Feeling a bit sober this morning. Sober, in the sense that things are pretty serious. That "rise and shine" title is a joke, but this is no joke. All very serious here.
Now, for the meat of the discussion. After considering this for an hour or so before writing this, the problem is still going to be money, just on a smaller scale than it is now. I can certainly cut my expenses, but my revenue stream is going to be cut too. Maybe even more than the expenses are cut. In any case, I'm still going to need cash even if I can cut my living expenses down to the very bone. Raising that cash is an issue in itself. Cutting the need for it to a bare minimum isn't going to get that minimum to zero. The question is: can I cut it down low enough and still make enough to pay for it all?
Even if food, water, shelter are taken care of, there is still a need for communications ( internet, phone). (For this part of the discussion, I haven't even considered electricity. That is no small matter in itself.) Internet and phone can be combined ( maybe ), but some money will have to be spent on communications. There's no getting around that.
Besides communications, there's transport. Without transport, I am dead in the water, literally.
The plain fact of the matter is that I need a vehicle to get around in. The distances are too great to rely upon horses again. Even if I had a horse, I have to find a way to take care of it. Perhaps there's enough food that can be obtained on that property, I don't know yet. But it seems likely that in order to feed the horse, I'm going to need to find a way to feed it and that takes money as well. A horse is really impractical out there. It would only be useful in getting around the property and nearby.
As for relying upon the horseless carriage conveyance, cutting expenses on that is not going to get down to zero. Even if I could make my own gasoline, I'd still need to pay for insurance, repairs, etc. Maybe some repairs I could do myself, but insurance has to be paid for.
Communications and transport are going to take up money out of a very limited budget. What's the barebones expenses on these? I'm thinking of a number of say, one hundred bucks a month. A hundred may buy enough insurance for the minimum, and enough gas to get around a little. Nope, not enough. Probably closer to one fifty. Even one fifty would be low. You'd have to start "cheating" a little. Cut out insurance. But you need insurance according to law. Well, you might have to try to get around the law a little. One way or another, the money has to be made, or accounted for. One fifty per month doesn't buy much.
Assuming you can do all that, you'd still need that one fifty plus the servicing of the debt. That debt issue was something I also didn't mention ( along with electricity ). For the sake of argument, let's say you could do all that on three hundred a month.
Also for the sake of discussion, you could sell food for a dollar a pound. Then, for income, I'd have to raise thirty six hundred pounds a food a year above my own needs. Or three hundred pounds per month. I'd have to get it to market on the one fifty per month mentioned.
Not likely.
A dollar per pound for food isn't going to be enough revenue and three hundred a month ain't realistic. In other words, a cash burn will ensue. The question is how much of one? After that, how long can I sustain that burn?
I'm not liking these numbers much.
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