Who has actually managed to live the 'Simple Life' in the UK?

I've always fancied myself a bit of a hobbit. Never had interest in materialistic things, or a massive want for the latest brands, nicest cars or best technology. All I've ever really wanted was to have a nice little cottage, tucked away somewhere in the country and be able to grow much of my own food, have a nice low stress job, read books by the fire and ideally raise a family.

I don't know why, but this dream which used to be seen as the easiest and least ambitious life path seems to be impossible today. They even had a sitcom called 'The Good Life' about a guy who dropped out of the rat race to live exactly like I explained, and the comedy was based on his comparison to his friend who worked a high paying job and had a lot of material luxury.

Now it just seems impossible to even achieve that. Now I just seem to work a miserable and high stress job, and yet still couldn't dream of living a nice, minimal hobbit life.

How many people have actually managed to drop out of the rat race and live a nice, slow, low stress life? Just doesn't seem achievable today (I'm sure mainly due to the price of property, energy, transport and everything else)