Got the itch to redecorate but don’t have any money? Also concerned with the impact of “fast home decor?” Me too. Here’s some ways to make your home feel fresh without spending any money or using any additional resources.
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The main reason I DIY, live in a small home and cook dinner almost every night is because it aligns with my values. I want to have the financial means to be able to work less and actually live my life. I want to be able to make a doctor’s appointment at 9 AM on a Thursday and not ask anyone’s permission to do so. I want to be able to take a nap in the middle of the day if I need to because I am a sleepy bear-person. And I want to avoid the teeth-clenching stress of an hour commute each day.
It took a lot of trial and error to get to the positive financial state that I am in today. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still working on my financial goals and I will be for a long time. But, I wish that I had a resource like The Bravely Budgeting Workbook when I first started my financial journey of saving to buy my small home.
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
Haul out the holly! Yup, you heard it here first, it’s the holiday season. The holiday season should be one of love, thankfulness and joy, but it can quickly turn into a season of stress, urgency and irritability. Much of my holiday stress comes from the cost of the holidays and simply trying to do too much. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think we have to totally dismiss all gift giving and holiday traditions, but we need to keep our expectations in check and practice minimalism during this joyous season. Here how I practice minimalism during the holidays. Continue reading
George and I are taking our first overseas trip in December and we all know what December means… present-buying season. In years past I’ve done a handmade holiday challenge and a $100 holiday challenge. This year, before the holidays begin, I’m going to challenge myself to spend no money in the month of November. I’m calling it “No-Spend November.” Clever, eh? Of course, I can’t literally spend no money at all. I have bills to pay and food to eat, but I will be spending no money on non-essentials in November. We paid for our plane tickets and our hotel on our credit card, so the money that I save in November will go to paying that off. I also plan to buy Christmas presents when I am overseas, so I don’t have to plan holiday gifts far in advance this year. It’s win-win all around. Anyway… here’s the rules.
No Spend November Rules
The rules may vary from person-to-person depending on your life situation, but rule #1 is the same for everyone:
That’s it. Those are the rules. It’s easier said than done, but I’m excited to get one step closer to our first overseas excursion.
How are you saving for the holidays? Will you join me for the No Spend November challenge? Talk to me in the comments!
love,
melanie
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
“Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.” -Epitetus
Something to chew on this Tuesday.
love,
melanie
I get a lot of questions about the logistics of living in an Airstream. Let me be the first to say, the logistics are going to be different for everyone because everyone’s life is different. You might have two kids or five dogs. You might be retired. You might work from home. There are all kinds of logistics that will make your life different from mine. That being said, people are often interested in the true cost of living in an Airstream. Today I’m going to be answering the question: “How much does it cost to live in an Airstream?” by sharing what it costs for us to live in the Airstream.
If you aren’t familiar with our situation, let me give you a refresher. Hi! I’m Melanie. I am a librarian at a community college and I run this blog. I live with my husband, George who is an artist and our small (11 lb) dog, Bambi in our 1978 Airstream Sovereign. We currently have our Airstream parked on family land due to my traditional job situation. Here’s a breakdown of our monthly living costs and the reasoning behind the costs. Continue reading
“I end up not buying a lot of things, because I find them ridiculous.”
Most stuff we have isn’t stuff we need. It’s ridiculous stuff that we thought we wanted for a fleeting moment and then never used again. It’s ridiculous stuff that we got as a gift and didn’t want to throw away. It’s ridiculous new stuff that we thought we needed when the old would’ve done just fine. There’s enough ridiculous in our lives without buying more.
love,
melanie
“Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like.”
Don’t keep up with the Joneses. You don’t even like them. It’s time to impress yourself.
love,
melanie