Our Five Year Goals and Minimalism.
The name of this blog, from the beginning, is Life of a Simple Housewife. I have always tried to live simply not wanting anything and just living life to the fullest with my husband and kids. Well I have a confession. I realized, while I was sick in bed one day this past month, that my family doesn't live simply anymore. We have mountains and mountains and mountains and mountains of clothing, toys, papers, junk, blankets, books, dishes, cups... the list could go on! All of this stuff we have to take care of in one way or another and it takes away time from each other. This is minimalism. My husband and I have been interested in the idea of living simply without lots of things and living in as small of a place as we can.
Right now there are 8 people living in a 1500 square foot house on two and a half acres. We have an awesome 360 degree view of all the mountains surrounding us. This is where we want to be, or so we thought. Don't get me wrong! We LOVE it here and it's exactly what we were looking for two years ago.
My husband and I are fascinated by those around the world that live in tiny houses. But there's a problem for us with those tiny houses... we have 8 people. So we pushed that thought aside and decided we would start working on our tiny house when our 20th anniversary rolled around and by the time we were "retired" or when we only had a couple kids left at home we would travel. But why should we save those experiences of traveling and seeing new places for later? Why do we have to wait until we are older and more tired to do the things that we want to do NOW? Then the thoughts came to us, Maybe there are others out there that have "lots" of kids and they travel or live in tiny houses or smaller homes? So we googled large families that travel and just a handful came up (I posted these at the bottom)! Yay!! We aren't the only weirdos that have the same crazy ideas!!!
We are also wanting to down size our living costs. In reality we are living paycheck to paycheck. Paying and enormousness-to-us house payment. Our electricity bill is high to us. I have cut back everything that I can and we are still short most of the time. So what if we sold our house when the market was at it's top and lived in a trailer until we found the tiny house that we want to live in? What if we could find that tiny house in the woods near my husbands hometown and our friends? What if my husband could be home a lot more because our bills are mostly nonexistent? What if we could pick up and travel whenever we wanted?
You might be wondering, "How in the world are you going to pay for all of this? You know, Buying a trailer and fixing it up to your family's needs, Selling your house costs money too, Oh, And it costs lots of money to buy a house." In 2014 my husband went to school to become a real estate agent and I believe that when one sets their mind to something and they work hard at that something they will reap the rewards. So my husbands music job and selling real-estate as well as my photography will be our way of paying for this.
Here is our 5 year plan:
Ultimate Goal:
- to downsize everything
- to have husband home more
- to live life fully as a family unit
- to hardly have any monthly payments
2015
Jonathan: sells real estate and teaching music
- use real estate income to pay off debt and buy a smaller, yet large enough van that can pull a large travel trailer/toy hauler in a couple years.
- fix up house
Tara: Photography
- Work on minimizing everything in the house. I'll do posts of my progress through the house.
2016
Jonathan: Continue real estate and teaching music
- fix up house
- buy trailer and fix it up
Tara: Photography
- Continue minimizing
- Sell just about everything
- Fix up trailer
2017
Jonathan: Continue real estate and teaching music
- Sell our house (save this money)
Tara: Photography
- Start moving into trailer and live in it
2018
Jonathan: Continue real estate and teaching music
Tara: Photography
- Find our tiny home in the woods and buy it
- Travel
2019
Jonathan: Continue real estate and teaching music
-use half for saving & half for fixing up tiny home
Tara: Photography
- Get garden going
- get chickens
- plant orchard
2020
Jonathan: Continue real estate
- Start school
Tara: Photography
- get goats
- get pigs
Here are some of those large families that travel:
The Norton family of eight: They don't live in the RV full time but they do have some AWESOME ideas! (this video is a 5 part series)
The Harger Family of Six
The Kellogg Family of twelve
Travel Toast
Tiny House living:
Living Big in a Tiny House
Minimalism
Large Family Minimalism by That Crazy Catholic Mom
Right now there are 8 people living in a 1500 square foot house on two and a half acres. We have an awesome 360 degree view of all the mountains surrounding us. This is where we want to be, or so we thought. Don't get me wrong! We LOVE it here and it's exactly what we were looking for two years ago.
My husband and I are fascinated by those around the world that live in tiny houses. But there's a problem for us with those tiny houses... we have 8 people. So we pushed that thought aside and decided we would start working on our tiny house when our 20th anniversary rolled around and by the time we were "retired" or when we only had a couple kids left at home we would travel. But why should we save those experiences of traveling and seeing new places for later? Why do we have to wait until we are older and more tired to do the things that we want to do NOW? Then the thoughts came to us, Maybe there are others out there that have "lots" of kids and they travel or live in tiny houses or smaller homes? So we googled large families that travel and just a handful came up (I posted these at the bottom)! Yay!! We aren't the only weirdos that have the same crazy ideas!!!
We are also wanting to down size our living costs. In reality we are living paycheck to paycheck. Paying and enormousness-to-us house payment. Our electricity bill is high to us. I have cut back everything that I can and we are still short most of the time. So what if we sold our house when the market was at it's top and lived in a trailer until we found the tiny house that we want to live in? What if we could find that tiny house in the woods near my husbands hometown and our friends? What if my husband could be home a lot more because our bills are mostly nonexistent? What if we could pick up and travel whenever we wanted?
You might be wondering, "How in the world are you going to pay for all of this? You know, Buying a trailer and fixing it up to your family's needs, Selling your house costs money too, Oh, And it costs lots of money to buy a house." In 2014 my husband went to school to become a real estate agent and I believe that when one sets their mind to something and they work hard at that something they will reap the rewards. So my husbands music job and selling real-estate as well as my photography will be our way of paying for this.
Here is our 5 year plan:
Ultimate Goal:
- to downsize everything
- to have husband home more
- to live life fully as a family unit
- to hardly have any monthly payments
2015
Jonathan: sells real estate and teaching music
- use real estate income to pay off debt and buy a smaller, yet large enough van that can pull a large travel trailer/toy hauler in a couple years.
- fix up house
Tara: Photography
- Work on minimizing everything in the house. I'll do posts of my progress through the house.
2016
Jonathan: Continue real estate and teaching music
- fix up house
- buy trailer and fix it up
Tara: Photography
- Continue minimizing
- Sell just about everything
- Fix up trailer
2017
Jonathan: Continue real estate and teaching music
- Sell our house (save this money)
Tara: Photography
- Start moving into trailer and live in it
2018
Jonathan: Continue real estate and teaching music
Tara: Photography
- Find our tiny home in the woods and buy it
- Travel
2019
Jonathan: Continue real estate and teaching music
-use half for saving & half for fixing up tiny home
Tara: Photography
- Get garden going
- get chickens
- plant orchard
2020
Jonathan: Continue real estate
- Start school
Tara: Photography
- get goats
- get pigs
Here are some of those large families that travel:
The Norton family of eight: They don't live in the RV full time but they do have some AWESOME ideas! (this video is a 5 part series)
The Harger Family of Six
The Kellogg Family of twelve
Travel Toast
Tiny House living:
Living Big in a Tiny House
Minimalism
Large Family Minimalism by That Crazy Catholic Mom
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