am I crazy? is this possible?

[sunnylady303]

X-posted in Country Living

We are in a place (which is a whole long story which I will be glad to share) where we have to buy a house. We have dreamed for some time about getting a house with some land so we homestead. We have found 5 acres with a nice little house that it at the absolute top end of our price range. We have been preapproved for the cost of the home. To do this we will be looking at living (after bills but with no medical expenses at all) on $1200 a month. So food, fun, birthdays, Christmas, gas, vacations, lightbulbs, dog food, car repairs, everything. Can we do it? Are we crazy to try? Is that too much sacrifice? Any wisdom you all have? Thanks so much!

[DandeCobb]

hey fellow kentuckian! I think it is possible with planning. meal planning, smart grocery shopping, and a budget everyone is comfortable with and can follow. are you near one of the bigger cities (i'm near lex.) or more eastern? I would assume the more rural eastern areas of kentucky would be cheaper. good luck!

[princesstutu]

I guess it depends on how you use your money. If you use lots of gas, now, will you make changes to use less when you have less disposable income?

I generally live (with 4 kids) on less than $1000/month. We are comfortable, afaic. We still have fun and birthday parties, altho our idea of fun is the occassional Hot Wheels car purchase and I don't encourage too much materialism in my kids as far as bdays are concerned. My dd's 4th bday is next week and she's only getting a bike, for example.

We don't take vacations, but that's a planning issue, which I'm not good at, I'll admit.

[sunnylady303]

We live outside Louisville - about 30 minutes away. DH and I are pastors in a rural community and the church is a mile from the property. We will do lots of driving for visiting but that won't be any more than we are now.
Careful planning? I guess I really need to make a good budget. Vacations are our downfall. My parents live in FL and that trip we make once a year and it is expensive. I'll work on it.

[mightymoo]

Only you can know, the best way to find out is to start doing it.

[annethcz]

It depends on your lifestyle.

Also keep in mind that living in the country can be more expensive than living in the city. You'll need to drive everywhere, gas is a huge expense. Our family can easily spend $500/ month on gasoline- and my DH works from home 2-3 days/week! We've found that it's about twice as expensive to heat our house with propane than it was when we had natural gas in the city.

[sunnylady303]

I really want to. It has electric heat. I wonder if anyone has any experience with frugal homesteading? LOL. I mean in the next few years we want chickens, goats, a giant garden, an orchard, a hoophouse, a root cellar, etc. How will we afford that? We'll need to get a rider mower - at this point all of it is grass.
I guess it's about choices. We've spent on average $2500 on birthdays and Christmas. I guess we could keep doing that or we could take that to $1400 and have a house and land. I don't know. That would be worth it. I'm just afraid that I am not disciplined enough. And I guess I'm afraid that my girls won't like the change.

[*andiflipping*]

I think it is doable if you really want it to work. We live on way less than that month. That said, we only spend $400-$500 tops on Christmas and $100-$150 on birthdays.

[Sharlla]

Sounds like plenty to me.

[JamieCatheryn]

Special occasion gifts can be cut down to next to no cost, just do special gestures and cheap handmade things instead, and buy each other the things you need if you have the money set aside (your fruit trees, mower). Or go for the grazing animals and skip the mower. Vacations, well with plane tickets during certain sales you could get there cheaper than driving at least. The monthly bills would take careful planning and cutbacks to get by on that much. Outside of town you can get a fair home price at least, and if you do all your shopping at once so you aren't back and forth to town wasting gas, and you don't use a lot of climate control (dress for the weather), then you can do it.

BTW I'm in Louisville too and my mom lives in FL, small world.

[kijip]

Originally Posted by sunnylady303

I mean in the next few years we want chickens, goats, a giant garden, an orchard, a hoophouse, a root cellar, etc. How will we afford that?

All of those things have large start-up costs and some ongoing or reoccurring expenses. Unless you have savings for them or have enough each month to do a few things at a time, I honestly don't see it working well.

Are there any slightly cheaper places? You could do the same with a bit less land.

Gas is really going to take up a lot of that $1200 if you have to do home visits for your ministry. Factor in utilities and you could have very little left over for even food, say nothing of b-days. And if you don't have some money to get started with growing, preserving and storing your own food you will be on your land but not living your dream. How will you save for tax increases, retirement? What about medical costs? What sort of back-up will you have if you lose all or part of your income? How many months would you have to find a new job before your mortgage went into default? How secure are your jobs? If something happened to your church (they take it in a new direction in the few years or whatnot, lots of ministers have that happen), are there other ministry jobs in the area? For my friends and 1 family member, lost church jobs typically mean moving out of state to get on at another church.

I don't mean to be a killjoy. But if it is worth doing, it is worth planning and thinking about strategically to better ensure you are doing the best thing for you and your family. Spend some time asking and answering the hard questions, it pays off in the end no matter what you decide.

Also there is the time involved in doing all this homesteading. Can you do that and still each work full-time as ministers? Don't you have to save for your employment taxes each quarter as ministers? Is that accounted for in your $1200?

[jayb842]

Hi,

We did this a few years ago. We bought a home in our dream area of Colorado. We loved it but it was so hard changing our life style. We went from a $250 dollar house payment to $1200. We had to change most everything we did. We did end up doing into debt (credit cards) because we couldn't make all the changes we needed too. (We have gotten out now.)My advice would be to try if a few months. I would try living on $1200 a month and see if you can stand it. This way you have some money put back to fix up the house if you get it. When the excitement of moving and all the changes wears off can you really do this?

Jay

[moon child]

Originally Posted by Sharlla

Sounds like plenty to me.

[Knittin' in the Shade]

Do utilities need to be paid from that $1200? If so, then I say no way. That money will be eaten up by gas and utilities before you even get to food (nevermind Christmas and birthdays!) I think Kate (kijip) asks a lot of good questions, too.

[mmace]

$1,200 a month after paying bills? That sounds like a dream to me! My budget gives me $194 a month after paying bills/buying groceries/household necessities, and I still need gas for my car out of that money.

[EmsMom]

You might want to consider that all of those homesteading improvements do cost money and when all is said and done your budget might not have enough room leftover to buy supplies for hoop houses, chickens (and feed), etc. I think that it sounds like a great plan, but with rising gas and food prices, the reality might be far tougher than it sounds.

[sunnylady303]

I appreciate all the replies. We don't have to pay utilities out of the $1200 or medical bills (church pays our health and dental insurance and our deductible and insurance pays 100% after the deductible - prescriptions come out of our HSA which the church also pays into). Church is paying into our 401K through the pension fund and maxing it out right now. The $1200 really is just for living and homesteading.
I know there is time involved - DH and I are sharing one full time job so we are basically both part time.
I know a lot of the homesteading stuff costs money, and I am planning to spread it out over years.
Security is a concern. Out of that money we would have to build in safety net also. I'm not worried about this church but then you never are, are you? But we would plan to settle here. There are lots of little part time churches around which DH would love and when our time here is up, I will look toward Louisville to be a full time hospital chaplain. I feel great about putting down roots here.
Assuming gas prices don't skyrocket too much more, we spend about an average of $175 a month on gas with visiting. We're already in the country and this place is only a mile further in the country so gas spending will be about the same.
I really am trying to be realistic. If it's not, given all this, then I want to hear what you think. Thanks!

[EFmom]

Personally, unless I had a solid reason to think that my income would be increasing significantly in the future, I wouldn't do it. The price of energy and food are going to continue to climb for the forseeable future, and that could eat up a big chunk of your $1200/month.

[kijip]

Ok your second post really does seem more doable, but there are still some questions. What makes it seem better is that you are only 1 mile from work (and that can be walked if needed), you are getting at least something from your church for retirement, your medical costs on a routine basis are covered. Also you have some job prospects should this church job end. Plus, you both work part-time which gives you a lot of time for the work required.

My only questions now are:

-Don't you have taxes owed in arrears to the IRS, has that debt been settled or reduced (or am I just remembering wrong and it is not you with the unpaid taxes?)

-Remember that prices are rising dramatically and factor that into your budget- if you have no wiggle room on $1200 now, when prices rise (as they most certainly will) you are not going to make the ends meet. If you have $1200, I'd build a monthly expense budget for as much under that as possible, say $800.

Lastly if I was going to do this in your situation, 1 of us work devote to making the house a job and the other would get a part-time job for at least 2 years and all that money would go into an emergency fund. All of this would seem a lot more doable with cash reserves in the bank. If you can't start with reserves, work to build them up as fast as you can post move.

[becoming]

You can definitely do it, but it will require a change of lifestyle. Only you know if you're ready to make that change.