My water bill in the city would more than pay off the well in 10 years, including all the power to run the pump (not much) wells should last for many years with just the pump replaced every 20 years. Likewise septic is cheaper than city sewer over 10 years. Of course my city lot doesn't have a place to put either ( I want a safe non polluting system, compromise that and it works out)

My overall point is... let's dispense with the libertarian yeoman self-sufficient fantasy: if you want to save money, live in the place where economies of scale have been achieved... towns. People have been doing it this way since the neolithic.

Should you really like nature and having space and big gardens and farming and the like, then be prepared to pay for it.

I find the opposite : towns are more expensive. Towns have libraries, and other nice things that might or might not be worth the cost.

How are those things paid for? Property and sales taxes, neither of which you save by not living in town?

Property taxes are generally lower in rural area.