Been feeling that things were heading in this direction for quite some time, so we worked our way towards buying a few acres and started off by building a well insulated 18x18 cabin with a loft (504 sq ft). Haven't bothered tying into the grid yet, have a few solar panels and use a generator supplementally. Haven't drilled a well yet but have a hand dug well that I pull water from using a 12v pump and have water storage in the cabin. We currently get our drinking water from the town office, filling glass jugs. 60 watt medium sized fridge. Wood stove, constantly processing my own wood and looking for free wood anywhere I can get it. 20k btu wall mounted propane heater for when we really need it (no electricity needed, rarely use it). Propane range. Extra camp stove as well as a small backpacking burner with fuel. Dutch oven to use either in the woodstove or outside. Constantly keeping a base level of basic foods (rice, dried beans, canned veggies, plenty of spices). Working on building a root cellar of some sort to store more of the food we grow each year and upping the amount of food we grow as well.

Our monthly bills right now are under $2k (with food included), due to the minimal way we live, which leads to having time to actually work on the land. I'm the one that usually earns most of the money while my wife takes care of the many necessities on the homestead. We are both happy with this style of living and she has had some health problems that make it difficult for her to work. Eventually we will build a larger house (with a passive house approach) and will likely have CMP drop a line at some point but will use it minimally.

This lifestyle certainly isn't for everyone and is a fair bit of work but I'm also building some sort of survival-equity and that is far more important to me than... most anything else. If this lifestyle sounds at all alluring then the best thing to do is start taking small steps in that direction.

For what it's worth, we were forced to buy land June 2021 due to being booted from the farmhouse we had been living in so that it could be sold in the elevated market. We paid more than we probably should have for the land and had to live in a camper for a bit while we put an insane push in to clear land and build a home before winter that year and had very little help. Moved into the cabin early November that year without a touch of insulation in it but we had the woodstove. It's been a wild ride.

Edit: and a composting toilet. Guess that's an integral piece of information