09/07/24

This post is #1 of the Living Off-Grid in Mexico series.

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To realize our dream of living off-grid in Mexico, we needed ways to make money off-grid. But first, we had to get there. Pulling together enough money to move two people, two dogs and all of our stuff to a foreign country was quite a daunting task. Now that I’m on the other side of that, I’ll let you in on a little secret: You don’t need a ton of money to get started.

It doesn’t matter where you are in the process — the dreaming and drawing out homesteading diagrams phase, or the land search phase. Maybe you already have land, maybe you have nothing. I do not want y’all to not get overwhelmed by the hugeness of the task, or the amount of money you know you will eventually need. Instead, narrow your focus. You just need enough money to get to Step One, whatever your Step One is. So scratch together what you need to put a down payment on that plot of land, or dig that foundation, or buy your building materials. Some of us save, some of us sell, and some of us invest. Most of us do a combination of all of the above. Once Lurko and I got going, we were able to settle into a pattern. We just had to focus on getting to Step One.

Our Step One

At first, Lurko and I thought we could build a house on our family’s land, but there were several complications that prevented that from happening. We realized we had to start from scratch and buy our own land. That became our Step One. To get there, I sold my house in Dallas. That was a huge leap of faith after living there for 20 years, and I was basically without a home for the next year. But the proceeds from the house were enough to pay off debt, buy a 20 x 20 meter plot of land, and start construction on a two bedroom/ two bath casita in Mexico. In hindsight, that year was a good time to sell, and freeing myself from debt was enormously liberating. Selling the Dallas house was the right Step One.

Next Steps

When you’re building a house, there’s always more expenses that come up. During that first year we bought the land, then we built the cistern, septic tank, walls and a roof. We got the plumbing and wiring done. We had doors and windows. That was all done remotely. But by the time we physically moved ourselves to Mexico we still had to figure out power, buy a water pump for the cistern, and get satellite internet. We had to buy a bed. How could we make enough money living off-grid to do all those things??

Again, we just had to put one foot in front of the other and do it one step at a time. Paso a paso, as they say here. The biggest expenses for us were the solar system, and moving our stuff 1,660 miles from Texas to our new home in Nayarit, Mexico. Lurko sold his truck, and the two of us sold or gave away most of our possessions (bonus: less stuff to move). We also received gifts from friends and family that helped us put a down payment on the solar panels. Every bit helped and it all added up.

Day-to-Day Expenses

We still needed to eat, and the house money wasn’t going to last forever. We had to figure out how we would make money off-grid, handle our day-to-day expenses, and save up enough to make improvements to the house. Thankfully, I still had a job, and COVID had the unexpected benefit of making remote work much more accepted. One of the first things we did when we moved into our new house was get stable Internet, so I could work remotely. Thankfully, Starlink was available here, and it was cheap because it was still relatively new in Mexico. We got the equipment for less than $200 US, and we pay $110 pesos a month (about $60 US) for the service. Thanks to Starlink, I now get paid every Friday. That took care of the expenses, plus we can save up for improvements on the house.

Alternate Sources of Income

Because I work for a school district, I only get a paycheck 36 weeks a year. We had to figure out what to do for the other 16 weeks. Lurko can’t legally work in Mexico yet, so that first summer vacation wasn’t a vacation for us. I had to look at alternate sources of income, or different ways to make money off-grid.

First, I tried selling more of our stuff, and I interviewed for a side gig selling baby gear. Then I looked at other make-money-online options like answering surveys, participating in studies, and getting paid to play-test video games. Most of that stuff was legit, and if you’re worried, Michelle from Making Sense of Cents has a good list of non-scammy options. I did try a few of her suggestions, but so much of it seemed like a lot of work for little reward. In the end I settled on freelance writing, and starting the blog which you are now reading.

Have I made any money with the blog yet? I launched on July 1, and as of August 25, 2024, no I have not. It’s been a slow process to create quality content AND build an affiliate marketing network. (See my separate post about my journey into affiliate marketing.) It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme. I have been learning a lot, though, and if you’d like to learn about affiliate marketing I highly recommend this course. I’m sticking with the blog because I enjoy writing, and hopefully the money will come later. This summer I have made money with freelance writing, so if I continue to not make money blogging I will focus more on getting freelancing gigs. I’ve heard good things about Upwork.

Some other suggestions that I have not tried yet (but might someday) include: teaching courses, writing eBooks, growing/ selling specialty crops, learning a craft, leading tours, and renting a room via AirBnb.

Reduce Expenses

One perk of living off-grid is that it forces you to reduce your expenses, thus saving money. That is some circular logic, but it’s true! Simple living saves money. In two years’ time, I will show you how our expenses changed. Note that two years ago I was living alone, and now I live with Lurko, so logically some of those monthly expenses should have doubled, right? But look:

“Misc Home” includes stuff bought on Amazon, and we had to replace our main water filter which cost $123. We are still adding house stuff to the house. So that’s why that expense went up. It’s interesting that food, gas, entertainment and pet expenses didn’t change drastically, even though we added a second person. Communication actually went down. Unfortunately, credit cards did not. We’re still paying off our terrible U.S. trip from March. But mortgage/ utilities went from almost $2500 a month, to $10. And two years ago, Lurko wasn’t living with me, so the fact that $350 now feeds two people does prove we saved money moving here. Best of all, we went from saving $0 to socking away $1000 every month. We try to save more if we can, but something always comes up.

Credit Cards (Only for Emergencies)

Speaking of something always coming up! Right now we’re funneling some of our savings toward the credit cards to get those paid off. We really do not want to be in debt anymore. That crushed us in the States and we vowed to never be in that situation again. At my worst, I owed $35,000 to credit cards and $150,000 on the house. After selling the house, I paid off all my credit cards and cut them up! Except for two. I kept the Firestone card in case we needed unexpected car repairs. And then I kept another card with a $2000 limit, for emergencies.

This year we ended up using both cards for both kinds of emergencies, so I’m glad I kept them. Still, I hate being in debt. The sooner we can push those off, the sooner we can save up for more home improvements. I promised Lurko we will replace the doors next, and then we will do the countertops and shelves for the kitchen. It’s always something!

Have a Retirement Plan

I enjoy making money off-grid, but I don’t want to work forever, so we have a plan for retirement. In about 10 years I will be able to dip into my work retirement plan, called TRS (Teacher Retirement System). I also have a little bit in Social Security, but I worry that will be gone by the time my generation reaches retirement age. So while I’m not counting on it, it would be nice to have. Social Security has helped take care of my parents for the last 15 years. The hope is that between Social Security and retirement income, and mayyyybe rental income if we go that route, we should be doing ok by the time we turn 70.

So that’s how we learned how to make money off-grid, and how we plan to keep earning money to continue our lifestyle. We do ok, but I always wish we could save a little more. Lurko is really good at helping me keep expenses down, but we still had to go without some things until we could save up enough. This summer, living without overnight AC has been pretty brutal. But soon we will have our shiny new lithium batteries, and they should be able to run the air long enough to keep things cool at night. Living off-grid means learning to prioritize, making a backup plan, and having a backup to the backup plan. We’re still doing this, after a year of planning and 8 months of actually living here. Financially we’ve had a few scares, but today I feel much more optimistic.

Questions?

If you’ve come this far, you might still have some questions about how to make money off-grid, or how to make off-grid living work for you financially. If so, leave us a comment and we’ll try to answer them. I make no promises but I should at least be able to help demystify the process. If you’d rather not have a public conversation, you can fill out our Contact page and email your question.