Besides my forty hour-plus work week, I’m trying to figure out how to wait patiently before we begin the next steps in finishing our home we are building out of the area. In the waiting, we’ve been trying to decide how many outlets and switch boxes we need. What kind of lights do we want inside and outside the house? What supplies do we need for plumbing, electrical, and to finish the septic/drain field? How much will it cost? Can we save enough to make it work?
Saving is an habit most people struggle with, unless they have a lot of resources. We are in such a ‘got to have it now’ society. Racking up debt, gambling on the future by an over use of credit cards. Jer and I were recently told that we were robbing ourselves of life’s little pleasures because we are living on a tight budget… as we work to save to finish our house.
I admit, we’ve been pinching pennies for most of our married life but it’s all been a choice. We chose to be a one income family so I could be home and schooling our six children. Sure, there were sacrifices but we were doing what we felt was best for our children. I’d do it again in a heartbeat (but try to worry less about the money).
Currently, Jer and I set goals on how much we want to save each month to make this debt free home a reality. Hence, living in a thirty-five foot trailer with pullout. This sits on a location closer to work and our elderly mothers, two hours from the home we are building. Saving has been a little frustrating. We’ve had extra unplanned expenses, propane, to name just one. Paying extra taxes since we don’t have a home mortgage, which literally ate up our raises. It feels like we are living paycheck to paycheck but Jer and I remind ourselves regularly, “We aren’t struggling financially, we are just struggling to meet our savings goals.”
Even with that said, I think we are doing really well. Saving aggressively. All of this will help us work towards our retirement years. What an amazing thing it will be to have our home finished, with our own well, septic, and power source without ANY debt. Jer and I can’t wait to be sitting in our hot tub on our upstairs deck, sipping our favorite drinks in the starlit summers nights and snowy winters.
We are less the two weeks away from our next day trip to the property. The reason for a day trip is to see if the ground is clear off snow to take our smaller tailer back up the following weekend. Excitement is growing. It's still a walk of faith but with dicipline and God, I believe the outcome will be worth it.