Freedoms II
Budget deficit - "Excess of spending over income, for a government, corporation, or individual" (Barron's Finance and Investment Handbook).
Zelda and I are transitioning from deficit spending, (spending without thinking) to living with in our means.
It's been a challenge. I find that as much as the idea appeals to me, implementing it in my life demands new daily discipline.
It also requires a lot of communication.
With both Zelda and myself.
It also requires one of us to be the "grown up", the "bad guy" and to say, "NO!"
Neither of us has wanted to take up that mantle with the other...
We sat in the tv room yesterday talking about our finances.
The easy thing is to dip into the savings we have.
We dipped into savings a few years back to pay on some old credit card debt.
It has never been reimbursed.
I do not want to do that again.
We also need to seriously promise to each other that we will not buy on credit for our selves.
Maybe a Pinky double dare to die kind of promise.
There are many things we want to be able to do with our home.
To raise chickens for eggs (as mean as I've heard they can be). (City restrictions and HOA)
To be able to install a wind generator or solar on our house. (City restrictions and HOA.)
To be able to collect and use rain water for our potable water. (City restrictions and HOA)
To plant a vegetable garden.
To build a house, or buy an older vernacular home. ("Vernacular" is a term Archy-tects use to describe buildings designed to work with their locale to heat and cool naturally, before the advent of mechanical heating and cooling.)
Zelda has a good friend from her first marriage who has a piece of property south of Austin.
He and his new wife do not make a lot of money and have lived a bohemian life. They do not have a lot of debt.
She had an old house on 1/2 an acre in an unincorporated area.
When we visited the first time, E was adding an extra room to the house.
The last time we visited, he had just built a garden plot for veggies.
We visited his my space page to see his baby girl and saw that he is adding a rain harvesting system to the house.
His home is small, natural light spills thru from front to back.
Music is a major part of their lives.
Their tv is a 15" black and white.
I think this last item is the most important reason he has what he has, and we have what we have...
Zelda brought up the idea of selling our place and moving out.
We might take a hit on it's value.
But that begs the question.
"How much do we really value Freedom?"
Zelda and I are transitioning from deficit spending, (spending without thinking) to living with in our means.
It's been a challenge. I find that as much as the idea appeals to me, implementing it in my life demands new daily discipline.
It also requires a lot of communication.
With both Zelda and myself.
It also requires one of us to be the "grown up", the "bad guy" and to say, "NO!"
Neither of us has wanted to take up that mantle with the other...
We sat in the tv room yesterday talking about our finances.
The easy thing is to dip into the savings we have.
We dipped into savings a few years back to pay on some old credit card debt.
It has never been reimbursed.
I do not want to do that again.
We also need to seriously promise to each other that we will not buy on credit for our selves.
Maybe a Pinky double dare to die kind of promise.
There are many things we want to be able to do with our home.
To raise chickens for eggs (as mean as I've heard they can be). (City restrictions and HOA)
To be able to install a wind generator or solar on our house. (City restrictions and HOA.)
To be able to collect and use rain water for our potable water. (City restrictions and HOA)
To plant a vegetable garden.
To build a house, or buy an older vernacular home. ("Vernacular" is a term Archy-tects use to describe buildings designed to work with their locale to heat and cool naturally, before the advent of mechanical heating and cooling.)
Zelda has a good friend from her first marriage who has a piece of property south of Austin.
He and his new wife do not make a lot of money and have lived a bohemian life. They do not have a lot of debt.
She had an old house on 1/2 an acre in an unincorporated area.
When we visited the first time, E was adding an extra room to the house.
The last time we visited, he had just built a garden plot for veggies.
We visited his my space page to see his baby girl and saw that he is adding a rain harvesting system to the house.
His home is small, natural light spills thru from front to back.
Music is a major part of their lives.
Their tv is a 15" black and white.
I think this last item is the most important reason he has what he has, and we have what we have...
Zelda brought up the idea of selling our place and moving out.
We might take a hit on it's value.
But that begs the question.
"How much do we really value Freedom?"
posted by karlthebunny at 7:19 AM
2 Comments:
This comment has been removed by the author.
I enjoy living within my means even if it means not having alot of stuff or having to have older things.
I can sleep easy knowing that I don't really owe anyone anything.
Good for you Karl. It takes discipline but it is worth it!
Regularly practising gratitude will help you appreciate what you have and will make it easier for you to buy the things that are really important
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