THE MONEYLESS man who ditched modern technology to move off-grid has revealed he survives without day-to-day commodities including running water or a flushing toilet.
Mark Boyle planned on joining the rat race and graduated with a degree in business and economics until a life changing conversation.
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In 2007, Mark set out to accomplish living a year without money and sought a free campervan before volunteering at a farm in exchange for a plot of land to live off.
Making the site slightly more hospitable, he then added a wood-burner, compost toilet and homemade stove.
Not fully achieving his goal, he spent £360 on a solar panel to power his electronics including a phone which he could only receive calls on.
His philosophy became a lifestyle and soon after he was brushing his teeth with cuttlefish bone and fennel seeds.
Leftover newspapers cast aside in bins acted as Mark’s sustainable equivalent to loo roll and he kept an eye out for food thrown out by nearby restaurants too.
Mark even made the 36-mile round trip from his caravan to Bristol on his bike, only hand washed his clothes and found other essentials by scouring the contents of skips.
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One year turned into four, until Mark made his first official purchase in 2011 – a pair of shoes from a charity shop.
The self-proclaimed Moneyless Man wrote a book to share his experiences and used the proceeds to fund a new plot of land near Galway, Ireland.
His DIY shack even featured in Ben Fogle‘s New Lives in the Wild which aired on Channel 5 in 2021.
Mark previously told Galway Beo how his life in the city of Bristol was “quite simple” and made up of “thousands” of “complicated things”.
He added: “Now I create a rather cumbersome life where I have to do everything but they are simple and easy to find.
“I don’t romanticise the past or the future. I know which way of life brings me the most peace and satisfaction.”
Despite admitting he does not romanticise his life, Mark hopes to inspire other to live out their dreams of a similar lifestyle.
Having published a number of books and regularly sharing his thoughts with The Guardian, Mark has been vocal about his thoughts on consumerism.
He believes that if people grew their own food, sourced drinking water and hand-crafted furniture, the population would be more mindful over their waste.
Having lived in a bubble where instant meals and supermarket privileges are non-existent, Mark has found peace and an understanding that even food is “not a given thing in life“.
We abandonded our 9-5 jobs to live off-grid in a shack we built entirely from scratch
A COUPLE has revealed how they escaped the rat race and found their dream life by building their own off-grid paradise.
Hoppie and Tao took a leap of faith when they decided to construct their cabin home in the Lamass Ecovillage in North Pembrokeshire.
Despite a bitter planning war that has gone on for over a decade, the pair live on site where there are a “collective of smallholdings and eco-dwellings in Preseli hills”.
Taking to their YouTube channel, FLORB, to share their lifestyle with others, the couple revealed that they hadn’t always rejected the convention of day-to-day living.
Previously, Tao admitted to growing up in the “mainstream, in suburbia” with his mum, a housewife, and dad, an accountant.
He said: “I had a very ordinary upbringing but I never really felt rooted. It wasn’t until I started living on the land that I discovered roots.
“You’re not constrained by heavy mortgages or nine-to-five jobs. You’ve just got a lot of space to explore.”
Previously, Hoppie ran a therapy business before moving to the rural village.
She said: “One day out of the blue, around my 40th birthday, I just suddenly felt [something] like a bell, going ‘ding’, saying it’s time to go to Pembrokeshire.
“I don’t think I’ve ever felt more empowered. My supermarket is a garden and my pharmacy is my herb garden. I love that.”
Transforming the original plot from a “bunch of small fields” and three caravans to their main chalet-themed home, the pair’s determination has paid off.
Their green thinking doesn’t end there, as the pair have found living essentials and furniture through searching on eBay and in charity shops.
They also source their water from a spring, grow fruit and vegetables and even drink milk from their pet goats.
The lifestyle might not be for everyone with slightly less glamourous aspects such as the toilet barrel which stores waste for two years at a time.
Now hoping to extend their project, Tao and Hoppie have decided to turn the outbuilding structure into The Lammas Earth Centre for Transformation and Healing.