Tuesday May 5 2009

When I first get through to Mark Boyle on the phone, the Donegal man is in the middle of hand-washing his clothes -- using cold water and a detergent made from boiled nuts. "It's really good for cleaning dishes and clothes," he explains. "It takes about an hour to make it though. Everything takes longer these days."

Mark is getting used to finding inventive ways of carrying out everyday activities, because he has vowed not to spend any money for a whole year. The Ballyshannon native, now based in Bristol in the UK, is a founding member of the 'Freeconomist' movement, a lifestyle creed that entails living entirely off the land and the waste products of society.

Mark started his experiment the day after the annual Buy Nothing Day last November, and has spent the past few months in what he calls a "moneyless society based on trust", where he barters, shares his skills and tools, works the land, and salvages unwanted food from restaurants and cafes.

Now that everyone in the known universe is more conscious of their spending, and of the concept of value for money, it seems a timely, albeit tough, experiment.

Speaking by way of his solar-charged phone (that can only receive calls), the 29-year-old explains: "The idea came last year -- be the change you want to see in the world and all that.

"Over the last few years, we've just become so wasteful. We have no respect or appreciation for the things we consume, or the energy that we use. We're always throwing things out. If we all had to grow our own food, we wouldn't throw out a third of it.

"So I decided to practise what I preach and stop wasting so much."

To prepare for his new life, Mark started weaning himself off money by selling his home -- a houseboat and its accompanying berth on Bristol harbour -- and using the money to hire a designer to set up the Freeconomy Community website to connect all members (www.justfortheloveofit.org). He also packed in his job as general manager of an organic food business to concentrate on his new life.

A few months in, Mark admits it hasn't been easy. He lives in an off-grid caravan on a farm, where he volunteers to earn his keep as well as water from a natural spring. His caravan has solar panels, a stove, a solar shower and a wood-pellet boiler for heating.

"I also have a compost toilet," he adds. "I can make 'humanure' out of it and use it to grow stuff." Mark laughs when I fall silent. "People struggle with that concept alright."

Naturally acquiring food is the most essential part of the plan. "There are four legs to it," he explains.

"Foraging, which involves looking for food in the wilds; growing your own in whatever space you have; what I call urban foraging (also known as skipping) which basically means using the waste food from cafes, restaurants and businesses; and finally bartering your skills or food for foods you cannot get from any other source."

What does that mean in practice? On the day we speak, Mark says he had some apples he found in an orchard for breakfast, along with some porridge oats that he got in return for doing some manual work for a local man. Then for lunch he had some bread that a café was about to throw out.

"It will be different throughout the year," he says. "Sometimes I'll be growing my own food more than foraged or borrowed food. But then coming into winter again I'll be moving back to things I've preserved over the summer."

Mark is aware that his lifestyle leaves him open to charges of being a freeloader.

"This is all stuff that is either going to be wasted or thrown away anyway, or that I exchange labour or my skills for," he explains. "What's more I work hard for 30 hours a week on the farm for my caravan place, spring water and use of wireless for my solar-charged laptop. I don't think that's freeloading."

It's not the first time that Mark has signed up for a seemingly impossible task -- last year he attempted to walk from Bristol to India, carrying no money and relying solely on the kindness of strangers to get him there.

He made it as far as Calais in France, before having to return home a month later.

"That was the first bit of youthful enthusiasm gone wrong," he admits. "It all went wrong in France. I was on the road, walking 40 miles a day without much food in the heart of winter and I didn't speak the language. It's a different ballgame now. Here I can set up my infrastructure."

These days, Mark gets around using a bicycle, or, if needs be, by hitching (he says he's never owned a car). This is how he gets to see his girlfriend, Claire, a 26-year-old student who lives in Bristol city centre. "She agrees 100pc with what I'm doing, and is very supportive," Mark says.

"She even aspires to live this way herself. But it's been hard to spend much time together. It's a 36-mile round trip for me to see her. Then of course there's the issue of not spending money, but we spend time together whenever we can."

Surely there must be things he misses from his old life? "There are some foods that I miss," he admits. "It's also been hard to let go of the socialising aspect of things, but I'm not isolated, I still see people.

"My friends have been really supportive. I meet them and we do things that don't involve money, like going for walks or cycle rides. We light campfires and play music.

"I make my own beer, which is effectively a tea made out of hops, or even yarrow or pine needles, added with yeast and malt extract from local grains such as barley, fermented in a big container. Delicious!"

Mark accepts that many people are just not in a position to adopt the Freeconomist lifestyle, but he would like to see people take some lessons from his 'philosofree'.

"The whole point of it for me is to get people to question how much they actually consume themselves," he says. "I'd like people to be a bit more environmentally friendly, and make a few small changes in their lives.

"The credit crunch has made us all realise that we've been living in a bubble for years, and that it couldn't last. People are realising that the things they thought would make them happy didn't actually do that. I think they are now more willing than ever to look at what else is out there."

Other extreme experiments:

• Esquire journalist AJ Jacobs spent a year living strictly by the rules and guidelines in the Bible, growing a beard, wearing a white robe and even stoning adulterers with pebbles.

He chronicled his experience in the book The Year of Living Biblically.

• British teacher Kath Kelly made a drunken bet that she could live on just £1 a day for year -- and won. To keep within her limit, Kelly ate at free buffets, shopped at jumble sales and loaded up on discarded food from shops and restaurants.

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