small-scale: life in an ecovillage

One of the attractive things about living at Dancing Rabbit is the extremely low cost of living. By mainstream standards, a majority of the members here are impoverished. Though it’s only because it’s quite possible to get by on single digit incomes here… we’re talking something like an absolute minimum of $2,000. Per year. It probably sounds incredulous, but once you realize how DR is set up, it’s pretty clear.

There are a few reasons for this low cost of living. The primary reason goes back to the simple lifestyles led by the members here. The majority of people’s incomes go directly towards their bare essentials, like food and housing. In fact, it seems like food and housing are probably the two biggest expenses. Members can choose to be part of a food co-op, or go at it alone and purchase/grow their own personal food. The costs can vary. However, if you choose to join a co-op such as Sunflower (the most easily accessible), food fees are $150 per month.

Housing fees can range from $70-150 per month, if you decide to rent a space. (You can even choose to live in a tent and pay a platform fee of $5 per month. Some people have lived in tents for up to a year.) Compare that to the $1,000+ per month rental rates in any typical city and it’s immediately obvious why it’s possible to get by on a minimal income. Of course, once you become a member (after being a resident for three months) and have a right to your own small plot of land space, you can build your own home, which can cost as much (one home is estimated to have cost $40,000 to build) or as little ($2,000 or less) as you want. There are some folks who live in very simple structures (like a wigwam, without any power), and others who have bigger homes with greater power capacity and the like.

DR is structured so that you can join other co-ops as you see fit, such as the shower co-op, phone co-op, internet co-op, etc. Each of these co-ops are entirely optional and have their own annual or quarterly fee, which is typically low. For example, if you decide to join all the co-ops (shower, phone, humanure, internet, etc.) plus tent platform fees for a year and Sunflower food co-op fees, you can live at Dancing Rabbit for something like $2,500 in one year.

There are other fees you are required to pay as either a member or resident, but it’s not really worth going into too much depth about all that… the fees are very minimal. Anyway, it’s just comforting knowing how little money you need to “get by” living at Dancing Rabbit.

(Dancing Rabbit’s cost of living page is a bit out of date, but you can see how the different co-ops and fees are broken up.)

One of the member’s homes, a small wigman about ten feet in diameter and maybe four feet tall. Cozy.

One of the larger, more expensive homes built by a couple of members.