This is part three of a four part series on why you don’t homestead (and how to bust through those excuses). If you’re OCD or just insist on reading everything in order, you can start here. Otherwise, please carry on. Today’s excuse is “It costs too much to homestead.” IT COSTS TOO MUCH. Because Ma & Pa Joad were rolling in the dough, right? No. I guess it can be expensive to homestead, but if you start with one small change at a time, do your research, and do your best to “make…
Category: Motivation
Overcoming the Excuse: I Don’t Have Time to Homestead.
This is part two of a four part series on common excuses for not homesteading. If you feel the need to read them in order, you can read PART ONE: I DON’T KNOW HOW here. Today’s excuse is I DON’T HAVE TIME to homestead. I Don’t Have Time to Homestead. Dude. I hear you. You’re busy. It’s a wonder you get all the stuff done that you do every day. And now I’m suggesting MORE?!? Yes. Yes, I am. Is homesteading important to you? If you’re homestead dreaming, stop dreaming and start doing. You’re…
How to Bust Through Excuses for Not Homesteading
This is part one of a four-part series on busting through the excuses for not homesteading so you can live more sustainably. Let’s dig in. “Oh, I’d love to homestead, but I DON’T KNOW HOW.” Oh, honey. This is a terrible excuse for missing out on some real personal satisfaction. Remember when you learned to tie your shoes? At one point in your life, you did not even know how to tie your shoes. So you watched someone else do it every morning. Then you decided you WANTED TO LEARN HOW to tie…
How to Build a Budget in 7 Easy Steps
Want to take a sweet trip to Venice to ride a gondola guided by a singing gondolier in traditional Italian garb in five years? Maybe you want to retire a millionaire long before you hit minimum retirement age? Want to adopt a child in four years, but $20,000 is a lot of money and you don’t know where you are going to come up with it? Have you visualized yourself at the exact moment you are out of debt? What does it feel like? What does it smell like? All of…
How to Get on With Life When You’re in Debt
Let’s talk Debt for a minute. Dirty, Dirty Debt. Debt makes you feel all kinds of negative things– shame, fear, anger, hopelessness, guilt, regret. You just wish it was gone, over, paid in full. Every day seems like a struggle just to make ends meet. Every day you regret buying that two-seater that will be taking your fun-money for the next six years. It’s going to take 6 months to pay this diamond off, two years to pay off that credit card, five years to pay that medical debt. I feel you. I’ll be…
It Never Seems to Rain on the Mountain
It was supposed to rain yesterday. The weatherman had been promising “rain on Saturday” all week. After a hot, dry day with the boys, I figured it wasn’t coming. I screwed the hoses back together, pulled the heavy out to the garden and noticed for the first time the heavy, dark rain clouds overhead. “Nope,” I thought. I’m already out here now, so it’s getting watered. I started watering the garden. It needed the water yesterday. I bet my neighbors (if either of them see me) will think I’m nuts.…
Net Worth & Debt Payoff Progress – June 30, 2016
Oh, June. June. June, June, June. So glad you’re gone. I’m reminded of those “Black Eyed Peas” lyrics, “Let’s get ignorant. Let’s get hectic,” except it wasn’t nearly as fun as they suggest. I knew I shouldn’t have told you how much life sucked there for a minute, because you know what? After I hit “post,” lousy things kept happening: Prime example: While I was investigating an on-the-job accident, I dropped my phone, shattering the screen. I put packing tape on it to keep the shards from falling out. It’s not an…
How to Get Your Life to Stop Sucking
Let me tell you all the ways my life sucked in the span of just FIVE days: 1. I got a speeding ticket Friday. I’m pretty sure he gave me a ticket for the guy in front of me. There’s no way I was going that fast. Guess that’s just life. Oh, I was speeding, all right. But not that fast. That’s $222.00 that won’t be going to debt destruction. Every Dollar Goes To Work? Huh. That’s $222 that is going to work for the local officials. 2. I got a sunburn Saturday…
Garden Update: June 19, 2016
I know. I know. It’s important to get in your garden every day. At least, every other day. Not just on weekends. Ashamedly, I’ve only been a weekend gardener and it shows. I hand-weeded around our small plants this weekend in the blistering hot sun, but still only covered about 30% of the garden. And there are still weeds in the walkways. Ugh. Every day, Erica. Get out there every day. How do you motivate yourself to just do it? Something Different and Exciting Happened Though… But yesterday, instead of…
Debt Ruining Your Life? Why High School’s Responsible
We demand that school teaches our children about sex and driving and argue how to explain the beginning of the universe. Why don’t we have a class in high school that teaches basic personal finance? I’m not talking about economics. Even if it’s an elective, I believe we need a class at least available to students who want to learn how to manage money in a responsible way. We need to teach them how to avoid the consequences that result from bad money management. This course could change the courses…