My name is Megan and my husband and I started on this journey of a homesteading lifestyle about 9 months ago.
My promise to you is that in the blog posts that I am writing I will be whole heartedly honest about our experience and know that everything is NOT roses and fairy dust.
This is the journey we are currently on and I just want to be straight forward about our struggles, happiness, failures, strengths and hopefully you can learn from our mistakes and understand that the ONLY thing that has helped us through this is God (and do not worry, I am not going to preach at or to you I just need you to know where my heart is and where I draw my strength from).
It all actually started a few years ago when we felt that we were living in a time where most people cannot provide for themselves and we in fact were are the mercy of everyone else for basically EVERYTHING!
The bank owned our house for about 10 more years (even if you say you “own” your house, unless it is fully paid for and you have no mortgage you in fact do not own it) and we had to go to the store for everything.
We placed our house on the market and it went on and off for about 3 years before it sold. That felt like the longest and most frustrating 3 years of our lives for sure. It just seems like the waiting process goes on forever and was NEVER going to happen, however it did in fact sell and we were officially debt FREE!!!
Ever since we were married we decided that we wanted to live debt free and not owe anyone anything. We only placed on credit cards what we could pay off and if we could not afford it we would not spend it.
Yeah, yeah you are saying I know…It is SO much easier said than done, for sure! We live in a society where when you want something you should just go get it, instant gratification to be straight forward actually. Why wait, just put it on your credit card or get a loan.
Yes, I also know that there are some things that you have to have credit for and unexpected things happen and you will need to use it. I am not saying that using credit is bad you just have to be wise with it.
Well, we were wise with it while we had a house…We had a 15 year mortgage, paid everything off, drove used cars and so on… however something did not feel right, like we were still missing something!
I looked back at how my grandparents lived and I felt like even though we have some pretty cool things compared to them we are not fully living. We are wrapped up in once you make good money you want to make more money, and mortgage payments, car payments, vacation money, credit card bills, utilities, being burned out and the list could go on forever!
They (my grandparents) lived very simple and also worked hard… That is what we decided we wanted to get back to. It is like we are so busy that we are missing the most AMAZING parts of life.
We are all so focused on the end goal that we are MISSING the true journey that we are on and the beauty that is in it.
How cool would it be to know:
- Exactly where your food came from?
- Who is handling your food?
- How to enjoy life more?
I mean the list could go on forever of what would be cool to know. We just really felt in our hearts that we needed to get back to living on and with what we had and could afford along with taking time to enjoy the little things.
Well to be honest, it has been an adjustment for sure! You can only start with baby steps. If you go all out at once that is your choice but I will tell you this IS an adjustment period, a cleansing if you will.
You MUST have a starting point and some kind of outline to follow so things get accomplished in a fashion that will serve you and be for your best good. You can start simple and then get more detailed.
We started simple like this:
- Land
- Water
- Shelter
- Food
See that was not that hard at all, now to break it all down… We will start with land.
Land is sacred so you must go about buying land carefully. The first thing you need to figure out is: What is your budget?
Are you someone who has saved money and is buying with cash or are you taking out a loan?
I know you did not realize that you were going to be playing 20 questions but this whole process is about asking questions. Why would you ever want to spend your time doing and making the same mistakes others have made…Learn from one another and make your life easier.
In the next post I will break down the difference of using Cash and getting a Loan (I know these might seem like little silly things however it WILL set the stage for how you can move forward in the future so make sure you do not skip what seems like it common sense because you would be surprised what some consider common sense and other would not consider common sense.).
With much love and blessings on YOUR Journey!
Megs
P.S. If you are looking for a place where you can become part of a community dedicated ENTIRELY to the homesteading life style (weather you go full throttle or you just want to live a more organic life style) please sign up for newsletters, giveaways, and just more information here: — >>
