Try doing that because you have no other
choice. I lost my job and am only wage earner. Mississippi only get up
to 211 a week to cover expenses. Have no phone at all about to loose my
car food is down to nothing rent is month behind. About to be 2 mos.
the up side I start my new job tomorrow an hour and a half away. I’m
happy you did this. I thing everyone should for a month or two. You will
really understand what others go threw these days. Honestly didn’t
think I would find a job I’m 55 it’s not easy. I only hope I can get
bills all caught up and this has taught me to not be so frivolous. I
gave my children everything and anything paid for cell phones bought
cars. Out of all that. When I needed the help only one of them did
what they could to help me. I think we all need to be more realistic
and allow our children to make their own mistakes. It’s the only way
they grow up.
After reading her message I decided that I was going to write more about my personal journey to get out of debt and to stay out of debt.
My husband and I have taken an extremely drastic approach (as some of my other posts show) to get out of debt and to own our home and live as self-reliant as possible. One day my mother asked what our driving force was and I had to do a little self-examination to figure that out. I realized that for me the driving force was my husband losing his job over and over. The first time he lost his job it was because the company he worked for went out of business. It was actually becoming common at the time. Several stores were either closing or reorganizing in an attempt to stay open. The second time he lost his job his department was eliminated after a merger with another company. The third time he lost his job it was also from the company downsizing with the economy struggling, and since he was new to the company he was one of the first to go. He got another job after that, but he knew immediately with their financial practices that his job was only temporary. Later he managed to get a good job that lasted 9 years, but during the last year that is when we made our move. We bought our homestead and started working really hard towards our goal of self-reliance.
We had already ended our credit card use a couple of years before. We decided that spending money we hadn't earned yet left a bad taste in our mouths when we spent months paying for purchases that were ofter short lived. We also learned that there was always another way besides credit cards to take care of emergencies and our number one go to became prayer and our second go to was patience. If we couldn't get something we needed then we had to pray for help and be patient until a solution presented itself.
However above all else we had to sacrifice. If we can't afford something we go without. Additionally we live in our tiny house that we have been building over the past two years. Sometimes our house feels really small, but most of the time it is big enough for all our needs. We have more than just our tiny house, we have 36 acres that we will eventually have fenced in and use for multiple uses when it comes to growing food and raising animals but right now we just have a few of those acres fenced in and that is enough for us to get started. In addition to our tiny house we also have two more sheds that we use. One has been converted into additional storage and living space and the other is additional storage.
After my husband and I purchased our property and started our homestead a series of events led to a search again for a new job. This search lasted 8 months. We were able to use our tax return, a part-time summer job, and unemployment to get buy during those 8 months and finally he got a new job and we got a stronger than ever determination to get out of debt as quickly as possible. When we bought our property we purchased a shed for the outside of our tiny house, and that was our first goal (pay off the tiny house). Although we had cash flowed the building of everything inside we didn't have time before our first winter would hit to cash flow the outside. If we wanted to have it ready before the first winter hit we needed a jump start and would have to add two debts. The first was the shed that would become our tiny house and the second was our property.
I also want to mention that our surviving for 8 months was possible because we had already eliminated car payments and credit cards.
I also want to mention that our surviving for 8 months was possible because we had already eliminated car payments and credit cards.
That first summer I woke up with the sun and worked until after the sun went down and collapsed in bed exhausted. My kids learned to work alongside me and together we got the house ready for winter. The second year we moved fences most of the year. We were able to do come work on the house but since my husband didn't have a full-time job we couldn't spend money on the house, but there was plenty of work still to be done.
After my husband got a job in the fall and we recovered financially we started working on the house again. This time my teenage son became my right hand helper. It was so good to work with him and he began to grow emotionally as he helped more. Having my children work along side me during this process has given them learning and growth opportunities that I wasn't able to give them before.
We still have a long ways to go and our goals is to pay for our property in the next few years and then to begin getting rid of our last debt (our student loans). We also want to add on to our home or build a new home that is a lot bigger but we want to cash flow all of that project and getting out of debt so that we can free up all of our income is a big part of being able to cash flow a big building project. In the meantime we have lost of work to continue to do on our homestead including a green house and summer gardens. We have animals we are raising and we have our property to tame. But most importantly we have a beautiful family to raise and I am so grateful for my children and this experience we share together.
