Well.. I am grandfathered into the verizon unlimited data. Don't really use it though so when the contract is up will go prepaid and save $50/mo. Problem is that carriers are a little limited in this part of the country.

Part of the electric is a installation charge they spread out over a number of years. I think I only use about $18/mo, but I don't complain since they had to run about a half mile of cable to get here. I hope to convert to solar eventually... buying bits and pieces if I find them inexpensively.

Arkansas... but it is only 1.3 acres. Outside of city limits, but only 10 miles from a town of 30k. Luckily I am friends with a couple of my neighbors so am basically free to use about 20 acres. I probably should have put that community is also pretty important when living cheap. Not necessary, but it sure makes it more fun.

true... thankful for that.

Including internet and phone ... so $50/mo for electric (not enough insulation), $50/mo for water (have a big garden), $60/mo for dsl, and $100/mo for smartphone... guess that leaves $40 for the usual crap that always seems to happen.

I have been doing this for about three years now in the United States. Basically, bought property ($6000), built small dome to live in ($3000), went half time at work (4 hours a day doing low stress programming). I make about $17,000 a year and live pretty comfortably on that. The key is having no debts, eliminating as many recurring payments as possible (I pay about $300/mo for all utilities and phone), drive as little as possible and don't eat out much.

I even wrote a blog about it. http://www.minimalintentions.com/search/label/Geodesic%20Dome

My plan was that when I had all this free time I could work on my own projects (of which I have many). Unfortunately turns out that I am pretty lazy so instead I sit in a hammock and read books more... ah well... I still plan to get motivated at some point... eventually.

(repost since I was logged out the first time)

Jamie Mantzel is building a giant robot and all the associated fortress / workshop / laboratory etc. He is doing all this on the top of a mountain out in the woods in Vermont while wearing chains and chainmail. He even has a giant geodesic dome made out of pipes with a trampoline on top, with lots of videos to demonstrate how it is all done.

http://jamius.com/Robot/Robot.html
http://jamius.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/JMEMantzel#p/a