is simplicity possible?

maybe its due to the nomadic type lifestyle i have been experiencing for the last 2 months, but the idea of simplicity has become very appealing to me. there is something so freeing about having little and needing little. and honestly, i feel like i need very little! for instace, although i have several suitcases full of other clothes, i have been living in and enjoying a select few that fit into the duffle bag i carry with me everywhere. so why do i even have those other bags full of clothes?? but the more i think about it, the more i get the feeling that simply because we live in america... simplicity is a lot harder to actually live by. we live in a place where, if you have a job, and don't live in a large city with public transportation, you will need a car. along with a car comes car insurance, maintenance, and gas costs. we also live in a country where health insurance is seen as mostly a must (although that is argued many a time between parents and their fresh from college children who think it isn't necessary). i mean, how many times have i actually used my health insurance? not once! and how much money have i spent on it... i don't want to think about that. but we live in a place where the "what if's" out weigh the "i think i'll be fine's". we also live in a place where just about everyone is in debt of some kind whether it be credit car, school, car, house, etc. i for one hate being in debt. being in debt means that i can't simply live to survive. i have to live to survive, PLUS pay for my previous life decisions. not that i think college was a poor choice, i rather think otherwise. but i hate mandatory monthly payments that i can't just give up when i want to like, if i were to decide i no longer wanted my cell phone. if i don't want to pay that bill, i simply give the phone back! but loans just hang over your head! so it started to cross my mind that maybe america is not for me. maybe i should go to africa, let america hunt me down for my loans, live in a hut, forage for my food, play in the dirt, and sleep. sounds great to me! minus the whole 13 kinds of posionous snakes thing... hmmm. why does safe living have to cost so much? why are we drawn to "safe" lives and the "american dream" and yet repulsed by it at the same time. i for one do want to feel safe. but i do NOT want to find that safety in the american dream.
i was reading recently about a group of people called freegans. this is how they personally define themselves: " freegans are people who employ alternative strategies for living based on limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources. freegans embrace community, generosity, social concern, freedom, cooperation, and sharing in opposition to a society based on materialism, moral apathy, competition, conformity, and greed." that definition sounds great! it sounds like what i want, but the more i researched the more i figured out a few things. one, i am not nearly radical enough to be a freegan. i simply don't want to pay loans and health insurance and feel the pressure to have stuff. two, i also realized that although they are making a statement by their lifestyle, they are really not helping anyone. they are all very capable people who could be working and earning a living, instead taking food and help from people who could otherwise be helping the actually destitute. they are far from changing the world or helping others, they are simply trying to escape their own guilt. not that i think their way of living is wrong persay, i think there are many things we can actually learn from them.
so through all of this i have come to the conclusion that i am not meant to pack up and move to africa or become a freegan, but there are some things i want to do to start living more simply. here's my start of my new simplicity rules to live by:
1. any time i buy a new article of clothing, i have to give away an old one.
2. i want to buy locally as often as possible and take advantage of road side food stands, etc.
3. rather than renting movies at $4 a night, i want to rent books from the library... for free.
4. i am digging my bike out of storage tomorrow, and i am going to figure out how many of my daily commutes i can make by bike.
5. i am learning to be okay with staying on people's couches (not permanently please Lord!) and not always needing to have "my place" or "my space".
6. when i shop for food, i will only buy for the next few days. i often go overboard and end up throwing away food that went bad before i could eat it.
7. i am going to put as much extra money into my school loans to cut back on how much interest i will pay over the lifetime of the loans
8. i am going to stop using my credit card as a primary means of money. i've never not paid off my total balance, but its a bad habit that i need to stop before i do get into trouble.

that's the short list for now! we'll see how it goes.