Tag Archives: living in an airstream

Enjoying the Process

Patience is not my forte. I’ve thrown my share of Veruca Salt-style fits during our 10-month-long home renovation. None of my fits have been quite as musical as Veruca’s, but I’ve definitely been frustrated that the renovation process has been so slow. And this week has been no exception. I’ve been feeling super stressed and irritated that this week we had to go back to the farm and the Airstream for work.

And I’m not going to pretend like when we got to the Airstream, all my stresses melted away. They didn’t. But looking back on how we renovated the Airstream five years ago, helps me to remember that we’ve been here before. I need to chillax, as the kid’s say. Our home renovation is going to happen. And I might even be a little bit sad when it’s over.

In the meantime, I’m doing what I can– like dusting off our old porch furniture, pouring myself a drink, and enjoying the moment.

While we’ve been back at the farm, I’ve enjoyed rediscovering some of our old things we had sitting in the barn– like our porch furniture. I’m also carefully choosing a few new items for our new home. I want to be very picky and chose items that are in it for the long haul.

One of those long-haul items is this beautiful baby Alpaca throw from Serena and Lily.* It’s a thin, beautiful, neutral blanket that’s perfect for cool, summer night breezes. You can tell Bambi has already claimed it as her own. Insert eye roll here.

Are y’all slowing down or speeding up this summer? How are you taking time to just enjoy the moment? Talk to me in the comments!!

*Blanket was c/o Serena and Lily. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Ultimate Guide to Living Full Time in an RV, Airstream or Motorhome!

The Ultimate Guide to Living Full Time in an RV, Airstream or Motorhome

It’s here! Today’s the day! I’ve been living in an Airstream for over three years and I’ve finally compiled my knowledge into a digestible, valuable and practical guide. Whether you want to live in an RV to save money, to travel, or to simply live a more minimalistic life, this guide can help.

The Ultimate Guide to Living Full Time in an RV, Airstream or Motorhome is a 70 page, interactive guide that will help you pare down your junk, buy an RV, renovate it, decorate it and more! In this ebook, you’ll experience worksheets, tips and tricks, as well insightful questions to help you plan your journey to a simpler, smaller lifestyle.

Living in an Airstream has completely changed my life for the better and I know it can change your life too. To purchase the ebook, click here.

Thank you for all your support now and throughout the years.

love,
melanie

How We Saved Over $30,000 On One Salary in Just 3 Years!

How one couple saved over $30,000
If you can’t guess from the photo, the key to saving a significant amount of money for us was to live small in an Airstream travel trailer. If you’ve been reading the blog for a while, our money saving journey is no surprise, but I don’t think I’ve ever shared the amount until now. Continue reading →

The 30 Day, No Budget, Money Saving Challenge

The 30 day, no budget, money saving challenge

This is the time of year where I really start thinking about saving money and not losing my mind during the holidays. In the past I’ve done a No-Spend November, a Handmade Holiday Challenge and a $100 Holiday Challenge. This year I’ve been busier than ever and I really need an easy challenge to kick my butt into high gear. Enter the easy, no-budget 30 days of saving challenge to the rescue! Each day, I’ll tackle one thing off the list. If you want to play along too, know that you don’t have to do the list in order, but you do have to do #1 first. I’ve also included a printable at the end of this post to print out and stick to your fridge, so you can cross stuff out as you go. Here’s the deets:  Continue reading →

Where to Park and Live in a RV– legally!

Where to park and live in a RV-- legally! | asmalllife.com

Most people think RVs and travel go hand-in-hand, but depending on your life situation, you may not be able to travel full-time. You might have a job that requires you to go to an office every day (I do!), you might have kids that go to a local school or you might simply love your home base, that’s cool too.

If you are staying put, I want to lay out some helpful tips and tricks for where to park and live in an RV– legally! Continue reading →

Why We Chose To Live in an Airstream (instead of a tiny house)!

Why we chose to live in an Airstream instead of a tiny houseHave you ever heard the saying, “You can have things fast, cheap or easy, but you can’t have all three?” I’m not 100% sure that’s the exact saying, but that iteration would be the short version of why we chose to live in an Airstream instead of a tiny house. But lucky for you, I’m going to tell you the long version of the story like a grandma who has had too much wine. Continue reading →

Ask Melanie: How do you deal with lifestyle criticism?

Dealing with Lifestyle Criticism

Lately I’ve been receiving a bunch of emails from readers asking specific questions about living full-time in an Airstream. Awesome! I love questions! Ask away! But I do like to address the questions on my blog so a wider audience can benefit from the answers. I also have a place for new readers in case you were looking for one.

Anyway, today’s question is from a reader who is shopping for Airstreams this week! And she wants to know… “Did you receive judgement and criticisms in the beginning?”

Continue reading →

Lessons I’ve Learned From Living Tiny

Lessons I've learned from living tinyFor over 2 years my husband, my dog and I have lived tiny. We went from living in a beautiful (and big-to-me) 1,200 square foot loft to a 188 square foot Airstream Sovereign. I’ve learned so many lessons during that time. Some of those lessons were expected and some of those lessons were totally unforeseen. Some of the lessons have been easy and some of them have been hard. But more than anything I’m thankful that I’ve learned them. Living tiny has made me a better person. So today I’m going to share just a few of the lessons I’ve learned by living tiny. I’m sure there are so many more lessons in store. Continue reading →

Airstream Livin’ Update: 2.5 years!

Airstream at SunsetWe’ve been living in the Airstream for almost two and a half years. Years, people! Some days it seems like so much time has passed and other days it feels like no time has passed at all. One thing is for certain: we’ve adapted well to living in just 188 square feet. We know how to declutter. We know when problems arise, we can solve them. And I know it seems strange to outsiders, but the Airstream truly feels like home.

In terms of upkeep, the trailer has held up pretty well. We’ve had some bumps along the way. (See: our leaky hot water heater.) We need to repaint when it warms up a bit. (See how our paint has held up.) But overall, the Airstream has allowed us to save money to travel and to build up an emergency fund. We’ve been to Austin, took a roadtrip to Florida, Charleston, Memphis, Portland and most recently we went to Iceland! And most importantly, we’ve built up an emergency savings and another savings account. And I know it sounds cryptic, but we’re trying to decide what to do with our other savings account. What a wonderful problem to have!

Let me explain a bit: at this point we’re getting the itch again. The itch to do something different. The itch to be brave. And if we’re being honest, we don’t know if we want to live in the Airstream forever. It’s wonderful and our home, but is it our forever home? We don’t know. We’d love to have some land of our own one day. (I want animals! And a big place to grow our own food!) We’re also really interested in other alternative dwellings, like tiny houses, cordwood cabins and shipping container homes. And we love to travel! So much so that we bought a van to convert into a super tiny home. We aren’t moving out of the Airstream yet, but maybe. One day. Sometime.

Are we indecisive and insane? Maybe. I truly don’t know what the future will bring, but I am excited to find out.

love,
melanie

How Much Money Can You Save by Living in a Tiny House?

How much money can you save by living in a tiny house?

Today I’m going to address the question: How much money can you save by living in a tiny house? This answer is based on our own experiences and our own finances. The amount of money could vary for everyone.

We originally began living in an Airstream because we needed to save money. (At 188 square feet, we consider the Airstream a tiny house.) After we got married, George and I started to look at our finances and it wasn’t pretty. Individually we’ve each received 6 years of higher education. This gave us a bit of a later start in life.  During our college years and even into the beginning of our professional careers, we saved nothing. Yes, we probably didn’t spend as wisely as we could have, but there wasn’t much left after paying our bills to save. George was a teacher and I am a librarian. We made (and still make) less than the national average wage index, but we are above the poverty line. We knew that we needed to do something that would dramatically improve our finances.

Living in a more affordable place seemed the answer. We looked around at apartments in the new area where we were going to live. We were instantly discouraged. The apartments that were clean and safe would leave us with nothing at the end of the month. We’d be fighting the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle for the rest of our lives. We wanted out.

One day I stumbled across this Featured Seller story on pollenArts— a creative couple who work and live in their Winnebago! One night while lying in bed looking at adorable little properties we couldn’t afford, I mentioned it to George. I didn’t put the pieces together, but George started searching for RVs on Craigslist right away. He knew we could do this. Airstreams had the most appeal, although they were a bit pricier than other RVs. Our Airstream cost $5,000 and it took about $1,500 to fix up. (You can read the whole buying story here.)

Now that you’ve got the history of our story, on to the good stuff! We spend about $700 on living expenses each month while living in the Airstream. (More about our expenses breakdown here.) This includes food, electricity, life, etc. In the past, our rent payments varied widely. Our most expensive rent payment was $1,000 a month– that’s what we were paying before we decided to move into the Airstream. That doesn’t even include the life stuff. When we were renting, we were spending everything we made.

This past year while living in the Airstream, I also went on a Spending Diet for the website I write for, And Then We Saved. I attempted to spend only $100 a month on “extra” stuff. Extra stuff included makeup, haircuts, clothes and stuff that I needed but didn’t really need to live. (You can read more about my Spending Diet here.) I didn’t succeed every month. It was much harder than I expected it to be! But I succeeded about 75% of the time.

With the help of the Spending Diet, I saved $12,441.99 in a year! I was hoping to save $15,000, but considering that I saved about half of my paycheck each month, I consider this a huge success. I also don’t plan on going back to my old ways, so I think I’ll hit my $15,000 goal in a few months.

Prior to the Spending Diet, we had lived in the Airstream for about a year. We went spent much of our “extra” money going on trips, but I don’t regret that at all. We could definitely save more if we didn’t go on vacations, but traveling is one of our priorities. George and I have been able to travel to Portland, Memphis, Austin, Canada/Niagra Falls and we took a road trip to Florida. I now also have emergency savings, a 401k and a Roth IRA. I didn’t even know what those things were a few years ago! Now that I’m off the Spending Diet (but still on the savings train) we just booked a trip to Iceland! So crazy.

Yes, we’ve been able to save more money by living tiny, but we’ve also been able to travel and explore the world outside our tiny home. That is priceless.

That being said, the longer we stay in the Airstream, the more we can save and the more we can travel. If we stay in the Airstream for another 5 years and continue saving at the same rate, we could save $60,000. That’s insane. I don’t know what our life will look like in another 5 years, but with that kind of savings, we could do something big.

Have you ever thought about living tiny to save money? Talk to me in the comments!

love,
melanie