Three years ago, we made the biggest change in our lives. We packed up ourselves, and our two daughters and moved out to the country. Put the house up for sale and borrowed $25k from his parents in hopes that we could pay them back over time, say the next 5 years. Problem was, we bought a repo'd house that way falling in, had no water, and no plumbing, well none that worked, and no working electricity. We didn't have the money for a new well and in trying to pay a mortgage on one home and paying back his parents at the same time, we just weren't able to save anything. So for 6 months we went with no water, uh huh, that's right. We took 5 gallon buckets with lids up to his parents once a week and filled them up and brought them home. Black buckets for bath buckets, kept outside to heat up during the day, and white buckets kept in the basement for drinking. I thought it was going to be my worst nightmare, but honestly, it freed up a lot of time. No waiting on baths to fill up or taking hour long showers. Get in, get out, you're done. Along with no water, comes no bathroom, luckily there was an outhouse and we had two in diapers, so that wasn't a huge deal, and I still use the outhouse more than the inside toilet. With no electricity, meant cooking on the woodstove or on the fire pit, no problems there, even got pretty crafty and was making cakes and pies over the fire. We used candles and oil lamps to light the house when needed. In the six months that we went with no electricity and no water, we saved up $8,000. Paid for a new well, new plumbing, and new wiring, and gave the rest to his parents. Of course, once the electricity and water was run, we started paying bills...bummer, but we tried to keep the same mentality. We cook on the woodstove or over the fire pit when we can.
We use wood that we cut ourselves to heat our home with two woodstoves. Use cloth diapers for the most part, hang out laundry to dry all year round. Shop once per month at the grocery. We also raise chickens for eggs and will probably butcher some along the way. We DO NOT buy meat from the store other than a random frozen pizza or a pack of lunch meat or hotdogs, everything else is hunted or caught. I buy everything in bulk (25lbs of sugar, 50lbs of flour, 10lbs of rice, etc). I do not buy junk food, hot dogs once a month is as junky as it gets. We watch movies on a tv, no satellite or cable. We share one tv in the living room. My husband works construction and picks up every single scrap from a job site. This is building a new kitchen this summer and has built the chicken coop and run, the deck, and the remodeled living room, bedrooms, and dining room. We go to auctions and swap meets all the time. You can pick up buckets of nails, hardware, storage totes, etc, for next to nothing. We have two vehicles, one truck and one car, both 10+ years old. The truck for hauling that stays mostly parked and the car for trips and my husbands drive to work. We've also added another daughter to the family, and we're doing our best to teach them to live off the land and they are expected to help with daily chores. I plant a huge garden and freeze or can anything that doesn't get eaten right away. I've also planted a garden for the chickens that has a lovely assortment of greens and other veggies and this fall will be a grain garden that will hopefully feed them all winter.
I never thought that this would be my way of life. I pictured a big house, new car...but honestly cannot imagine having that now. It's a lot of work, and the work is year round, but it can be done. I respect and appreciate things more now. It's honestly made me a happier, better person.
I just swish before I measure it out and my clothes are always clean.
