Meet the off-grid couple who live in the woodland and spend £25 on bills

Mathew Plumb had always been passionate about the outdoors and sustainable living, but reached a stage in his life where he admits he did not know where to turn.

“He needed it I think – the outdoors”, his girlfriend Lauren Youngs told WalesOnline in the middle of their dense 15-acre wood.

The couple live off-grid in the shadow of the Deri mountain in north Monmouthshire with their cat, four pigs and 20 chickens.

They live on the absolute bare necessities – spending less than £25 a month on bills – and they love almost every second of it.

Woodcutter Mathew, 43, lived alone in his family’s fairytale-like forest for two years before Lauren, 28, joined him when she lost her job as an events manager in the first lockdown.

The move was only meant to be temporary, but she quickly fell in love with the chirps of the birds and the hundreds of “gorgeous” oak trees.

“It’s cold very often,” she laughed. “But I’m getting used to it. It was really weird – as soon as I came here for the first time I had a feeling I could be here.”

Mathew and Lauren live under the canopy of the trees in handmade wooden huts with no wifi, bath or television.

The shower is a bucket of water with a hole in its centre hanging on a chain, the toilet is a hole in a wooden bench in a small wooden hut – although it is beautifully decorated with Lauren’s creative touch – and the main living area, known as the “charcoal shelter”, relies on a makeshift curtain to block out the wind.

The couple run a small camping business on the site, which they say offers both a wild escape to those wanting to experience the outdoors and nature therapy to those having a difficult time.

“There is a lot of uncertainty to life at the moment”, Mathew said, “and we want people who come here to be reassured that there are other opportunities and different ways to live.”

It is their own uncertainty in life that has brought them here. Mathew, originally from Abergavenny, described how he was one of the thousands of “hidden homeless” in Britain when he lived in the back of his work van prior to moving to the forest.

“Before I came here I thought about buying a house,” he said. “I had almost saved enough for a deposit on a small house in Merthyr, which was all I could afford at the time. Then it dawned on me: what am I going to do with a house? I cut trees for a living – that’s what I do and this is who I am.”

“It’s mental how much money you can save,” he added. “I spend nothing on rent, zero on electric as we get all we need from solar panels, and about £25 every six weeks on propane gas. We have four pigs that I breed and 20 chickens we use for meat and eggs.”

While he was tempted by “the modern world”, Mathew knows he is now in the right place.

“I think from my early 30s I realised I didn’t want to live a conventional life. Once I saw timber being milled up in a woodland I thought: ‘Why on Earth do people want to live in bricks?’ I imagine a future where people go back to living in a wooded land and mill timber on-site and build sustainable, zero-impact homes.”

Originally from Bedford, Lauren has always been a stickler for the outdoors since growing up on her granddad’s fields, where she spent many a weekend.

“When I was small my only friends were my cats, dogs, and chickens. I’d have full-on conversations with them and I missed that lifestyle. I came here and it reminded me of that.

“And there are oak trees. As soon as there are oak trees I know I’m in the right place.”

A freelance artist by trade, Lauren spent some time living in Hackney, London, but as soon as Mathew convinced her to join him in the wood she has not looked back.

Asked if she has ever regretted the leap into the wilderness, Lauren said: “I’d have thought ‘I wish I was back’ and I miss it all the time. But I prefer it here and I always try to focus on the lovely things that we can have here.”

Mathew said: “We want to start a family and for our kids to live a healthier and happier life than many people get in the modern world. More and more people are taking an interest in going off-grid. I think the pandemic has been a wake-up call.”

Sticking it out in the wilderness through another winter has been a challenge – but they would not have it any other way.

“Mud, weather, cold, the general challenges nature presents to us – it’s all been there,” he said. “But it’s a definite buzz. It’s exhilarating – without a doubt.

“It’s all worth it in the spring – our favourite time of the year, watching the world waking up around us.”

Lauren added: “We wake up at about 4am and the cockerels start going and then again at 6am. I get to sit and listen to the birds while Mathew makes me a cup of tea. What more could you ask for?”

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