Recently we have been brainstorming how to have our cake and eat it too- that is, how we can have huge debt, small income and still live our dreams. Because our debt payoff is several years down the road (and then some when you factor in student loans) saying no to everything now is tiring and depressing. Yet it is also necessary. All that to say we are trying to think creatively on ways to live our life within our budget.
One of those ideas is to find a different rental home that would allow us to make changes to the garden area, plant some fruit trees and have some food animals (cows, chickens, ducks, etc...). I was searching our local Craigslist but only finding rentals like this for $500-$600 more than we are paying now. Not good. On a whim I decided to search the ad's in another state we have previously thought of moving to.
Much to my delight I found the perfect rental! A five bedroom farmhouse on several hundred acres. The total cost with utilities would be right around what we are paying for just our rent now. Emails with the landlord were great - like minded people very open to our animal/gardening/orchard thoughts. There are outbuildings for the animals and neighbors who are doing the same kind of homesteading. Perfect! Except...
We don't want to leave our friends. Or our church. Five years ago I think we would have both just picked up and moved. But now we have a community of people and faith we are part of. Like minded people who care about us and who we care about. Our family. And it's hard to measure the value of those people until faced with a decision like this.
For us the value of people is higher at this time than the dream of a homestead. We're going to keep exploring our options in this area and brainstorming about what we could do where we are at now. Who knows what the Lord may provide! And that rental...turns out the current renters decided they wanted it for another year, so we couldn't have gone anyway!
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