For us it's a continuation of exactly what my father (still alive) did during WWII when his father and most older males were away overseas, trade was greatly diminished, many people were on the verge of starving, and he (primary school age) fended for his three younger siblings and his mother.

Today we no longer cart water from wells many miles away, we still use windmills (corregated iron sails, Australian not Dutch) to draw up bore water, etc.

As Luxury goes it's zero cost other than literal sweat equity, uses materials about the place (all the water that runs through the house goes to the garden), and has little in the way of fossil fuel usage (we do use a car to fetch manure from nearby stables as needed .. but that's optional in the sense that we can go back to hauling sans car).

The only we're not still doing is shooting | trapping rabbits.