From a minimalist/financial independence extremist perspective ordinary books on good housekeeping (in case you need to learn it from a book 😉 ) just won’t cut it. Actually when it comes to financial independence, information targeted at “normals” is frequently useless(*). Hence, one must look elsewhere. I get my inspiration, not from run of the mill money management books, but from books on system theory, biology, primitive (neolithic) living, war, philosophy, expeditions, … (for investments, I use whatever the pros use).

(*) I still have fun taking to the rep when financial service companies call me trying to sell me their diversified asset allocation plans as if they somehow discovered the holy grail.

One such book is Good Boatkeeping by Zora Aiken. On a boat water, fuel (for cooking), and storage are at a premium. Therefore their use must be optimized. On land these cost money. If they are optimized on land as well, there is money to be saved. The book (warning: I got an older one than the one in the link) has a huge list of bullet points with tips. Therefore am I not going to list them all. Suffice to say I am amazed of the number of things we store in our fridge that do not really need to be stored in the fridge given some preparation (cheese, eggs, lettuce, …). This means a smaller fridge and thus lower running costs. I’m pretty old by now (ha!) and I do remember fridges getting progressively larger and larger in my lifetime.

There are other tips about how to avoid bugs when the windows are open due to lack of A/C (A/C is evil!). One method suggests getting a gecko, but warns that it won’t work if you have a cat or a dog lest you start your own private food chain. There are also tips on how to keep children entertained (gainfully employed?) given the lack of TV (TVs are evil!). How to do laundry (clotheslines and rainwater), and so on.

This book is a keeper, so I am putting it on my wishlist on paperbackswap.com (I got it from the library).


And almost 2 years later, paperbackswap came through.

Originally posted 2008-04-29 07:04:33.