In a nutshell:

1. Get a caravan and other stuff for free
2. Live like a pikey
3. Say that you are moneyless despite all the stuff you still spend money on or other people pay for on your behalf
4. Write a book about it and speak at TED
5. Profit

I respect the politics and there are some interesting bits about ecology and permaculture. But as for usable advice on how to actually live without money in the real world?

Let me give you some examples:

Want to live somewhere for free? Squat illegally or get someone to give you a caravan.

Free food? Go through the bins or grow your own.

Did you know that you could clean your teeth using a mixture of ground up wild fennel seeds and ground out cuttlefish bone instead of toothpaste?

Yeah. I'll get right on that.





( )

I first heard of this book from Charles Eisenstein [who wrote the forward]. When I came across it again via Boyle’s best friend, Shawn Chamberlain [editor of “Lean Logic”], I felt that it was finally time to pick up a copy for myself [in this instance, through inter-library loan].

I find the premise very compelling. One of the core pillars of Western Mythology is the tenant that you can’t live a meaningful life without money. Boyle handily dismisses such claims with an in-depth overview of how he lived without money for two-and-a-half years!

He ends up getting too bogged down in the details. In going through every aspect of our lives—from clothing, to housing, to education—Boyle ends up citing other authors extensively with lengthy excerpts from their works on countless subjects—from herbalism to brewing. This aspect of the book just felt like a distraction from the core—moneyless living. He also goes on to reference a host of websites that could be useful in moneyless living throughout the text. I would find it much more useful if these resources were organized and referenced in a section in the back of the book—both so they wouldn’t be taking up space in the body of the text, and so that they could be easily accessed at a later point. If all the excerpts were removed, the book would be much more concise and pithy.

Also, I found Boyle’s informal tone both crass and bro-ish at times, which is something I rarely encounter in books. Ultimately, this isn’t a hug. issue in regard to the content, and was occasionally more humorous than offensive, but I did find it a little off-putting.

Although I am not currently choosing to live moneylessly, it’s definitely reassuring to know that the option exists, although it does entail quite some commitment. Boyle points out that moneyless living is on a spectrum [which he refers to in his Progression of Principles framework], and we can enrich our lives just by being selective about how and when we use money. ( )