How Martha and John Miller quit their jobs, gave away their stuff, and moved to Rome

Martha Miller and her husband John had a big dream to move to Italy from their home in Houston, Texas. They quit their jobs, gave away their stuff, and moved into a little apartment in Rome’s Trastevere neighborhood. Here’s their story: Friends wanted to know how we did it, and the truth is that my husband and I became really good at saving money in order to make it happen. We aren’t trust-fund babies or self-made millionaires. We started with a dream to move overseas for 21 months while John went to school, and thirteen months after we got married, we were on the plane to Rome. It was surreal and exciting. When we visited Rome the previous spring to evaluate the school, we were unexpectedly shown four apartments to choose from. We had no problem agreeing on the one we chose. It was a small apartment up three flights […]

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Share Your Tips for Off-the-Grid Living

Q. I have become interested in simple living within the last two or so years. I don’t think it was so much the decline in the economy but more getting all the clutter out of my life and becoming totally free of institutions and businesses alike. My question is, I am looking to jump toward taking more advanced steps in becoming independent, so if I were to look at building, let’s say, a water filtration system to consume rain water to use for things such as laundry and showering, how would I go about doing that? I’m not sure if you have written about this in the past but the topic sure is interesting. Hope all is well. Take care! A.  Hooboy! This is a big question, and one we haven’t dealt with for awhile. So right now, I’m going to put this question out to our readers to see if […]

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