Sunday, December 22, 2013

The struggle to survive

What do you want most out of life?  Did you dream of debt, long hours and no end in sight as a child?  No, probably not, but that's what most people ended up with.  The struggle to survive.  But is it really a struggle just to survive?  Or is it more a struggle to "keep up with the Joneses"?  

About 5 years ago, my husband and I decided to drop out of the credit game.  We took a long hard look at our debt and decided to end it.  We set up a plan to pay off our credit cards.  We set up a strict budget and got to it.  We cut out our excess luxuries, such as expensive cell phone bills and cable.  We now have Tracfone  pay by the minute cells and free digital air TV. We paid off all our credit cards and are now debt free.  We do not have designer clothes and several cars.  We live pretty easy but we have a life we enjoy.

We have for years dreamed of how much more we could get out of life if we could live even cheaper and have the opportunity to move around the USA.  To experience and see more places, take more time to hike state parks and enjoy our time on this Earth.  We found a few sites about people living in tiny homes and how much they enjoyed it.  These tiny wooden houses on wheels got our attention!  They were just so cool and versatile!  Imagine being able to move about the USA, IN YOUR OWN HOME!  We looked at RV's but they are so temporary feeling.  Not like a home really to us.  But a tiny home looks and feels more like a small house. 

We decided to attend a tiny house class put on by Tumbleweed Tiny House Co.  It was a building seminar and we were able to visit a guy locally that built one and is living in it still.  It was an eye opener!  We decided to quit dreaming and do it! 

In the new year, we will be building our tiny home, down sizing our possessions and enter into the Tiny House Movement and we could not be more excited!  I will be posting pictures of the build as we progress and explain how we do things.  I will also explain and post some pictures of how we set up the water treatment and collection and the solar power stuff as well.  Our tiny home will be off grid completely when finally finished.  Our dream is to live as simply, cheaply and create as little of a carbon footprint as we can. 

So stay tuned and enjoy our journey!  :)

2 comments:

Hazel said...

I don't know if you can see comments on older posts but I wanted to tell you how impressive your commitment is to your 'examined life'. Most people just do what others do instead of deciding what they want out of their own lives.

2 quotes that have inspired us:

'Collect experiences not things.'....and...'What makes your heart sing?'

Unknown said...

Thanks Hazel. I love the quotes! I appreciate good words to live by :)