Ok, refocusing. So, I get the theory of ERE and MMM, but it's been hard to apply to my life for a bunch of reasons that I don't feel the need to go super in-depth because I don't think talking more about them here will actually help me move forward towards my goals*(see more at bottom of post).
We're coming out of a period of money being really tight because of reasons that I really don't need to get in to, but we're on the cusp of a really much better place.
Things I think we do well:
- Make almost all food at home, from scratch (would like to make a more simple meal plan going so prep is streamlined and doesn't require so much cognitive effort)
- Buy most things (aside from shoes, socks, and underwear) second hand, or just straight up get it for free
- Commute is less than 15 minutes by car (unfortunately it's about 45 minutes by bike or bus, and with it being a physical labor job, that just doesn't seem like a good tradeoff.)
- Hobbies/past times are mostly either free, cheap, or bring in something resembling monetary benefit: reading, walking, foraging, gardening, making fermented foods, that physical skill that I'm not naming so as to not dox myself, hiking, etc. I want to learn knitting, but haven't sat down to teach myself yet
- I'm pretty well connected through various free groups, mutual aid groups, and swap groups
- Don't have any media subscriptions, and use the library prodigiously
Things I'd like to work on:
- We are saving nothing on a monthly basis, and that's not ok with me. We don't really have an easily accessible buffer fund, and I would like to get at least 6 months in there.
- I want to start the native plant nursery, and/or market garden. A friend is letting us use her land (a ten minute drive from our place) but we need to put in a deer fence to make that feasible, and that would be about 1k. I have a credit card that I signed up for because of the $300 cash incentive (which I did get!), and I could put it on that, interest free until this October.
- Find ways to reduce the cost of food even more. It's roughly $650 for the two of us for the month, though that does include household goods like tp, detergent, etc as well. It might be that high in large part to how much herbal tea we drink, so one thing I want to do this year is grow more of our own tea
- Want to create a foraging/processing group because that sounds fun and awesome
- Commuting during the work week by car. Even worse, job is east of where we live, so we're driving into the rising sun in the morning and into the setting sun in the afternoon. I don't like this, but I'm not sure it's wise to make changing it a priority
- Sometimes I'm a bit impulsive with my plant hobby (like the $25 lightning orchid I bought last month...), and I want to be less impulsive. I also have a spare room that's occupied largely by plants, aquariums, books, and hang out space, and I want to seriously consider shuffling around that stuff into other rooms so that we can rent out another bedroom. Renting out two bedrooms would basically pay for our mortgage, which also gives me feelings that aren't entirely pleasant.
- We bought our house as a super-fixer-upper, and while we've fixed up a lot, there's more to do. I think if we could redo the floors, a couple lights, the main bathroom, and repaint we could rent out two of the rooms for approximately 120% of the mortgage instead of approximately 100%. We just don't have enough to swing that right now, and saving/taking out a loan for that is in direct opposition to the native plant nursery/market garden idea.
- Sometimes the state of the world freaks me out, and I become convinced that I need to figure out ways to secure access to things that may not be available if the global food supply chain breaks down. Like tea. And citrus. And chickens. Which leads to impulsive purchases that might not be the best planned out. I have avoided the chickens at least.
- Sometimes we're a bit impulsive when we're feeling bad, and we buy things to make ourselves happier- ranges from eating a meal out (less than once a month) to going yurt camping at a state park for a couple days(roughly yearly). We're getting better with that, but I want to refocus on treating the underlying causes of the issues rather than slapping a bandaid on.
- We have not been closely tracking our spending, and I've just started doing that this month
I'm conflicted about the native plant nursery and/or market garden. It is definitely the direction that I want to go with my life, I've done enough market research that I think there would be a good demand for it, I have run my own business before, and it is what I'm passionate about. On the other hand, it seems dumb to give myself 1k of debt right now when we're not even able to put anything into savings on a monthly basis. On the other other hand, it's coming out of the slow season, so we should see a roughly 20% increase in income starting in March, a $150 monthly bill is going away(loan used to buy a furnace when the old one died), and I do have a vanguard account that I threw $500 in in 2018 and it's now just over $1k.
I think the next step is to really interrogate our spending; both to see the general trends, and also in order narrow in on what is costing so much about our food so we can develop alternatives. I think that if we both are helping each other not be impulsive, I would have the money for the fence in 2 months, though there are some blueberry bushes and raspberries that I've ordered and they are coming before that. So maybe using the interest free credit card for that makes sense. I think I need to make a spread sheet.
*Suffice it to say, depression, adhd, and asd run in both of our families, but no one knew why life was such a struggle until the first person got diagnosed about 5 years ago (and I have since spent a lot of time figuring out how to work with my brain and I think I have a handle on it now). And one of my partner's parents died when we were 20 and he fell into a severe depression. And I got a master's degree in a field that turned out to be a horrible, horrible match for my brain and personality.
I also think it's great that you are both able to work part-time, enjoyable, sustainable jobs. What are some of your favorite plant-nerd books?
