This article is the sequel to Our “Fall” From Grace & Our Return to Eden blog article which explained how the monetary system came into existence and how it is the cause of all man-made problems we are experiencing on Earth. The purpose of this article is to share a very practical path our tribe is taking that we feel can help lead to Total FREEdom for ALL that we all yearn for and that we all once had. Total FREEdom for ALL does not mean that each person can do whatever they want in life because ultimately that will take away from someone else’s freedom. Total FREEdom for ALL means the perfect balance of individual and collective freedom. We want to warn you that this path is not easy because of all the brainwashing, programming and conditioning we have been subjected to since birth by the monetary system. The massive deprogramming we need to undertake will require courage, will power, patience, compassion, and a deep desire to free not only yourself, but also other fellow humans, Mother Earth and all her creatures. Ask your heart, which world do you want to live in? A world in which everything has a price tag and you have to work for money in order to pay for everything, or a world in which everything is FREE and you only work for Love and from Love. Buying and selling is not Love. Giving and receiving is Love. It’s time for each of us to be the Love that we really are.

The Ultimate Expression of Total FREEdom for ALL

Total FREEdom for ALL is about freeing yourself from the monetary slave system as well as freeing yourself from yourself (your own prison or form of slavery). The ultimate expression of Total FREEdom for ALL is Unconditional Love for yourself and for others. We are considered healed, whole, perfect, and enlightened when we can do this. The major reason why we lost our purity or capacity for Unconditional Love as we became adults is that we were forced to live in a monetary system where everything you need to survive you have to work hard for to earn money so you can then pay a price for the things you need and things you do not need. This daily stress and programming has trained us to only give with the condition of expecting something in return which is the exact opposite of Unconditional Love. The monetary system is very successful at creating stress and we know that stress is a significant contributor to disease and emotional imbalances. Stress is the only thing that can bring out the worst in people. A truly happy and peaceful person could never say or do something negative or hurtful to themselves or others. Living in a monetary system or even in a trade or barter system will not allow us to give and receive unconditionally and therefore will not allow us to experience Unconditional Love with our self or with each other. This inability to experience or express Unconditional Love in all aspects of our life is the root cause of all of our problems. See Unconditional Love: The Only Thing Worth Fighting For to learn more.

The Inevitable Enlightenment of All Humanity

Never underestimate the power of a system to affect all aspects of perceived and operating reality. The monetary system is by far the most damaging and all-encompassing system ever invented. I have yet to see someone identify a man-made problem that cannot be traced back to the monetary system. Once you master the cause and effect thinking, you will begin to see everything from the perspective of the monetary system because you will be able to trace all man-made problems back to it. For example, the fact that an adult is forced to unwillingly go back living with their parents now is a result of the monetary system. It is not at all a reflection of their self-worth.

The system was set up to reward those who are egotistic, shallow, materialistic, and who are willing to compromise their values and not work in the best interest of others or the planet. Those who have a lot of money either got it during a period of economic boom or they were willing to be subhuman to achieve and hoard wealth. This is why we should not at all be ashamed of living with our parents or other family members. We actually should be living with our parents and others, sharing and helping each other again like God had always intended. Money has nothing to do with how we really want to live. Not only is it totally unnecessary, but it was designed to prevent the enlightenment of humanity. What the inventors of the monetary system did not foresee (because they were so disconnected from their own human spirit), however, was that the human spirit is actually made of pure Light so it will be seen at its brightest when it is the darkest and hence the inevitable enlightenment of all humanity, including the inventors of the monetary system. To understand how the monetary system is the most successful mind control program in human history, see The Most Successful Mind Control Program in Human History.

Removing the Shackles of the Monetary System

The monetary system was designed to be unsustainable and eventually collapse so that the majority of the population will be completely poor and dependent on the government. The more dependent you are on the government for survival the easier it is to control/enslave the population. The simplest and most effective way we have found to start on the path towards Total FREEdom for ALL is to make a list of all the things you currently pay for or buy and then think creatively and practically about how you can eliminate each bill or purchase. Some things may require partnership with others, some you can do on your own. You will soon realize that you will need to have access to a piece of land in which you can grow and produce your own food, medicine, and raw, renewable materials for all your personal care items and household needs, essentially transforming yourself from a Consumer to a Producer. You will also realize that you cannot do all of this alone and will need to partner with family and friends and even start sharing between communities, tribes, or clans.

Ideally, no money will be traded within the clan itself (e.g., freely share labor or services) or even between communities that agree to extend the gift economy with each other. However, an individual tribe or a group of these communities can work together and operate as a business to the outside world who still live the monetary-system lifestyle in order to raise funds needed for those items that are still deeply rooted in the monetary system (e.g., government taxes). This need to partner and cooperate with others is actually the key to making Total FREEdom for ALL a reality. This is a great time to break down walls and mend and heal all relationships whether that be with significant others, immediate family, extended family, or friends. This is a time of understanding and compassion, a time to acknowledge and then transform the energy of all toxic emotions into Pure Unconditional Love. You will also realize that your clan cannot be too big or too small. There is a fine balance that needs to be met between individual and collective freedom and you will find that balance with the Purity of your Mind and the Purity of your Heart. To learn how tribal living can offer true financial FREEdom, reclaim individual sovereignty, and how the monetary system created government systems, see Tribal Living (Building Community).

Eliminate Rent or Mortgage Bill

The largest bill for most people living in the monetary system is the monthly rent or mortgage bill. To eliminate this bill, a drastic change in your relationships with others and/or your lifestyle needs to be considered depending on your unique circumstances. The ultimate goal is to purchase or get access to land that will produce almost everything you need (and cooperate with others for those items you cannot produce yourself) not only for you and your family but also for all your future generations. This is the absolute best investment you can ever make and is one that will produce an infinite amount of returns for practically an eternity. It is the most amazing legacy you can ever leave behind for your children and their children as far as your lineage of descendants can go. Imagine your descendents never having to worry about shelter (rent or mortgage), food, and bills of any kind ever again!

We happened to have a house we could sell quickly to get rid of our mortgage and we sold as much of our personal possessions as possible simplifying our lifestyle (e.g., we learned to live without furniture – see The Health Benefits of Living Without Furniture), and we cashed-out our retirement funds by paying the early withdrawal penalty in order to have enough money to move to a place where the cost of living is significantly cheaper than the U.S. (e.g., Costa Rica), buy our land, build our house with materials from our land (or re-use materials found locally), and start making our land productive. This is just what worked with our own unique situation. What would work for you could be different. The main idea here is to get access to land if you do not already have land. If you need to purchase land and do not have enough money, start raising capital for your land by reducing your need for money (i.e., “a penny saved, is a penny earned”). You will be amazed by the end of this article at how much money you can save (or how free you can be) by simply changing the way you live and even where you live.

Another way to raise capital for your land is to pool together resources with family and friends, essentially starting your clan right from the very beginning. Start sharing rent or mortgage and other resources in an effort to raise even more capital while combining all your capital together for the land. You want to eventually sell the house to eliminate the mortgage and buy the land to eliminate the rent. The following ideas will help you raise even more capital for your land as you simplify your lifestyle and live sustainably and creatively. Remember that every bill or expense eliminated is one step closer to Total FREEdom.

Build Your Own Home

Using the resources of your own land, you can build a very inexpensive, eco-friendly yet durable home that can withstand up to an 8.0 earthquake (if built as a round, not square or rectangular structure) and last more than 500 years by learning how to build with cob which is a mixture of clay-rich soil, sand, straw, and water. We have plans to experiment not only with cob, but also other sustainable building materials such as Earthship (made of used tires packed with earth), earth bags (breathable bags stuffed with earth), and stone/cave/subterranean homes. We would also like to experiment with more temporary structures such as tree houses and yurts made out of wood or bamboo in the more remote areas of our land.

Rounded homes are key to allowing energy to flow unimpeded and for maximum stability. Sharp corners are actually structurally weak which is why square or rectangular homes and buildings collapse so easily during earthquakes, tornadoes, or hurricanes. Round or dome-shaped homes are the most structurally sound designs. Sharp corners actually traps and stagnates energy which creates a stressful atmosphere in the home over time. There are no squares or rectangles in Nature. Everything is curved and flows unimpeded.

Breathable walls are very important to create healthy, sanitary interior conditions. For this reason, we will be sure to use only natural, breathable materials for the walls and its plaster. Earthships will need to be designed with some gaps between tires and a natural plaster and more open air designs to maximize breathability.

Conducting Earth’s healing energy (i.e., grounding) throughout the home is another important design consideration. Walls and floor made out of earth will conduct the Earth’s energy very well and protect you from harmful electromagnetic radiation. Plastics, vinyl, anything synthetic, glazed ceramic tile, sealed/painted concrete, and even natural wood do not conduct the Earth’s energy. See Sustainable Building to learn more.

Eliminate Car or Other Loans/Debt

If you have a car or other loan/debt, it is best to pay them off if you can using the strategies listed in this article to raise capital if you need to. It is time to live within your means and stop living on borrowed credit. If it is not possible to pay your debt, then filing bankruptcy is another option. Avoid debt consolidation schemes that promise lower interest payments because all they do is just extend the time it will take for you to pay off your debt thereby making your debt bigger in the long-run. Some creditors (e.g., hospitals and credit cards) will actually significantly reduce the debt after attempts to collect debt has failed in an attempt to mitigate their loss as much as possible and some will eventually give up trying to collect. Creditors may be willing to negotiate and settle with you if they know you cannot pay them what they want. A bad credit history may result, but it may not matter anyways since the goal is to stop spending more than you have (stop borrowing money or getting into debt).

Eliminate Food & Medical Expenses

Growing your own food and medicine is a great way to eliminate this bill. In fact, this is a great time to re-evaluate the nutritional value of your diet and start to see food as your medicine so that you won’t have medical problems to begin with. It is time to really understand the real purpose of food and that is to supply vital nutrients our bodies need to not only survive but to thrive with radiant health so that disease or illness is impossible. The purpose of food is not to fulfill emotional or mental needs. It is to fulfill the needs of your body. Your emotional and mental needs are supposed to be fulfilled by the quality of your relationships with others, including your relationships with animals, plants, and Mother Earth. Eating purely for pleasure is similar to being addicted to drugs, alcohol, smoking, sex, gambling, or anything that gives you a temporary high or pleasure. You are addicted to pleasure because there is too much pain in your life. Once you eliminate the pain, you will no longer be addicted to pleasure.

Once you can focus on eating for nutritional value and not just for pleasure, your diet will naturally change and become a lot more simple, healthy, wholesome, and energizing. The following are the major changes we have made to our diet:

1. Elimination of supplements: Supplements actually prevent people from changing their diet because it mitigates the effects of their bad diet so they never get to feel the effects of the real cause of their lack of energy or illnesses. The real culprit for the of lack of vitality and health is the food that you put in your body three or more times a day every single day. Eliminating supplements not only eliminated a huge bill for us, but it forced us to get all our nutrients from fresh, organic, whole, unprocessed foods which actually is a lot better than highly processed tablets, capsule, or powder supplements that look nothing like their original form. The only way to ensure that the food you eat has ample of amounts of nutrients in it is to grow it yourself organically and biodynamically and to use nutrient concentration and assimilation methods such as juicing and blending and eating it raw if possible.
2. Eat more foods raw (foods that can be safely eaten raw): This maximizes the nutrients we are able to obtain from the food as heat over 115 degrees Fahrenheit destroys or denatures enzymes, proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and heat-sensitive vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. The enzymes in the raw food not only maximizes its digestion, but it also breaks down toxins (thereby neutralizing their toxic effects) so they can be more easily eliminated from the body. The key to efficient and thorough elimination is efficient and thorough digestion.
3. Eat more raw foods in their whole state: This makes food preparation a lot easier (do not have to be a raw food chef) as you do not have to spend so many hours in the kitchen preparing it which will make it more convenient to eat. Learn to appreciate the subtle flavors of food in their natural, unseasoned state such as fruits in their whole state or vegetables chopped and mixed together in a salad. As your tongue gains back its sensitivity (like when we were babies), you can actually eliminate the expense of salt and other seasonings such as oils, condiments, and sauces. Finally, a “fast food” that is actually good for you!
4. No microwaving food: Microwave radiation destroys up to 95% of the nutrients in the food and tends to create carcinogenic compounds. Also eliminates the expense of buying and maintaining a microwave oven.
5. Avoid meat or eat a lot less meat: Though you can raise animals for consumption yourself, the act of killing the animal is a big deterrent for us and may be for others as well. It is a truth we must come to terms with as we finally take responsibility for growing and producing our own food. It is all too easy to eat meat that we never had to witness or participate in the slaughter of. One way we have seen people get around this when raising animals for meat on their farm is not to bond with the animal by keeping interactions with the animal to a bare minimum such as only providing it with food or keeping them out of sight by putting them in a pen or cage far away from the house. These methods may not be considered humane. It seems that the only real humane treatment is to bond with the animal by interacting with it more, but once a bond forms, it may be very difficult for one to kill it for meat unless it is an absolute necessity. We have discussed this with our children and only Allegra has said she would be willing to try capturing and killing fish to feed her pet cat or dog. We may also try raising freshwater shrimp and clams for our carnivorous animals. This is also something to consider if you are planning on having top predators such as cats and dogs on the farm. Will you be willing to raise and slaughter animals to feed them?
6. Vegetarian vs. vegan: Vegetarians do not eat the meat of any animal (including birds, fish, crustacean, molluscs, and insects), but they do eat dairy, unfertilized eggs, and honey because the animal does not have to be killed in order to obtain these things. Vegans are more strict than vegetarians in that they stay away from anything derived from animals which includes dairy, eggs, and honey. Multiple generations of families have successfully sustained themselves on a vegetarian diet so we know vegetarianism works for a sizable population of humans. We cannot say the same for veganisn as it seems to be a relatively new diet. However, it is very possible that as humans continue to evolve molecularly, the nutritional needs of humans can change to veganism and even breatharianism (those who subsist on just air and sunlight) over time. The main thing here is to pay close attention to your body and allow it tell you what it needs and do not be surprised if it changes its needs over time. JAL was born and raised on meat and was an avid steak eater as an adult until about 10 years ago when his body told him to become vegetarian and has been a strict vegetarian since. Ngoc has experimented with both vegetarianism and veganism off and on for the past eight years and has now stabilized on mostly raw vegan, but is flexible at social gatherings or special events. Max, Renzi and Allegra have voluntarily become vegan after eating meat most of their lives. See Humanity’s Evolution to Veganism, Vegetarianism & Breatharianism to learn more.
7. Eat less without starving: Without having to starve, we have found that exercising in the morning before eating, spending more time doing things that feed the hunger of our soul, drinking more water (e.g., 16-32 ounces of lemon water first thing in the morning before exercising), and eating just enough to eliminate the hunger (e.g., 80% full) naturally reduces physical hunger. Eating less has actually been shown to increase lifespan up to 40% and actually gives your digestive system the right amount of food it can handle to fully digest and process the food you ate and properly eliminate waste before you ingest any more food. Overeating (e.g., to 100% or more capacity) can actually overburden your digestive and elimination system leading to indigestion, malabsorption of nutrients, and clogged and toxic elimination systems.
8. Salt: We want to learn how to make our own pure sea salt so we can stop buying salt. Eating raw vegetarian or raw vegan may eventually eliminate the need for salt altogether.
9. Teas: We use to buy tea bags until we discovered that making your own tea is far superior in flavor and nutritional potency. All you do is boil the fresh herb, bark, or root and you have a most delicious tea. You can make tea from practically any edible herb or spice, for example, the leaves and stem of oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary (leaves only), stevia, and mint; the bark of cinnamon; or the roots of tumeric and ginger. For raw teas, you can try sun-infusions where you let the herb soak in water in the sun.

See Permaculture and Biodynamic Organic Farming to learn more.

Eliminate Insurance Bills

Insurance of all kinds are a product of the monetary system and is completely unnecessary when you are eating as Nature intended and sharing and helping each other freely. Our advice is to simply stop paying for insurance and reach out to all your family and friends and strengthen your relationship with them so that in a time of need each of you in our own tribe or community will have help from each other or even from other tribal communities. Eat as explained above, heal all your relationships, and cultivate deep bonds with humans, plants, and animals so disease or illness can never be created within you. Do yoga and meditate regularly so that you will always be focused and agile so you can prevent accidents. Accidents most likely occur when you are not paying attention and your mind is elsewhere in the future or the past and your body has lost its flexibility, agility, strength, and reflexes.

Eliminate Utility Bills

Monthly utility bills are the next set of bills that bring a lot of stress just thinking about them. They include electricity, water, gas, trash, telephone, Internet, and cable or satellite TV. The following is how we eliminated or will eliminate each one:

1. Electricity: The first thing we did was to reduce our dependance on electricity by avoiding using devices that require electricity whenever possible.  For example, not using air conditioning and allow our bodies to sweat in order to detox; instead of a hard floor vacuum, we use a broom; instead of an electric steam mop, we use a regular mop; instead of an electric citrus juicer, we use a manual juicer; instead of a bread machine, we bake bread in an oven; instead of an electric grill, we use a propane grill; instead of an electric clock, we use rechargeable battery-operated wall clock that uses a lot less electricity. The side-benefit of using non-electric devices is that they last longer or are easier to make your own if it breaks. We will eventually generate our own electricity and in a sustainable, renewable manner. We still need to research and experiment with exactly how this will be done and will update everyone on our mailing list.
2. Water: We eliminated this bill ever since we move to our Motherland. We still need to purchase and maintain water filtration systems because the house is currently hooked up to river water. We have plans to re-source our water from a spring that is about 1 kilometer from the wooden house. We will also be harvesting rainwater from our roof-tops and in irrigation ditches (swales), ponds, lakes, and various kinds of dams that we will create on our land so we will always have water during the 6-month dry season and in case of a drought. The higher level dams can even be used to generate electricity for special use or emergency purposes if needed.
3. Gas: We have plans to produce methane gas for cooking and for drying clothes (during rainy season) from our toilet wastes, food wastes, and horse and cow manure using a methane biodigester. Burning methane gas prevents methane gas from being released into the atmosphere for those who are concerned with greenhouse gases. If we generate a consistent enough supply of methane gas, we can even use it to generate electricity.
4. Trash: Our goal is to produce zero waste by growing everything we need and composting, recycling, reusing, or re-purposing them. Examples of this will be explained in subsequent sections below.
5. Telephone: Telephone will be free the day the people who own telephone manufacturing and telephone service decide to get out of the monetary system and join a tribe. It may also be eliminated if we figure out how to create our own telephone service. The need for telephone will be eliminated all together the day we all learn how to telepathically communicate with each other. This will take time to develop as it requires becoming very sensitive and intuitive beings again. In the meantime, see Reducing or Eliminating Phone Expenses to learn what our family does to drastically reduce this expense.
6. Internet: Internet will also be free the day the people who own the Internet hosting service decide to get out of the monetary system and join a tribe. It may also be eliminated if we figure out how to freely access the Internet (see Lantern: One Device, Free Data From Space Forever and DIY Remote Internet Connection Make Your Own Off-Grid Internet Connection). The need for Internet will also be eliminated all together the day we learn how to access the Ethernet, a cosmic Internet that contains all information, past, present, and future. This will also take time to develop as it requires becoming very sensitive and intuitive again. In the meantime, we are paying $46.36 per month for 4 Mbps Internet which is enough for streaming videos here in Costa Rica.
7. Cable/Satellite TV: We highly recommend getting rid of your TV service completely as the TV is the number one source of false information, mind programming, numbing, and dumbing down. We recommend getting your news and other information from the Internet instead where you are more in control of what you want to see or read. Our family has not paid for cable/satellite TV for more than ten years now.

See Sustainable Energy to learn more.

Eliminate Taxes & Other Government Fees

Bills imposed by our own government may be the last ones to go away. The only way to eliminate expenses imposed by the government is to have no one in government willing to be the government (the enforcer) anymore. That day will happen when a tipping point has been achieved in the number of people living mostly outside the monetary system convinces those who enforce the law to join the growing gift economy.

Grow & Make Your Own Personal Care Items

The monetary system has produced so many personal care products that we have been programmed to believe we need. However, the truth is that we actually need very little to take good care of ourselves. The number one change we need to make to reduce our need for all these products is to eat a diet that will eliminate and prevent all diseases and give our bodies radiant health. If our bodies are healthy, then we really only need a few personal care items such as a method of cleaning our mouth, soap for body and hair, and something to collect menstrual fluids for women. A healthy body will not produce body odor so deodorants, cologne or perfumes are not needed. Make-up and lotions will not be needed as radiant health naturally creates rosy cheeks and lips, bright eyes and beautiful skin and hair. It is time to be who you really are and love your body and face the way it is and just focus on getting it healthy and radiant au natural. Do not bother with dying your hair or curling or straightening it. None of these superficial cover-ups or enhancements should matter anymore.

1. Oral Care: We no longer buy plastic toothbrushes, Teflon floss, or toxic mouthrinse. Instead, we chew on the ends of twigs that have anti-microbial essential oils in them and then use the frayed ends as a brush to brush our teeth and gums. We use wooden toothpicks and our own hair to floss. We then finish off with a natural, homemade mouthrinse of rosemary, thyme, or oregano tea/essential oils. We use a re-usable copper tongue scrapper to clean our tongue.
2. Toilet Paper: We no longer buy toilet paper because 15 million trees are cut down every year in the U.S. alone to make toilet paper and 253,000 tons of chlorine are used to bleach it. Instead, we have learned to simply use water and our hands to wash ourselves after using the toilet. You can also buy a bidet to make this process even easier. To learn more about bidets, see Why Most Americans Don’t Own a Bidet.
3. Paper Towels, Napkins & Tissue: We no longer buy disposable paper towels, napkins and tissue paper and instead just use re-usable cloth rags/towels to clean, wash our mouth, nose, and hands with water or use re-usable cloth napkins, and handkerchiefs as tissue replacement.
4. Soap & Shampoo: We plan to grow our own ingredients to make natural soaps and shampoos.
5. Sanitary Napkins/Tampons: I no longer buy disposable sanitary napkins or panty liners. Instead, I use re-usable Sckoon menstrual cups (one for light days and the other for heavier days) and organic cotton reusable panty liners to protect against any leaks. If you do a 100% raw vegan diet over time, your menstruation may actually disappear altogether as menstruation is actually a sign of toxicity in the body and will go away (but still allow ovulation) if your body is super clean and healthy. I have gotten my period down from 7-10 days to 2-3 days and look forward to eliminating it altogether as I increase the percentage of raw foods in my diet.
6. Body Lotion/Moisturizer/Lip Balm: A healthy, well-hydrated body will not need any lotion or moisturizer. If we do need a lotion, moisturizer, or lip balm, coconut oil is the best.
7. Natural Bug Repellant: We plan to make our own natural insect repellant essential oils and plant natural insect repellant plants around our living areas on our land.
8. Natural Sunblock: The best way to protect your skin from the sun is not to avoid the sunlight but to expose it regularly (not to the point of sunburns of course) so your body can develop melanin (tanning) which is a natural protection while allowing your body to get all the benefits of sunlight such as skin collagen (to remove and prevent wrinkles), vitamin D, melatonin sleep hormone, human growth hormone (anti-aging “fountain-of-youth”), and serotonin (the “feel good” neurotransmitter) production. While you are in the process of tanning or producing more melanin, you can use coconut oil which has an SPF of 4 to 10 depending on the quality of the coconut oil to help you stay longer in the sun if you need to. For even higher SPF protection, see Top 10 Natural Oils That Act As Sunscreen.

Grow & Make Your Own Household Cleaning Items

Thanks to the monetary system, there are so many toxic household cleaning products out there because synthetic, patentable chemicals prevent people from growing and making it themselves. There are effective natural alternatives for all our cleaning needs except for bleach.

1. Bleach: Toxic chlorine, unfortunately does a better job at bleaching or removing stains from whites than any natural alternative we have tried so far so we have almost given up on having truly white clothes anymore. We would rather live with off-white or grey than poison ourselves and Mother Earth with chlorine. However, there are some natural bleaching alternatives we have not tried yet like sunlight (a powerful bleaching agent and disinfectant) and enzyme cleaners that just might work.
2. Dish & Laundry Soap: We currently make our own enzyme cleaner made from fermented lemon and orange peels and white sugar (or sugar cane juice). The citrus enzyme cleaner does wonders as a laundry soap substitute and is a great multi-purpose cleanser and insect repellent. We will also try coconut-based soaps if we can grow enough coconuts.
3. Kitchen/Bath/Multipurpose Cleanser/Disinfectant: We plan to make our own vinegar and alcohol, but we can also use enzyme cleaners for this.
4. Sunlight & Oxygen: Another thing to consider are the unsanitary conditions caused by living in houses that are constructed with unbreathable materials such as concrete, air-proof plasters, synthetic materials, and well-sealed homes. Homes that are not designed with ample air circulation as well as sunlight in mind tend to have problems with mold, mildew, dust, and microbes making cleaning more time-consuming and more difficult. Consider this when building your home. Use natural materials whenever possible to increase the breathability of the home (e.g., cob, wood, bamboo, breathable earth bags) and design more open-air or outdoor space for kitchen, dining, living, and bath areas to let in more sunlight and oxygen – two of Nature’s most powerful cleaning agents.
5. Paper Towels: We no longer buy paper towels and instead just use washable cloth towels or rags.
6. Gloves: Since we are using only natural products, there is no need to buy plastic or rubber gloves to protect our hands.
7. Sponges: We currently grow the Luffa plant and use it as a natural, compostable sponge. We could even add its fibers to our homemade soaps in the future for extra cleaning power.

Make Your Own Dishes & Pots With Clay

Making your own clay pots and pans as well as bakeware and dishware should be fun and relatively easy. Unglazed clay pots are non-toxic, can withstand very high temperatures, and are porous enough to allow heat and moisture to circulate more effectively through the food and provide added minerals or alkalinity to the food thereby giving acidic foods a little more sweetness and a lot more nutrition. You can also make pots and vases for flowers and plants as well have coffee or tea mugs. Even broken clay pots can be useful (see Don’t Throw Out Broken Clay Pots!).

Make Your Own Furniture with Wood/Bamboo

Cultivate a forest of hardwood trees and bamboo so you will always have enough for the making furniture or building construction. Trees we are planning on cultivating on our Motherland include mahogany, teak, Brazilian cherry, purpleheart (violetwood), trebol (macowood), and bamboo.

Make Your Own Clothes/Fabric/Bedding With Cotton & Wool

Cotton and wool-spinning and weaving to make fabric along with knitting and sewing skills are great skills to have in order to make your own blankets, towels, rugs, or clothes. They are also powerful meditative practices that help clear the mind and enhance focus and concentration as well as cultivate patience and mindfulness which are qualities we all lost in the fast-paced world of modern conveniences providing instant gratification. Since it is a time-consuming process, we envision this to be a possibility within a larger community that can be shared and traded like Mahatma Gandhi’s ashram. To minimize our need for clothes, we have learned to mend clothes when they rip and we no longer care if clothes are stained. We wear the same clothes every day until they get dirty (usually after one week). Men don’t need to wear underwear unless they wear tight pants or just need to wash their bum well after each bowel movement (don’t use toilet paper, just water and soap). We are no longer into fashion or care about how we look. It is more about the functionality of clothes rather than the appearance of clothes. With this kind of outlook and washing clothes infrequently, we can make the clothes we have last a lifetime.

Mattresses and pillows stuffed with wool can last 50 years (decades more than standard spring mattresses) and are a lot more eco-friendly (imagine no more toxic mattresses in landfills and instead biodegradable ones in composts) and healthier.

Make Your Own Shoes, Belts, Accessories

Shoes, belts, and other accessories can be made from natural rubber (from rubber trees), hemp, and/or leather from the skin of dead animals (preferably that died from natural causes).

Make Your Own Natural Car Fuel

We definitely want to eliminate our dependence on polluting fossil fuels by producing our own alcohol for gasoline engines or bio-diesel (e.g., vegetable oil) for diesel engines. We also want to use horses and bicycles as transportation whenever possible to reduce wear and tear on our car and fuel usage.

Fixing Appliances & Cars

One way to avoid the cost of fixing appliances and cars is to learn how to fix them yourself or have someone in your community who knows how to fix appliances and cars. However, replacement parts will cost money (or you can barter/trade) until those who manufacture these parts join the gift economy. A strategy to minimize this cost that we have used is to not have many appliances to begin with and only use appliances and cars when really necessary. As a result, we have eliminated many kitchen appliances and gadgets such as the dishwasher, microwave oven, electric grill, bread machines, etc. and have kept only the refrigerator, freezer, blender, and food processor. We do have an electric clay pot rice/slow cooker, a small electric oven, and an electric vegetable/fruit juicer that when it breaks, we will not be replacing.

As a general rule of thumb, try to use manual appliances that can be easily fixed since electronic appliances are more difficult to fix and obtain replacement parts for. For example, avoid washing machines with electronic controls as the electronic control boards are designed to malfunction after 18 months whereas washing machines with mechanical control boards have been known to last about 20 years or more. If our washing machine ever dies, we will look into building a manual, non-electric one such as one powered by a bicycle so we can get a good workout while we are doing it. When you start doing things the slow way, you will naturally want to have less clothes to make, maintain, and wash and simplify your life as much as possible. This will be the end of wastefulness of consumerism and materialism. We have even read about bicycles powering a blender and food processor.

We have also thought about what would happen if our refrigerator and freezer dies. Growing our own food would actually significantly reduce our need for refrigeration and freezing since everything can be picked fresh right when we want to eat them. However, we do know that we will have an abundance of food that may need to harvested in large amounts, otherwise, it may all be wasted. In this case, we will need to ferment or dehydrate them so refrigeration or freezing will not be needed and we can share our excess with our neighbors.

Building an open-source 3D printer (or investing in one) is another way to create your own parts. You would need to know how to create or obtain a 3D model image of the part you need and the 3D printer will be able to print you one. Building your own open-source car, heavy machinery, and tools is also a great way to mitigate these costs (see Global Village Construction Set).

Eliminate Child-Related Expenses

Those with children know how expensive it is to raise children in the monetary system. We really need to re-evaluate what is really good for our children and what is actually harmful and an unnecessary expense for our children. The following are child-related expenses we feel should be eliminated:

• Toys and games of all types: Not only are these artificial forms of entertainment and therefore actually dumbing down our children, they are usually made of toxic plastics and tainted with heavy metals. It is better for children to be playing outside in abundant Nature, fresh air, sunshine, rivers, waterfalls, lakes, oceans, mountains, caves, forests, etc. There are so many species of plants and animals children can explore, learn about, and care for and observe how natural systems work. Mother Nature is our best teacher in Life. If we take the time to commune with her, she will reveal all solutions to our problems.
• Babysitting/daycare: Since you no longer have to work outside your home/land, you will no longer need to pay for babysitting or daycare. Also, living with family and extended family or community members will always provide the child care you may need with people you love and trust.
• Diapers: Use washable cloth diapers which are much healthier, breathable, and biodegradable.
• Bottles & Formula: Breastfeeding will eliminate the need for buying toxic bottles and nipples and expensive formula that has far inferior and even questionable nutrition.
• School: In addition to what we learned in Our “Fall” From Grace & Our Return to Eden, the school system was designed to dumb down our children by teaching them false and irrelevant information and deterring them from creative and independent thinking. Homeschooling or unschooling with family and community members with real life survival skills and direct knowledge and experience of how Nature really works will eliminate school-related expenses and give our children the skills and values they need to live a very long, happy, healthy, and fulfilling life.

Cooperation Between Tribes to Produce That Which You Cannot Make

It will be impossible to make everything yourself (even within your own tribe) so network with other tribal communities and determine how the labor and production could be divided up or shared between tribes.

Any More Creative Money-Freedom Ideas?

This is not by all means an exhaustive list of ideas on how to free ourselves from the monetary system. See the Tribal Living (Building Community) page to see what we have found so far that others are doing to help “starve” the monetary system beast (as Michael E. V. Knight puts it). Please share with us and everyone else any other money-saving or money-eliminating ideas you have in the Comments section below.

Expenses That May Take More Than a Lifetime to Eliminate

From what we have listed so far above, we believe that the only expenses we will have left in our lifetime are the ones that may take more than our lifetime to achieve freedom from and those are:

1. Telephone: $10 a month ($120 a year)
2. Internet: $47 a month ($564 a year)
3. Mandatory Car Liability Insurance (Marchamo): $350 a year
4. Vehicle Inspection Certificate (Revisión Técnica): $100 a year?
5. Driver’s License Medical Exam: $50 a year?
6. Car Maintenance & Repairs: $1000 a year?
7. Inactive Corporation Status: $200 a year (needed to protect our assets)
8. Property Tax: $430 a year
9. Domain Name Registration (ardentlight.com): $15 a year
10. Web Hosting (ardentlight.com): $9 a month ($117 a year)

If we were to achieve most of our goals above within the next ten years, our bare minimum expenses per year (not taking into account inflation) would be $2946 per year or $245.50 a month. Now life is not that stressful anymore. Also remember that once you transform yourself from a Consumer to a Producer of goods and services, you will have plenty of things to sell for capital if you ever need money.

The Amazing Legacy You Will Leave Behind

All the ideas listed here will obviously take time. You may or may not be able to implement all of this in your lifetime, but the legacy you will leave behind will be the greatest gift you could ever give to your children and to all future generations of your lineage as well as Mother Earth. Your multi-generational legacy will be a debt-free land and eco-friendly homes, free renewable healthy food, water, electricity, methane gas, car fuel, personal care, and household items. In essence, you will be gifting them their own little Garden of Eden, until eventually the whole world will be one big Garden of Eden again…