Thrifty Green Thursday: Our Alternative Lifestyle Experiment

The thriftiest green thing we've ever done was to move out of our house and into a 120 square foot camper.

Two adults, a 4 year old, and 3 cats in a tiny one room trailer, hauling all of our own water, using a composting toilet (Humanure style), a solar shower, and exercising extreme patience. For almost 6 years, we lived in the camper/trailer, paying no more than $200 a month to set up our space in the back corner of friend's property.

We had one very long extension cord to power the 4 compact florescent light bulbs and tiny refrigerator and portable CD player, and a gas stovetop for cooking. We had access to a frost-free water valve a few hundred feet away for wash water, and I hauled 5 gallon carboys of spring water for drinking.

In the winter, I covered the door and windows with strips of wool blanket cut to fit, and we used an oil-filled electric radiator for heat. The gas heat that was built into the camper had an electric fan that ran on 12 volt power, but the battery would quickly go dead and the fan was so squeaky that we gave up on it.

Most camper and RV water systems are susceptible to freezing and bursting, so I made a gravity feed system out of a 5 gallon olive oil jug, with food-safe tubing and a nozzle for a hose. This system sat at the corner of our tiny loft, with the hose over the sink, and we filled it once a day. The gray-water drained out the back and not into the storage tank. If you fill up your tank, you're gonna have to drive it somewhere to empty it. 

I took out the standard RV toilet and built an enclosure for a 5 gallon bucket with a toilet seat, and we used pine shavings and sawdust for cover material. At feed stores, a bale of bedding is what you ask for, or you can collect sawdust from a wood shop. The only difficult times with this were when we had sub-zero temperatures outside, and a full bucket, and someone really had to go. Spare buckets and lids are like gold on those days. We used a separate pee bucket (or went outside) so the toilet wouldn't fill up with urine. Trust me, a solid bucket is way easier than a sloshing bucket.

Many institutional food services (schools, universities, hospitals) have a surplus of buckets and lids available for free, and a compost bin can be built for cheap. I used hardware cloth (mesh fencing) that I fastened end to end, making a circular heap. I staked the bottom to the ground to hold it still until it's part filled, and only turned the pile after it had been full for a while. Between the toilets and our kitchen compost, we generated a bunch of finished compost every year.

We missed having hot water in the winter, so we mooched showers off of friends when we could, and did sponge baths when we couldn't. In the summer, we set out our camping solar shower, and by the afternoon, we could all shower with less than 4 gallons of water. An outdoor shower is very invigorating, but not for the shy.

We saved a ton of money on rent, and our energy use went way down during those 6 years. We generally used less than 10 gallons a day of water (2 adults and one child, then another baby for the last 2 years).  Our four 20 watt light bulbs were in use for only several hours in the evening, and we used headlights and candles when we could. A cell phone was a necessity for us, but we got a Cricket pre-paid plan so that we didn't have a contract, and we got by with just a basic boring phone (no camera, no pictures, no nothing).

There are many ways to change to a simpler way of living, and a yurt or tiny house can be built or bought pretty cheap. When you consider the high rents and house prices and heating/cooling costs, a canvas tent or tipi or mini-dome is a bargain.

I can recommend the tiny house lifestyle to any family looking to green up and save some cash, and campers/trailers are for sale all over. Ours was a 1972 model, rebuilt inside but mostly original. We paid $2000 for it and lived in it for almost 6 years.


Related Thrifty Green Posts: 

• Green Baby Guide: Thrifty Green Thursday
  
• 10 Reasons to Love a Sawdust Toilet 
• Unassisted Birth: A Father's Experience