covers all your living costs such as food, housing, medical, education, entertainment, transportation, etc. We do get a small $100 per month allowance with which we buy the things that the community does not purchase for us (perhaps cigarettes or chocolate or alcohol, though the community does buy some of the latter two). twin-oaks-hammock-business Making Hammocks is one of the community business that TwinOaks makes money with ## Sounds great, but how is it like to actually live at Twin Oaks? It is like living in a little self-sustaining village, where everyone knows each other. We socialize together, fall in love with each other (there is no prohibition on falling in love with folks outside the community, but most romances are internal), work together and struggle together. Most members on most days do not leave the community and for most this is not a hardship. There is no live television and no advertising except what one sees on the internet and in magazines. Neither do we have property crime, real poverty nor homelessness (unlike the rest of the US where these are significant problems). It is a slower pace of life than many places. We eat organic food that we grow ourselves, we raise our own kids, take care of our own elders, build our own buildings, fix our own cars and run our own businesses. >Most members actually live at Twin Oaks without money and we work together towards this goal ## So all this does not fall from the sky, you actually work a lot for this don’t you? Yes. Everyone is committed to 42 hours work per week. We designed a labor system that both assigns work and tracks labor at Twin Oaks. We have in fact thousands of tasks that get assigned a week. This assigning process is a bit complex but also very robust. Some of the tasks include that the cows get milked, the 88 tofu shifts get covered, every dinner and lunch gets cooked and cleaned up after, the kids get taken care for, the orders get packed and shipped, the conferences get organized, the IT system gets maintained and hundreds of massages, hangouts and discussion groups meet. The labor tracking part makes sure that we do not spend beyond our budgets for the 100 various work areas in the community. We keep track of the work we do, it gets compared to the 42 hours per week of quota and if we don’t make quota on average for a while, we run into trouble with the community. twin-oaks-clothes-for-everyone *Community clothes, everyone is equally rich at Twin Oaks* ## Can someone also get labor credits for other type of work that is not community related? Yes, but you need permission for that from the community. In the past I have received labor credits for my work on stopping nucleair power stations, even ones in far away countries. I even have gotten labor credits if I got arrested at a political action and end up in jail. I also get labor credits for going to colleges and universities and talking about my lifestyle, including activism and polyamory. ## Oh yes, what about this free love you so often talk about? Is that a thing? Free Love *is* a thing. The community is an embrace diversity place, so we don’t tell members what to do. Polyamory is part of the culture, which is a relative of free love, but not really the same thing. Certainly there is not external state or bureaucracy telling people what type of relationships to have. But Twin Oaks is not wedded to or dedicated to “free love” principals.

Is the concept and implementation of Twin Oaks actually scalable?

Yes this is scalable, no question about that. We are 92 adults and 15 kids, the bigger it gets the easier it gets. Perhaps there are decision making bottlenecks at 1000 members, but certainly there have been all manner of large communities which have worked it out. We actually have several mandates, including being a model to inspire others. But this mission is often lost as other members want privacy or fear outsiders. We will continue as we have been though, providing home and services for our members. Some members of the community also work on helping new communities get started, this is something I do often. But this is not something the entire community has agreed on and is not something which I could do full time at this point, for example. I am becoming a dual member with another local community so i can do this more of my time.

Uhm, dual member? What is that?

This is like a dual citizenship. I also intend to become a member of another lovely - smaller - community that is called Cambia. This one is quite near to Twin Oaks and it needs help getting off the ground. I love what they are doing and want to help out. And it gives me much more freedom to do other things that I want to do. It is a beautiful place.

Anything else that we need to know about?

There is a network of egalitarian communities, which provide similar services and structure to what Twin Oaks does. The network is called the Federation of Egalitarian Communities or the FEC for short. There is an overview of all communities that work together in this network.

node/226

From Money God to the Unmonastery

With the pope claiming people should stop worshipping the money god there’s all the more reason for Moneyless.org to thrive. Unfortunately the pope also urges the unemployed to “fight for work” (sic!). I personally think there’s just not enough work for people to start fight about (as we can see from the situation in Japan). In my opinion, if there’s a fight it should be about achieving prosperity for all in other ways, such as through basic income. And it doesn’t look like there’s much time to waste. Joris Luyendijk, a Dutch anthropologist, has been in The City of London for over two years. He’s kept a blog about what bankers think. And it’s not pretty. Joris has not become more hopeful about the future of banking, and let’s be honest, we can strive for a moneyless future but if we’d get there tomorrow there would be havoc and many people dead in a short time span. The same pessimist thoughts can be had about politics and other businesses but unfortunately, banks have shown to collapse and in the meanwhile the resilience has not so much increased. Bitcoin could be an alternative, and there are some pretty cool things out there, but as is it’s not going to safe the world. Give it another year or 4 and it might help society a lot when banks will be collapsing again. But it would still remain far from an egalitarian system. Which takes me to the unmonastery planned in Matera, where I’m likely to have a talk or do a workshop about moneyless, unmonetizing and the links with Bitcoin.

node/114

Documentary: Don’t Pay Me

“Life is too short to be unhappy.” Don’t Pay Me is a portrait of people who follow their heart and decided to live an alternative lifestyle. People who consciously chose to disregard conventional priorities about money and ownership of goods. People who prefer to share knowledge, food, skills, homes and time and who feel they’re living a luxurious life without money. Bed and breakfast, art, composting toilets, an art festival, microbrewery, catamarans I contacted Piotr from the crew and asked some questions.

How did you come up with the idea?

The idea started when I was traveling across Asia and Australia. As I was traveling on budget I was looking for ways to minimize my expenses. I have already been familiar with couchsurfing and I was very lucky to find helpx and workaway websites. As a result I stayed a month on a farm near Brisbane without spending a dollar. The people were great and I was really impressed by the idea of exchanging a couple hours of a not so hard nor stressful job for a nice room and delicious food. Having in mind I was actually also learning new skills (construction), polishing a language, living the real local life and not having to worry about anything at all. While traveling I was thinking about a traveling program that would show different ways of traveling without money or with just a little of them. That would include hitchhiking, dumpster diving, couchsurfing, etc. After coming back to Poland I was speaking about my helpx experience and found none of my friends really knowing about it. And some of them would really like to travel. But they had no money (or so they thought). Anyways after talking to my friend Rysiek with whom I wanted to work on the traveling program, we decided that volunteering/exchange experience is worth making a documentary about. We believed that many of our friends are stressed by feeling that don’t have any alternatives to working in a corporation or having a job, paying mortgage and being consumed by consumerism.

At what point did you need money to realize the documentary?

All of us contributed how we could. We got Rysiek’s wife car, Grzesiek borrowed cameras, I was buying gas and cheap food for us. We wrote to the persons that agreed that we come that we would have our own tents and food but most of them offered us great rooms and fed us. So all the money we spent were gas/highways costs. When we came back we have found many people offering us help with transcription, music, making the website, designing poster. But there was a problem with finding someone who would do editing. It is 2 or 3 months of work and people would love to do it but had to pay rent and have something to eat. So we were trying to find companies that would supply a potential editor with healthy food but that didn’t work. After many months we decided to do crowdfunding. It didn’t go as well as we would wish but we got almost 1000EUR. Something to start with. The usual cost of editor for such a project is around 5000EUR. So we were still short. But after lots of meetings we found a person who is willing to do that for the amount we have. Only because he likes the project. Likely we have also found a studio that will make transfer and synchro of the materials as desired by the editor. Normally that would cost 1000EUR. There are some other people that offered they will help us with sound and color correction. At the moment the materials are being synchronized (sound with audio) but it is going slowly as 2 of us are abroad and the third person is finishing their master thesis.

Do you think a moneyless world is possible?

I think everything is possible. The world without money as well. I don’t know if it is going to be a better world, same or worse. The evil is in people not in the money. But forgetting that, a world without money is not going to come soon. After a couple of thousand of years with money, it is not going to happen suddenly. I also don’t know what the alternative could be. Me myself I lack that vision. I only imagine people caring about each other, following their dreams, respecting and loving everyone regardless of their origins, color or language. I would love to see a world without war, consumerism and self-destruction. But I am pretty sure that I won’t see that. We are probably going to destroy this planet and ourselves. If you ask me if I think the world without money is possible - I think yes, just after the human race destroys itself. ;)

When is the documentary going to be released?

A for the release date, I would love to tell you that but I have not even a slight idea. The project is going very slowly. I wish it is finished this year. Insha’Allah.

node/164

Dutch magazines: Mosquito, Enough, Happy

There are some interesting magazines out there related to consuming and spending less money. In the Netherlands we found three: Mug Magazine (Mosquito Magazine) is a free magazine for people on a small budget. It is available in and around Amsterdam. Mug contains a lot of information about rights of people living on a minimum wage. A lot of tips for saving. You can also check the magazine online (in Dutch). Mugweb is the online platform of the magazine. Background and news about poverty and saving money. Also Gelukkig magazine contains a lot of tips about saving money. It’s been around since 2010 and is meant as a counterpoint to all magazines that are inciting people to buy buy buy. There’s a lot of information about how to get around nicely with just a bit of money. Tips for being more creative, information about “toeslagen”, where to go for information and how to progress with your monetary issues. The magazine is written and published by Henderina of The business house wife. On the website Spaarcentje you can find two reviews of the second en het fourth issues. Enough is the magazine about saving money and living with less stuff. Or: living with more quality, less BS and more time. It’s published 4 times a year and is chuck full of tips for a more creative life with less money. In 2013 the magazine has been around for twenty years! The special edition is freely available online. Do you know some good magazine about living with less money in your country or city? Let us know!**

node/65

Book: Moneyless Manifesto

In 2012 Mark Boyle, also known as the Moneyless Man, published a book about living without money: The Moneyless Manifesto. It’s about his life without money and it’s also available for free. The Moneyless Manifesto is especially convincing without becoming theoretical, like many other books about economy. It’s a report about two and a half years without money. And unlike many other alternative economies you can start today and immediately get results. The second part of the book is very concrete about the question how to actually live without money. The answer is that you can only be moneyless by leaving our all-destructing society behind yourself and to strive for unity with nature. That will be a step too much for most people, but you don’t have to go moneyless from one day to the next, there are many intermediate steps that will increase your resilience without decreasing your happiness in life. It’s no wonder the book received a raving review by Zerzan, who is known to be highly critical of our (post-)agricultural civilization and advocates to go back to a life as led by hunter-gatherers. > Mark Boyle’s book is at once practical, analytical and personal. A fine contribution that also opens on to the question of the very nature of the world we live in - and need to move beyond.
> - John Zerzan, author of Future Primitive and Against Civilisation

www.moneylessmanifesto.org

node/91

Book: Steps Towards Inner Peace

The Peace-Pilgrim was a woman living almost 30 years without money, in the walhalla of money: the United States. She made many walking trips and took only little on those trips. She lived just from what people gave her and she never needed any money! Her message was about an inner peace that is reachable by anyone. You as well! It’s the ultimate form of happiness, always in peace with whatever is there. Always be at peace with yourself. “Steps Towards Inner Peace” is the book published after her death. The book is available for free. You can order it at the website about the book and there is also a pdf version in English and many other languages. Also check Wikipedia for more information about her life and the website Peacepilgrim.

node/12

No money for food. How to get free food.

No money to eat. What now? On Moneyless.org there are many tips to come. Without money to your food Because you really do not have to starve if you have no money. On the contrary. You can ask for free food and you can find food. If you follow these good free food tips, you can probably even better food than with money.

To ask for free food

To eat you do not always need money. You can also ask for food. This may at restaurants, at market vendors, to shops or acquaintances. What is very important that you explain why you need food: for example, that you have no money to eat. This is not easy to do but not impossible. In Portugal there are even organizations that collect the leftover food from restaurants and redistribute it among people without money.

Ask a restaurant

It might cost a lot trouble to ask for food, but practice makes perfect! Be patient and you’ll be fine. There are restaurants where you can sit if you have no money. So How does this work? You walk in and wait until someone comes to you. You then explains that you have no money. You ask if they are in the kitchen might have something to eat. About You already have a container with you. Maybe they are going to do something like this?

Ask for food at markets

On the market you can also ask for food. You can be the best then go around closing time. Tell them that you have no money for food and ask: “Perhaps you have something you can not sell it?” Ten to one the marktman or woman you a lettuce resists and some apples. And if not, thank the lady or gentleman and ask when the next stall.

Convenience Stores

You can do the same in stores. Large stores such stores do not work well here. Because people will almost always say, “I may not be the boss.” And that boss you almost never speak. What works are small shops. Convenience Stores for example. Especially Moroccan or Turkish shops in large cities can be quite generous.

Ask the farmer

At the farm, there is always food available. Not everything the farmer grows go to the store. There remains, for example also a lot on the land. You can ask the farmer if you can see what’s left after harvest. Certainly you can find many. Ask at the garden Each village has a place where residents have a vegetable garden. They sometimes like to share what they reap. Ask them! And maybe they also want to learn how to grow food. Itself Then you might one day self-sufficient life and you do not even need more money to eat. Then you always eat free. Online free food find People also offer free online food to. A new initiative to share food Foodsharing.nl is one place where people left their food is simply offering fine. Food Search Free food grows on trees, under ground and in bushes. If you have a little practice you know what you can and can not eat. Also it is best to find good food in containers. At the end of the market, for example, or in shops. This is called dumpster diving and is something many people do. Resume Ashamed is normal but throw that trepidation from you. People like to help. Find those people who want to help Be inventive and do not feel bad if someone rejects you Occasionally do a job for which food is also an option

More on moneyless.org

Read more online

Lees meer op het web

No money or awareness without money Maybe you are ashamed because you have no money. But you can also accept and benefit from it. The most important thing when you have no money is that you not ashamed of this. That everyone around you does have money to eat, does not mean you’re less than their need to feel, or that you are afraid of what others think about you. These are apparent contradictions in social life imposes. You do not need to admit it. Especially if you have no money.Do not be critical about what you get With money you can often choose what you eat. Without money, you have the choice not so fast. You may be better satisfied with anything you find or get. Do you eat a lot of meat for example? Usually meat more difficult to get or find. But are you vegetarian example and ask you to eat at a restaurant? Then it is better to leave it for what it is you prefer. You eat potluck. You are now a Freegan , what you eat is free.

node/76

Dumpster Diving Tips

There’s enough food for everyone, but a lot of food is chucked. Stores, consumers and producers simply dump a lot of good food! You can find this food by checking the bins you find outside of stores. Dumpster diving can also be a lot of fun!

Less affluent countries

Dumpster diving only really works in affluent countries. Unfortunately even in a country like India with a almost 70% living on less than 2$ per day a baffling 9 billion USD worth of food is wasted every year. There’s definitely a lot of work to do here. Moneyless currently consists of quite a western, affluent point of view about living without money but we’re looking to discuss real Third World poverty as well and hopefully find ways to help in a tiny way.

Get started diving

It’s not always fun to do this, and many people find it below their standards. But the feeling is enormous when you find food. You can find crates of apples or strawberries, or tomatoes, zucchinis and bread. Enough to eat perfectly fine. One of the better options is a small neighborhood store in your area. And you can often find good food at (smaller) supermarkets. You can also ask the shop owner if they have some left overs that can’t be sold anymore. This is especially possible with bakers, they mostly throw away the unsold bread at the end of the day.

Bakeries

With bakeries it’s generally a good idea to get an idea about their rules for discarding bread. 1 day? 3 days? Till there’s mold? Or random? Also find out the days and times food is discarded and whether the bakery minds you collecting it. There’s a wide range of possibilities here, from calling the cops to separating edible food in a clean bag for you. Then there are also bakeries that donate their left over food to charity, which is a pity if you wanted this food but it’s a great way of reducing waste and helping people in need.

Non-food

It’s also quite possible to go for other items than food. Furniture, old electronics, there are some good ways to make money dumpster diving.

Resources

If you still don’t know good spot it’s worth checking Trashwiki.org. Fellow divers use this website to share spot where you can often reap good finds. If you don’t have money for food, dumpster diving can be solution but there are many more ways to get food for free.

node/103

How to make money dumpster diving

Dumpster diving can be a great way to spend less money on groceries, but it doesn’t end there. A lot of valuable stuff is put outside with the trash and it’s quite feasible to make an extra buck with that. In this article we’re discussing how to make money dumpster diving.

Perfectly good items

The most obvious way is to come across perfectly usable items. When going through residential trash I’ve found items such as a bluetooth head set and a kick scooter right in the package. I also came across furniture in mint conditions. For the bigger items you’re definitely going to need a vehicle if you want to make money. [[nid:235]] Sometimes you even come across actual money. This is mostly not much, money that fell into the couch, some cents left in a plant jar, or if you’re more lucky some bills left in a bag. It’s nice to find but it’s rare, so don’t count on this.

Refurbishing

If you’re handy, e.g. with wood or fabric and you have an eye for beauty you can also go for items that are in a less than optimal condition. A bit of paint and some extra screws can often turn trash into treasure.

Dumpster diving metal

Metals can easily make you a quick dollar. If you’re lucky to find stuff like silver, gold or even platinum you can go to a jewellery store. But also less valuable but more common metals such as copper, iron, aluminum (including cans) are easy to turn into cash at recycling centers. You can also find copper wiring inside old TVs and other electrical appliances. Do remember to be careful and only open up TVs if you know what you’re doing. Kitchen appliances are a safer bet in this case. Market prices can vary heavily over the course of months so if you have space to store stuff and you’re not in need of the money right now it can pay of to hold onto it until the price is right.

Stay social

If you’re competing with other dumpster divers it’s best to keep a good relationship with everyone. In the long run it pays off to share (some) information and goods. Others might have a great find and give you some of that as well. It’s also smart to leave the areas you frequent for gathering in a better condition than before. Don’t make a mess, always remain friendly with folks (they might even have some good metal in their basement that they want to dispose of).

How much do dumpster divers make?

Dumpster divers make between 0 and a lot of money. It’s really hard to give a good answer for this.

More information

Dumpster diving tips Trashwiki.org

How to get money short term (not now)

Here we talk about ways you don’t get money now, but you actually learn about the roads that exist that will take you to a better future. *We do these things ourselves*.

Google Earn thousands. I need money now Sell cars Some call it car flipping. I need money now Movie Extras Earn a quick $200. I need money now
Ebay Buy for a dollar, sell for 2. I need money now Dumpster Free stuff everywhere. I need money now Alibaba Buy in China. Sell here. I need money now
Yardsales Find hidden gems. I need money now AirBNB Rent a room. Or a couch. I need money now Turo Rent your car out. Or two. I need money now
Medical Testing It may earn you thousands. I need money now Sperm Donor Help others and make money. I need money now Cell Phone Flipping Some people make 50k/year! I need money now
Online Surveys It will earn you some cash quickly. I need money now Translations Speak any other language? I need money now Freelance Writing It is possible. I need money now

[[nid:235]]

node/135

Find Edible Plants

Fruit such as strawberries, apples and raspberries don’t have to come from a supermarket. You can find it in your street, a park or a forest near you. You can reap this food relatively often. And except fruit there are also chestnuts, dandelions, wild herbs and a lot more. This activity of finding food is often called Urban Foraging. It is advisable to know what you can and can’t eat, and where to find good food. For many areas there are websites. For example for Amsterdam there’s a map where you can find usable food. It is encouraged to add new spots. In Dutch there’s also a entire wiki, a website with a whole lot of information about eating wild food.

Manual

There’s a good manual in English. Here are four guidelines to stick to for smooth operations:

We have more tips about free food here on this website.

node/19

Food Is Free Project

The Food is Free Project is a 501(c)(3) non profit in the United States that grows communities and food launched in January 2012. The project is connecting people both online and in their own street to grow and share food among people. The project is creating models for growing food in unused public spaces so that people can get fresh and organic food. Food Is Free Project

node/162

Really Free Everything in London

Well, London is seeming to be the easiest place in the world to live in that I have lived in. Last year I lived in 16 countries in Europe and Africa. Every restaurant/cafe that sells boxed food has stock on its way. If they don’t sell everything in the store they can’t store it… it has to go out. So they leave these boxes of food in front of the cafe’s in bin bags.

Free Food

Every restaurant/cafe that sells boxed food has stock on its way. If they don’t sell everything in the store they can’t store it… it has to go out. So they leave these boxes of food in front of the cafe’s in bin bags. If you wait for the cafe’s to close, then wait for them to clean up, restock and close the cafe, they’ll leave you a bag of delicious food. Help yourself but remember, leave the place neat tidy and clean like you found it ALWAYS! Sometimes they tie the knots really tight but try to undo the knot. Light bags won’t have anything in them. Heavy bags are usually full of food. More info:

Bikes!

You can put together a bike of your own by finding spare parts and maybe buying some parts as well. I’ve put together a racing bike completely for free and it goes really fast. London is actually quite a small city when you cycle! People sometimes take frames to scrap metal shops to get money for them. Usually scrap metal places don’t buy bike frames but they store them. I haven’t any solid success with this yet. Hackney city farm http://maps.google.be/maps?um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=hackney+city+farm&fb=1≷=be&hq=farm&hnear=Hackney,+Greater+London,+UK&cid=0,0,6262047873144703304&ei=fKqlTYyHNtGq8AO75bi5Dw&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=image&resnum=2&ved=0CC8QnwIwAQ Has a bike shop with a very nice lady who repairs bikes for the lowest price I have ever seen in London. She is really nice and will give you an honest fair price. She also throws a lot of bikes and parts out. There is a trailer at the back… have a look and you’ll find wheels, tires, frames, brakes, bars and more… Personally I love finding and putting bikes together. I’m looking to start making bike trailers and eventually make bicycle trailer homes… and then bicycle trailer treehouse homes lol. A trailer you can sleep in that you can pull into a tree when you go traveling through Europe. Could also have a solar panel on the roof. There is an infoshop called 56a, they repair your bike for free!

Accommodation

I live in an old abandoned grocery store. I have been working on and developing it. It’s coming along really nicely. I’ve got a currier and a stunt man living here also… we all bring food back to the house and go out cycling which is a lot of fun. You can also find a building to live in for free. Just take a look around! They’re everywhere. You can find a very handy squatters guide book at 56a which is a great place to hang out in the afternoon and evenings. The building I’m living in has been abandoned for 8 years. The council claim it’s their building but neighbours say otherwise. So the owner could be somewhere else and not interested in the building which means I could live here for… a long time if I want If you find a building with no one in put a celetape over the door and come back in a month or a few weeks and see if the tape has been broken or not. If not that means nobody has been there. Could be your home! Do it with at least another one friend. I opened my place on my own and wouldn’t recommend it. In my building I no longer have electricity. If I really need it for a short time a neighbour lends me a power lead. So to do drilling or to use power tools I just ask and I receive. Otherwise, we use candles for light and a free internet community cafe down the road for charging phones and computers. Ondrej builds a table for the sink in the kitchen (youtube). Also check the Moneyless article about hospitality exchange networks.

Parks

We’re so lucky in the UK. There are so many parks to visit and hang out in for free. Summer is just around the corner and a great time to go and sit in the parks with your friends, play sports and eat :)

General Free Stuff

Gumtree is a good source for free stuff. I got a nice free hair cut 2 manicures 1 pedicure 1 power drill Freecycle But be warned… to get decent stuff is competitive I believe. You also have to sift through a lot of messages of stuff you don’t need. It’s time consuming.

Clothes

There are clothes banks around the city. I only know of a few in my area. Limehouse, Stepney Green, Mile end. People dump their unwanted clothes in the banks but sometimes the banks get so full and they start leaving stuff on the top and all around the banks in bags. I have found designer clothing, suits, towels, sheets, hats and all kinds of amazing quality stuff. Just because it gets thrown away doesn’t mean it’s not good quality or brand new.

iPhones

I’ve got two brand new iphones in less than a week. How? I bought one second hand about a year ago 3GS. The phone was rining but not making any sound. I couldn’t prove this but I complained and they gave me a new iphone… Brand new! The original second hand one I bought was out of warranty. So then the one they just gave me appeared to have something wrong with the date function. I went back and told them about it… They didn’t even look at the phone and just gave me a new one. I also got to keep the previous one they gave me which was 4 days old. I think they’re trying to shift stock. If you want to have your mac products replaced for new ones just go in (if there is a problem with your current one) and tell them about it.

Friends!

Yes! You can get friends for free also ;) Friends are the most desirable thing out of all the things to have and I hope you have good friends and contine to acquire more good friends. Talk with your friends, hang out with them and let them know you care. Be a good friend ;) You can acquire a free friend by approaching and talking with them… where? On public transport. You might see the same people waiting at the same stop every day. Talk with them Play a sport, join a team, get some hobbies, learn to dance, volunteer, go clubbing, TALK WITH PEOPLE YOU HAVE NEVER SPOKEN WITH BEFORE! Approach people! Meet and greet them. If you don’t approach and talk with people you’ll miss out on many potential friends

Dating Relationship

hmmmm no comment. Actually… I guess… meet more people and look for friendship. Friendship is the prerequisite for a loving relationship I believe. The more people you know the more chances of finding that special someone. I believe you have to go out meeting people to find the right one’s to be in relationship with. Some say don’t look for it but I don’t believe that ;) Like attracts like so do what you like and you’ll find someone like yourself who you like and who likes you to.

Free Books

Bar 1001 on Brick Lane has a free book shelf. Otherwise you can sit in waterstones and read all day long for free.

Free Naked Bike Ride

Thanks to adventurous7 for posting about this 11th June! https://londoncheapo.com/events/london-naked-bike-ride/ Pictures from last year http://www.google.at/images?hl=de&q=London%20Naked%20Bike%20Ride&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1920&bih=887 Could take you around and show you all the free places and stuff I know about. I might help you build a bike. I’ve usually got food at my place. I’ll happily talk with you and share stories and whatever else I have ;) As for free food… shops start closing around 4pm so before that I couldn’t really show you free food except sandwiches that EAT give out and Capachino that Pret give out ;)

node/151

Projects we love

Moneyless.org is a funny continuation of many projects we’ve worked on and built over the past 10 years. Back in 2006 I started Hitchwiki together with MrTweek. Fortunately I didn’t accept Casey Fenton’s offer to host the project on CouchSurfing’s servers. By now Hitchwiki has 3k+ articles in English and many more articles in other languages, by far the best resource for hitchhikers across the world. In 2008 Robin, the other half behind Moneyless told me to register trashwiki.org. I did and another awesome wiki was born. This time for dumpster diving. Last year I started Nomadwiki.org as well, mostly thanks to Mikael’s energy and smiles. Most people who are active in all these projects have been actively supporting BeWelcome, the best website for hospitality exchange. I hope we’ll be able to support all these projects with proceedings from Moneyless and spin off websites in the coming years.

Nomad- and Hackbases

For about 4 years Robin’s house was not like any other house. Casa Robino was a social experiment. One that is continuing in other places, other nomad bases. Yeah, nomadbase.org is one project that didn’t really come off the ground. One day? Meanwhile there’s a great hackbase at Lanzarote: CHT.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia definitely deserves mention. Back in 2003 I was spending a lot of time editing Wikipedia. Early 2005 I spent 5 months in Mali with Geekcorps thanks to a post on Slashdot and I set up Wikipedia in Bambara.

So many more people and projects

There are many more projects and numerous people who made all these projects happen. We’ll add more links here over time.

Contact us if you think we should add a project to this page!

node/149

Free Babysitting Co-ops

Child-rearing is a difficult journey, especially if the family you are starting up is still tip-toeing financially. Nannies are expensive luxuries, and babysitting can also be pricey and unsettling, especially if you don’t know the babysitter so well. Balancing work and family life is difficult indeed, but there are some innovative ways to address this issue. If you and your partner are juggling full-time jobs and parenting, then you understand the hassle of trying to find a babysitter when you are busy. Babysitting co-ops are organizations of families who trade babysitting services amongst themselves. They are usually groups of like minded people, looking for the support in taking care of their child when they are away. It is a wonderful concept that is helpful to many parents. What are the benefits of putting up or joining a babysitting co-op? Here are some of the best things about these organizations:

Joining a babysitting co-op requires a lot of trust and love. Finding the right babysitting co-op for your family is also a big factor in this decision. If you find that this arrangement may work for you and your family, then be diligent and discerning for search. We hope that you find an excellent co-op that will help you build your own family in wealth and join other families in friendship as well!

node/191

Make money babysitting

Babysitting is one of the easiest ways to make money whilst still performing a convenient and necessary task. Furthermore, if you are a high school or university student (which most babysitters are) you can babysit for parents that go out for the night. This means that after you feed, entertain and tend to the needs of whoever’s child you are taking care of. You can then put them to bed, open up your laptop, and study for an exam or write a paper. This technique can make it easier to balance school work with financial gain. ## How to find babysitting jobs You may be asking yourself, “how does one find parents who are in need of a babysitter?” It’s actually quite simple. You might know friends and/or friends of friends or maybe a neighbor who has kids. If this is the case its as easy as asking them if they need help with their child/children. Another easy way to land a job as a babysitter is to advertise yourself on craigslist, or if you wanna take it one step further, you can join a babysitting agency. This option is less personal but it might be more fitting to your lifestyle. If you do go to a university or high school there is an even better opportunity. Parents of small children who are looking for child care are always looking for people they can trust, and if you go to a school there is a high chance that there are parents who have younger children who are looking for child care. Who knows, maybe you can land a job looking after your classmates little sibling. The easiest way to reach out to parents in your school community is by putting up a flyer on campus or on designated bulletin boards within your building. Parents will also prefer a member of the school community over a random stranger so if you have this opportunity I highly advise you give it a try. ## How much can you make babysitting? If you are wondering how much babysitting pays, it depends primarily on a couple of factors, these being how financially stable the family you’re working for is and what kind of child care that you are providing (overnight, daycare, etc). My golden rule is that you should never be paid less than 10 euro/dollar/pound an hour, unless you’re helping out a friend of course. In closing, Babysitting can be some of the most rewarding work, especially if you enjoy the company of children and you like helping people out. A ready and able babysitter can help save the night of a parent in need.

node/225

Free haircuts

Free haircuts can be had in different ways. If you find yourself moneyless it doesn’t mean you need to walk around like a bum. We all know hairdressers are quite expensive in the Western world. So let’s look at some alternatives.

Haircut coupons

If you’re lucky you can find coupons for a free haircut, but most of these are mere for a small percentage reduction. Unless you’re a veteran soldier or even still in service, we found some free haircuts for veterans, but well, in that case you’re usually trimming your hair yourself in a minute or two.

Ask a friend or relative

You might be surprised but many people are pretty good at cutting hair. Just ask around among your friends or try posting a request on a website. It can be a fun and very social experience to have your hair cut by friends from now on. You can return the favor by cooking a meal (possibly with some free food you get) or otherwise bartering some other kind of service like fixing their bicycle’s flat tyre.

Become a model

You don’t have to be an underweight junky to become a model. If you dare you can also become a testing model for training hairdressers. Like this you will end up with interesting haircuts for free. Check the local hairdresser schools to find some good options. Beware, it helps if you’re not expected with a clean boring haircut at work. I hope you give these solutions a try some time. You could even throw a haircutting party with your friends.

node/104

Free pictures

When creating online and offline material it’s very important to add pictures. It’s easy to find pictures through Google Image search. Unfortunately it’s not legal to use most of these pictures for any purpose. You could instead opt to pay for royalty free pictures, but this costs money and it’s even tedious to sign up and deal it.

Some good websites with free pictures

My own attempt

Instead it’s good to pay attention to licensing and copyrights. So there are good alternatives, both free as in freedom as in moneyless. freepictures.cc is a website I’ve created to help you find free pictures that you can modify and use for commercial purposes. It’s only a first version but it’s already working wonders for the many websites I’m building. I can simply add a keyword and freepictures.cc will show me a bunch of pictures from Wikimedia Commons and Flickr that are either under a Creative Commons license that allows commercial use and modification or even simply public domain.

How to use the images

There are two basic cases:

Public domain

You can do anything, you don’t have to do anything. CC-BY, (c) KevinLallier

Creative Commons Attribution (BY clause)

Note that this case includes the CC-BY-SA license. Once you start using the image you should give attribution. This means you have some options:

Other sources for free images include:

node/130

I Need Diapers and have No Money!

The continued need for diapers is one of the main concerns of the baby’s future parents. But diapers do not have to cost so much money as you think. If you have no money for diapers, or if you simply want to reduce your ecological footprint, we have have some great resources for you. >It’s silly that we have to spend so much money on diapers, make continual trips to the shop, and panic if we don’t have something for our baby to dump his or her shit in - and to land in the bin minutes later. What a waste!

Cloth diapers

Cloth diapers can be found rather expensive. Often this stops us from further looking. But did you know you can also find those second hand? Or that you can even make them by yourself easy enough? Besides, in the long run cloth diapers can save us the constant investment in disposable ones. We can find cloth diapers cheaper as second-hand, in exchange groups and sales for children and baby through the web, or in this same type of stores in our neighborhood. Also cloth diapers are great to ask for as a gift! You can ask friends to put in money together.

Make your own diapers

Make your own diapers is less hard than you think. Some friends we know simply use an old sock and small underwear! If you want to go a bit more pro than you can also find DIY sewing kits and diaper making howto’s over the web. And if sewing is not your thing, ask someone you know who does like sewing, or find someone online who could do it for you in exchange of some money or something you can provide her with. In fact, you would be surprised how easy it could be to make your own diapers. There are lots of people who have been using simple clothes. Once used, just store them in a bucket, separating diapers that have been pood from diapers just with pee. You don’t even have to wash the diapers in a washing machine as you can simply clean them with water and soap. > You can hand wash them in a bucket with washboard (though we didn’t) and line-dry them. We actually line dried ours about once a month to air them out and sun-bleach the cloth. About 30 $5-15 cloth diapers last you 3-4 days between washes. See for more information on washing your cloth diapers the website If we want to save even more money or use no money at all, we can reuse clothes that we don’t use anymore. It is important to take into account the material of the garment to be recycled to make the diaper, whether cotton T-shirts that can be easily washed and allow the baby’s skin to breathe. > Parenting - it’s a ride that empties the wallet but fills the heart. The struggle to provide for a growing family is no doubt one of the most difficult experiences you can go through. This is especially tough if you and your partner or other members of the family feel you don’t have enough resources at hand. But there is always willingness and creativity, and there are many other ways that you can get stuff than just with money.

[[nid:235]]

Use no diapers!

Ever thought of not using diapers at all? We have heard great stories but also have seen friends struggling with this idea. It is very basic, but it also requires good attention. And obviously it is a lot easier when your baby has grown a bit. The basic idea of not using diapers at all is not new to people. In fact, it is how we started! The problem has only become apparent once we started living in houses with expensive carpets and beds as well as other furniture. But we can easily place other type of carpets and not let the child be on the other furniture. Then it also comes down to paying close attention to your child. Place it on a potty or above the toilet at given times and when you see your child giving signals. If you practice well you will see you can improve fast. Besides, your child will learn to pee and poo in a socially accepted manner much faster than with diapers. > For more information have a look at Diaperfreebaby.org

Alternative sources of funds.

Some people take out loans for diapers. We think this is not a good idea. If you have to borrow money to help you with filling up the ends, you end up being in-dept without being able to repay the loans and even more essential things such as food and rent. This will lead to more stress. Freelancing is a proven way to augment income. Not only is there a steady demand but it has become easier to get paid and access funds thanks to technology. Because of the nature of remote work, you don’t have to be in the office all day, every day to do your job. Best of all you attend to your child and save money on babysitting.

Read more

* One in three families can’t afford diapers. Why are they so expensive? * Discussion about the cost of diapers at Hacker News * Search for the diaper science community on Facebook. The group is called fluff love, and they also have the website

node/187

Pregnant and no money

Are you wondering how to cope with your baby whilst you’re on a low or no budget? You can spend your time investigating into the possibilities how you can get by with your baby. Money is less important than you may think at first. There are many good ways of bringing up a child with little money. This article can give you some help with tips for saving or ways to avoid spending money altogether.

Babies and saving tips

Pregnant and no money. What now? My wife and I were at our first appointment with our midwife. We were talking about finances and we were asked how we thought to raise the money, without money. We were slightly confused by this question. And somewhat naively we posed ourselves the question: “Money? Do we really need it for a baby?” [[nid:235]]

Achieved results

Now seven months after the birth I don’t think we spent more than 200 euro of our own money, which is still quite a high estimate. How did we manage?

It’s completely possible to not spend much money on a baby. There are lists of things that many people believe we “must” buy for a new baby, but we can look closely and really analyze if all of these things are truly necessary or if there are other alternatives. It can be as simple as looking back a generation or two and realizing that many of the things that we consider musts for a baby weren’t used by our grandparent’s generation.

Where we can still win

We didn’t succeed in doing everything completely without money, but that was not our goal. Our goal simply arose out of need: we simply didn’t have any money so we needed to be creative. We could especially save more money with diapers.

Further information

[[nid:236]]

node/75

Free weed: drugs ain’t funny

It might sound funny, but there are ways to get free weed if you don’t have money. The first thing to add of course it that drugs are bad. You should not use drugs, even if they are free. But if you are going to smoke weed anyway you might as well do so without losing money. Here are some tips. If you’re lucky you can try this free trial with HempThatWorks, available in all 50 states.

Grow your own

Green CulturED Online Cannabis College

Growing your own weed is illegal in many countries and states but not in all. Around the world there are many countries where you are allowed to grow your own weed-plants if it’s for your own personal use. For example in the Netherlands you’re allowed 5 plants, and funny enough as of November 9th 2016 you’re allowed the same in California. Growing them works best in an outdoor environment with lots of sun and enough water. Indoors is very well possible but you probably need to add artificial light and stuff, which costs electricity. You could consider trowing some seed-bombs in your direct environment and see how well they grow later on. There are also a few online courses such as Green CulturED. There are also many good books around.

Stop smoking

Well, We can’t repeat enough. Just stop it. If you’re addicted to nicotine we have some good tips for you. Not only will you save your longs and the money you would be wasting on drugs, you will have less munchies so you’ll save money on food. It’s also less likely for you to loose your job, end up with endless credit card debts and payday loans and sit like a stoned couch potato in front of your TV.

Common option: Be nice

It’s quite common to share “joints”. The thing is called that way for a reason. If you’re a nice person you can usually just ask people who are smoking a joint if you can join in and you’ll be fine. There can be big differences in different countries, cities and neighborhoods though. In some places it can be a bad idea to just ask someone if you can share their spliff.

US option: Coupons

In the United States there are some websites that give out free weed. CouponsForWeed.com is the self-described “best place for finding coupons for weed. Our Medical Marijuana coupons are from the best collectives and dispensaries” in states with Medical Marijuana laws. Then there is WeedFreebies.Com, only for California residents.

Effects of drugs: not funny

The effect of cannabis on the memory of adults has not been proven, but it can be risky for children and adolescents, Wikipedia: > Long term exposure to cannabis poses a risk of irreversible cognitive impairment in children and adolescents; other than for the very highest of doses, no similar risk has been established for adults.[3] Changes in attention, psychomotor task ability, and short-term memory are associated with very recent (12 to 24 hours) marijuana use. Any long-term central nervous system effects of the residual drug are indistinguishable from variations in the user’s susceptibility, or any pre-existing psychiatric disorder.

However, as far as mental health, cancer and respiratory problems, smoking cannabis is not so great. Still, in comparison to other drugs such as alcohol, tobacco, cocaine, heroine and xtc the mortality and other adverse effects of marihuana are negligible. Drug use may lead to couch surfing Check our article about free pictures if you came here looking for pictures.

420 Matching

The best way to get free weed is to also get laid in the process. 420 Matcher is a simple way to make this happen.

Further reading

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jan/25/weed-tubers-smoke-weed-youtube-for-living

node/127

Where do the homeless go in cold Lithuanian winters?

On this website you can find information about living moneyless that is sometimes somewhat glorifying. It’s not always great to be without money, especially if you don’t have a convenient place to go to in winters. As the climate in Northern Europe is moving towards sharper extremities, the coldest winter weeks become a real challenge for homeless people. In Lithuania, persons without a stable place to live must survive a couple of weeks each year when temperatures drop below -15 C. Where do they go and how does extreme cold change their usual walking routes? According to Lithuanian media, two homeless people are reported to have died during the coldest weeks in Kaunas and one in the West of the country. Temperatures below -25 C are considered to be ‘dangerous cold’, and shelters are obliged to allow people to stay inside all day long. Otherwise only retired homeless and people with disabilities are permitted to stay – those who are capable of working are expected to look for jobs. Many shelters require homeless people to be sober, which discourages large numbers of them to even try staying there. The maximum length of residence in a shelter is half a year. According to media reports, many homeless persons rather rely on themselves and make a new home in abandoned garages, central heating powerhouses, storage houses, construction sites and even staircases of apartment blocks. According to anthropologist Dr. Rasa Indriliūnaitė, who defended her thesis on survival strategies of homeless people last year, the routes that connect shelters, ‘soup kitchens’, abandoned warm places and shops, where collected empty bottles can be sold, constitute shared knowledge among the homeless. Many associate with one another depending on the type of substances they use and hence need to regularly obtain – either alcohol or drugs. During the weeks of extreme cold, shelters are instructed to host homeless persons regardless of their addiction and condition. Increasingly stricter control in public transport prevents homeless persons, who travel without tickets, from reaching some of the ‘nods’ in their routes. Since some of the shelters are far away from city centers, homeless persons avoid taking the risk. According to a regional newspaper in Palanga, the most popular sea resort, the absence of a shelter pushes homeless people to stay in garages or even swimming pools. In conditions of extreme cold, residents are publicly encouraged to report any rough sleepers by calling the emergency number. It can take only five minutes to get a frostbite on open limbs. Every year homeless people lose their limbs when they receive medical help too late. According to doctors interviewed by Alfa.lt news portal, sometimes treatment takes months, and when a homeless person is released from hospital, it is almost winter again.

node/133

Living in a self-sufficient way

Something I haven’t paid much attention to so far, on Moneyless: self-sufficiency. I wonder. Is it because I’ve always lived in a city? Or because I love travelling too much, which makes it hard to stay in the same spot? I personally haven’t turned into a hobby or lifestyle: to be able to live without external help. On the other side, I’ve lived some days in Portugal from fruit that I found on the road. But I haven’t gone further than that. I don’t yet have plans to take this direction in the near future. But I would like to add more information about this on Moneyless.org, with more information about people who are living this way and for example about eco-villages and intentional communities.

node/71

Bake your own bread

Baking your own bread is quite simple, very nutritious and super fun to do. On top of that you need little or no money to do it. You do need flour, water and salt. With these three ingredients you can make the tastiest bread you ever tried. This is bread without yeast. As soon as you know how to make bread you can teach it to other people in exchange for some flour and the use of an oven. Or you ask for the ingredients and bake two breads. Like they you can eat your bread without money. It’s super nutritious and surprisingly tasty.

Instructions

With flour and water you can make leaven. It works like this: you mix the flour with some water to form a papje and let it sit for a day or more. Every day you refresh it with a bit of water and flour, let it bubble. After a while there will be crusts. Now it’s ready to bake bread. * For more extended instructions, check these instructions. * Make your own sourdough * Find Discussion and more recipes at

node/35

Use a sewing machine

Nothing is more fun than making and repairing your own clothes. A sewing machine is a great tool to do this and it’s not hard to handle. You just have to learn it! You can patch pants or make a bag from old t-shirts. Or make your own pants. Sewing is also fun to do in a group. There are likely to be more people in your neighborhood that like sewing. You can learn from each other. The only thing to do is to find them. Ask around in your group of friends, check Meetup or post an ad in your local supermarket. On wikihow.com you can find more about how using a sewing machine. Image from Wikipedia, CC-BY-SA.

node/10

Basic income

An unconditional basic income for all means that every citizen would get a fixed amount of money, every month or every week. No one moneyless. There’s a good case to be made for a global basic income, it would alleviate poverty and even that would already create so much prosperity that it’s worth striving for. It’s not straightforward to get there, but some ideas are to fund it with through value added tax, and meanwhile get rid of social security and income tax. In return for that every citizen and/or resident gets a fixed amount of money that can cover the rent, food and other basic needs.
The French economist and philosopher André Gorz put it this way: > The connection between more and better has been broken; our needs for many products and services are already more than adequately met, and many of our as-yet-unsatisfied needs will be met not by producing more, but by producing differently, producing other things, or even producing less. This is especially true as regards our needs for air, water, space, silence, beauty, time and human contact.

He continues by adding that we can create the same or even more wealth when working less and that it’s not true any more that the more each individual works, the more we’re better off altogether. On the contrary. France is currently leading this path with the 35-hour work week and if you add in part-timers you get to an average 27 hours in the Netherlands and 30 hours in France. That’s only the start though. Because even with an average 27 hours per week there’s not enough work for everyone who wants to work, or rather, for everyone who wants to earn the money linked to this work.

Some advantages of a basic income:

Sign the European Citizens’ Initiative

If you’re an EU citizen Sign the petition for an exploration of basic income within the EU.

## More information

node/113

Free Money

“Free money!” I love it. It reminds me of my trip to Vegas back in 2011 with my pal Kenny. Yes there was some free money to be had, although I’m not sure it really happened on the craps table. Our relatively fancy hotel room in the Pyramid was definitely free, our drinks were free, as long as we were playing and I did get 10 USD for free for registering myself with the casinos. I even somewhat believe that Kenny is smart enough to be able to make money in Vegas. But it’s high risk and it’s not a good idea if you’re actually in need of money. With free money I’m also reminded about the pile of coins I found next to the glass recycling this month. Somehow someone was too lazy to take all those 1 and 2 eurocent coins and put them in a machine that accepts them. Well, that’s what I did and I got about 78 cents of free money. (Note I didn’t actually count while mindlessly putting those coins in there.) Instead I think most of the free money I got is about not spending. Hitchhiking, walking (or blackriding) instead of paying for public transport, dumpster diving or table diving instead of paying for food, staying out in a tent or with local people (or in a free hotel in Vegas) instead of paying for accommodation. I do think all that free money enabled me to think and do stuff that most people don’t get the chance to: travel the world, meet and spend time with amazing people on 6 continents and learn a lot of languages. There is a growing movement of people who want to give free money to everyone. This is mostly called universal basic income (UBI). With UBI every citizen or resident of a town, region or country, and ideally the entire world, will receive a fixed income every week or month. It might sound very communist to some but even the not so Lefty president Nixon was considering setting up such a system at some point. There have been successful experiments in Canada, Namibia, Brazil among other places. The future of automization will make jobs disappear and thus basic income will almost be a necessity for widespread happiness.

node/134

Money economy

The money economy is a form of economy in which transactions are done with money. Alternatives are possible, e.g. bartering, but money is the dominant factor for transactions between people. The money economy is a product of human society. > Money is impersonal and reduces qualitative values to a quantity (source)

Other economies

Other economic forms or concepts are for example: - Gift economy - Swap economy - Sharing economy

Borrowing money and interest

The money economy is based on the creation of money through the process of borrowing money and interest. Consumers, but also companies and governments borrow money because money is seen as the engine of prosperity. People think nothing is possible without money. To some degree we as a society are addicted to money. Without money we can’t live.

Outgrowing money

It’s an art to think of ways to grow out of the money system, to reduce the influence of money on our existence. Robino wrote a story about outgrowing money: effective refusal. The following citations stems from it: > But why should we stop participating in this system? Because it’s the system in which so many are trapped denies our existence. The system refuses to acknowledge me as a human. It doesn’t allow us, for everyone to simply be human.

Value of money

Through the dominance of borrowing money there’s also the process of commodifying. It means that the value of everything is expressed in money. Even of stuff that was previously freely shared, such as food. There’s a price attached. We think it’s good, because it ensures a certain distribution. But it’s a system based on the creation of scarcity and it’s thriving on poverty, overproduction and for example food waste. All in all we don’t even know what the value of money is.

node/80

Use Free Software

Free software is software that is made ​​for people to use freely. It does not cost any money to use it. And besides, everyone is entitled to the source code of the software to make changes and distribute the changes, which often turn out very well for the quality. The way free software works can also be a great way to transition towards a moneyless society. Also this website runs on Free Software. We use for cashless Drupal cms platform and Apache as a web server. The system runs on Debian , a GNU / Linux distribution that made ​​entirely by volunteers. On your computer, you can also install Linux. It comes with all the programs that you normally need, such as a web browser and email programs, word processing programs and applications as well as to listen to music and movies with you to watch. A commonly used distribution is Ubuntu or Linux Mint, but there are other distributions that you can use. For example, Robin, author of moneyless, using the more geeky Arch Linux. For a list of all possible distributions Wikipedia see.

/ The way to make a small fortune in the commodities market is to start \
\ With a large fortune. /- 
                        \
                         \
                          .--.
                        |o_o |
                         |:_/ |
                        //   \ \ 
                       (|     | )
                      /'\_   _/`\
                     \___)=(___/

node/3

Don’t like advertising? Adblock!

I don’t like advertising. There are many good reasons to not like advertising: audio-visual, environmental, political, financial and ethical aspects About ten years ago I was personally involved in some radical direct action against advertising in the Parisian métro, which was and still is chock full of ads. Well, and then, as it goes, later I started playing around with online AdSense advertising, which is indirectly the reason there’s advertising on moneyless.org. Still I recommend anyone to install online advertising blockers: * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adblock_Plus * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AdBlock I also created a convenient way to listen to advertising free online radio stations: Radio Meteor. If your favorite ad free station is missing, please add a feature request.

node/126

Learn how to code for free

Always wanted to learn how to code? You’re interested in building apps or websites but don’t know where to start? Or you think this will cost money? For that purpose there are many guides available online.

Which language?

There are many programming languages. The best know is PHP, which is used to build websites. But there are also many different languages used to write applications for an operating system that’s running your smart-phone, tablet, laptop or desktop computer. Learning to write applications is less difficult than it seems. As with many things in life, it’s starting to learn something new which is the hard part. Once you’re on it, you’ll be learning fast. So decide upon what the first thing you want to approach.

PHP

Great for websites. Most websites are built with PHP, from Facebook to Moneyless.org. It’s not the “cleanest” language though and it has some quirks. But if you mainly want to build websites this is your choice. Also note that highly prevalent platforms such as WordPress and Drupal are built in PHP, so if you want to quickly get started building your own website these would be a good choice.

Python

Python was created by a Dutch mathematician. It’s very clean and organized. A great language for learning how to code. You can

Ruby

Ruby is beautiful. But not used a lot.

JavaScript

JavaScript is well known to make things move on webpages, inside the browser. In recent years it has grown into a widely language, especially with the advent of Node.js, which lets you run JavaScript on a webserver as well so you can build entire websites with it. It’s a great language to learn, but it can be hard. “Callbacks” are very common, which make it hard to grasp. It’s not the best language to start with, but once you have the basics nailed down it’s a good second language if you want to build websites.

Java

Funny enough Java doesn’t have anything to do with JavaScript. Java is very common, it runs on most modern machines and most Android apps are written in Java. Consequently it’s a good language if you want to build apps, or if you want to work in big corporations, where the language has become very popular.

Free resources

There are a lot of platforms to find good resources to learn how to code.

Codecademy

A good platform to learn to write code is http://www.codecademy.com. There you can take courses on basic HTML, CSS as well as Javascript, PHP and Ruby on Rails.

Youtube

You can learn anything on Youtube these days. A query for Learn Python gives me 778,000 results today, number #1 was created by GoogleDevelopers. So definitely quality there.

CodeCombat

Through gaming: CodeCombat

CodeCombat is a free software role playing game that will teach you programming while playing.

node/121

Contents