Monthly Archives: August 2010

On downsizing…

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roobarb wrote:
Hello, I’m a newbie downsizer-in-the-making. Hoping for a bit of useful advice on my situation.

My wife & I have recently sold our flat in London (luckily just avoiding the recent market downturn) and we’re now renting a smaller place while we look for somewhere in the country. That was the plan, anyway.

Our current position is that we’ve found a smallholding in south Wales (4 acres) that would hopefully be enough for us to be fairly self-sufficient in veg and some meat. The trouble is that bills will need to be paid, fuel, seeds and feed need to be bought, etc., so getting some kind of income is essential. That’s where it gets tricky. Neither of us have many skills outside of marketing/web development and I doubt that these are going to be much in demand in rural Wales! My wife is a keen gardener (or was, until we lost the garden when we moved) and I’ve been learning beekeeping. We have no debts or children (and no plans for either) and enough cash in the bank to buy the smallholding and get ourselves started. Plus plenty of enthusiasm.

Are we crazy to be attempting something like this? Has anyone here been through a similar experience, and how did you manage financially? We don’t just want to cross our fingers and hope for the best. We don’t want to be the cliched townies making a hash of things in the country. We want to be sure that it’s a viable plan.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

    Rolls around in hysterical laughter…

Are we crazy to be attempting something like this?
Absolutely and utterly.

Has anyone here been through a similar experience, and how did you manage financially?
Yup, we have. We’re broke.

We don’t want to be the cliched townies making a hash of things in the country.
You will be – just like us.

We want to be sure that it’s a viable plan.
Yeah – we tried that too.

Any advice greatly appreciated.
Have a sense of humour.
Be prepared to ask favours – a lot of them.
Be prepared to send yourselves up and have the p*ss mercilessly taken out of you.
It’s back-breakingly hard work.
You will lose money hand over fist.
You will make a complete balls up many times over.
You will have to change your plans at least 6 times in the first two years.
You will row with each other in the middle of a field several times and everyone for a 5 mile radius will hear you.
You will lay in bed, worn out, exhausted and wonder why anyone ever said to you that downsizing was for quality of life.
You will develop aches and pains.
You will become obsessed with the weather.
You will talk about nothing except feed prices, land management and livestock.
The social highlight of your year will be the village hall New Year’s Eve party.
The social highlight of your weekends will be moaning and groaning on Downsizer about your spuds/beans/fruit bushes etc.
You will be constantly asked by your friends from your ‘previous life’ why you were so insane to do it in the first place.
Sometimes you will wonder yourself why you did it…

Then one morning, as you’re tramping across your few acres just as the sun is coming up, and you breathe in the fresh air, smell the grass and lean on the fence and watch your sheep, or chooks, or ducks, or pigs, or just the early birds…you’ll know why. And you’ll know that you can never, ever go back to how you were before.

I wish you luck. You’ll need it.

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