The world of money

I'm always interested in the stories of people who live simply and lightly and frugally, and last night I watched a few YouTube videos on this topic. They took me into a world so different from mine, a way of living I had never even thought of.

The first video I saw was about a young British couple who had both been made redundant from their work at the same time. One was a young woman, who had about £2,000-worth of debt, which she has since managed to clear, replacing it with an equivalent level of savings. Her partner took his redundancy money and used it to buy a Transit van and convert it into a delightful home for them to live in. He had no relevant DIY skills when he started, and did a magnificent job. After that, they went on the road and began a travelling life, so their methods of earning money to pay their way had to be appropriate for travellers. The young woman said she now made her living from "matched betting". I had never heard of this, so I looked it up. 

I found what I read a bit complicated, but if I've understood correctly, matched betting takes advantage of loss-leader freebies from bookmakers, who allow you to place a free bet — therefore you can only win or not win, there's no possibility of a loss because you haven't put in any of your own money. Apparently bookies keep a sharp eye out for people working this system to their own advantage, so I suppose the young woman in the van must have a long list of bookmakers, going only occasionally to each one (I don't know; just guessing). This was entirely new to me; it struck me as a rather barren, sterile occupation, but she found it reliable an effective, and I suppose she derived actual satisfaction from other things in her life than the occupation earning her living. I felt uneasy about it, though, because I have a belief that one's occupation should be also a contribution. As Frederick Buechner put it, "The place where God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger coincide." That's been my rule of thumb, and matched betting seemed not to fulfil those criteria. I was interested to learn about it though, and I admired her determination, resourcefulness, ingenuity, and ability to make what is normally an addictive and rapacious system work in her favour.

The other videos I watched were by a young man called Peter Bush, who had turned his life around from addiction to consumerism to commitment to frugality. He was intent upon making enough money to retire at a very young age as a self-made man. He has produced a range of videos both on living very frugally and on ways to make money. Financial investment, home ownership, and running his YouTube channel with affiliate links and a patreon donation base seemed to be his main things. Again, a world I had never ventured into.

The whole experience left me feeling as though I had walked through a strange and surreal land — maybe some caves with interesting rock formations or something — witnessing marvels.

It made me reflect upon my own approach to money, which I had previously thought through and carefully strategised, but not revisited for a while as my conclusions are settled and I'm happy with them.

I am interested in "grace economy", sometimes called "gift economy", where goods, services, money and any other benefits are given freely on the basis of need and we all support each other without trade. However, I also need money to buy food and clothes, books and gifts, bus fares and all the usual things, and to pay my contribution towards the costs of the shared house in which I live but do not own.

My path is of pursuing excellence in the areas where I am gifted, and doing the very best job I can for a modest return, so I can pay my bills — and help others in need. I make sure that I also do some work for free, just for the love of it and to help people and because Jesus said, to his disciples, "Freely you have received, freely give".

I believe capital is useful, but the ability to earn is also essential, as a store of capital can dwindle away but the ability to earn stays with you. Like St Paul and his tent-making, a pleasingly nomadic skill that he took with him to earn his way. I once met a hairdresser who wanted to travel the world. She saved and saved until she had enough to take off, at which point she travelled to Australia and Indonesia, taking along her roll of hairdressing tools. She would set up on a street corner and offer haircuts to passers-by, and so earned enough to keep travelling. That makes me happy in a way that playing the stock market, or matched betting, doesn't.


I have had some capital in my life, because I grew up during the years of the UK property boom. My mother, a shrewd woman who invested her time and skills wisely, did not have a job outside the home, but bought and sold her way up the property ladder, increasing her capital store. We live extremely frugally, and she kept hens for eggs, grew a garden and orchard, and reared orphaned lambs for the freezer. When she reached old age, she began to downsize, passing on to me and my sister the money she had accumulated. I faithfully copied what she did, investing the money in my home, buying a little cottage to let, and growing a garden for my food. I added to that the Franciscan principles of frugal simplicity and sharing, and put into practice in family life what I'd learned from monastic friends. My idea was to take what I needed from what my mother had given me, while at the same time growing it, sharing it, and passing it on — so that I could give my children what I had received plus what I had added — and this has worked well. I have tried to practice both simplicity and generosity in my financial interactions with other people. It is after all, not my money but God's. 

Now that I am coming into old age, I no longer need the big income to build a life, only enough to supply my daily requirements which are very few. So over the last ten years I have been gradually dismantling and distributing what I built up. 

My way of going about things feels like a completely different neck of the woods from either the matched betting of the nomadic van-dweller, or the YouTube channeller living like a barnacle on the rock of giant corporation. I think perhaps his methods have more integrity than hers, because he is coaching other frugal-living people free on YouTube, using affiliate links, Patreon and investment as intended, where she is taking advantage of a quirk in the betting system in a manner bookmakers actively try to stop. It isn't illegal, though, and I think she has done well in a sense. It's a form of gleaning, isn't it?

I do still work for money, but I have a pact with my soul never to involve myself with undertakings where I am asked to be dishonest, or where someone is taking advantage of someone else in the situation. For example, very recently, a publisher asked me to do some editing, but wanted me to sign a contract indemnifying both the publisher and the author against any litigation for defamation etc — I, as the structural editor, would have been the one liable in such an unfortunate event! Both the publisher and the author are well known to me, and I am entirely confident neither would intentionally defame anyone. But the book was a novel. What if, unwittingly, the writer had created a horrible character with the same name as a real person in the public eye, and neither the publisher nor I had heard of that individual so didn't spot the coincidence? In such a circumstance — which could easily happen — the structural editor, as the last person to work on the book, despite the publisher and author having to agree changes, would be held responsible. So I declined the opportunity to sign that contract. It lost me a job worth several hundred pounds (and many similar that would have followed), yes, but being sued for tens of thousands and ordered to pay court costs would ruin me.

And such errors as I have described do arise. Just after the new millennium began, when I first got email, I had to pick an address. At the time I was working on my book The Clear Light of Day. A church congregation I'd previously pastored had a member with Jabez as his second name, which drew my attention to it — and I love that name. So I called one of the main characters in The Clear Light of Day Jabez. He needed a surname, and I enjoy sourcing names and other little references from my family background. One of my grandmothers had the maiden name Bunting (no, I never use it as a security password), so I thought I'd use that. Jabez Bunting. I liked the sound of it. 

When I had to create that first email address, I thought it would help me keep focus on my work in progress if, every day when I checked my email, I was reminded of that character. So I chose the address jabezbunting at freeserve.co.uk — long defunct!

Then, to my surprise a Methodist ministerial colleague asked me, "Why on earth would you want Jabez Bunting of all people for your email address?"

"What?" I said. "Why?"

"Jabez Bunting was horrible," said he.

"You mean . . . Wait . . . What? Jabez Bunting is a real person?"

Yes. Indeed he was. Look. A conservative churchman who strenuously opposed allowing women to preach. I had no idea. So I changed my character's name to Jabez Ferall, but I was stuck with the email address.

So what if, for example, our author conceived a hideously ugly murdering minor character with no conscience and gave that minor character the name of Kim Kardashian — and I, living in my tiny reclusive world with my orchard and my veggie plot, writing stories at the edge of the sea had never heard of such a person? And what if the author was a scholarly elderly man with a passion for medieval history, uninterested in modern celebrities who never watched telly or read the gossip columns? And what if the commissioning editor was not very thorough and only skim-read the text, and the copy editor was a retired academic who also never watched telly or read the gossip columns. That could stack up some big trouble for us when someone's diligent lawyer was combing the internet for litigation opportunities, could it not? And whose fault would it be? The structural editor's, employed to weed out any problems. Which is why I didn't sign that contract. I would have been happy to edit the book, but I wasn't going to put my hand in that bag of weasels for anybody's money. I'm not rich in the things of this world, but I have kale and courgettes in the garden and apples on the tree. I'll manage somehow!

And, dear me, this article has grown to rather gargantuan proportions, I'd better stop! Blessings on your day, my friend — may it be a happy day. May you be peaceful, may you be blessed.