Did you choose to live simply or forced into it?

I'm trying to live this way as a CHOICE. My mother can't understand why I don't have a clothes dryer, am learning to spin and make my own soap, etc.

I have passed up chances at jobs that would pay way more than what I make now but which would have required me to live or work in the big city (I am a newspaper reporter/editor)...

I am nearly 53 years old and the simplier lifestyle is what I want. I work from home so I am connected to the world via the Internet and I do have to make forays out into the "other" world to interview politicans and cover meetings and such but this homestead is the only thing that keeps me grounded.

We really really got serious about taking care of our family after the Blizzard of 1993. We had been trying before that but had not taken it as seriously.

I was raised in a basic lifestyle that my parents chose...in my early adulthood I was forced into it due to economic reasons (divorce, two small children to raise). Now I am married to a man who is financially set, but CHOOSE to live a more basic lifestyle. I think it's in my blood...my genes. I guess I passed those genes on to my kids...they are in their early 20s and both want to live like I do.

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I'm running so far behind I thought I was first!

http://hickahala.blogspot.com/

Choice here too.

My only regret is that I didn't find this site sooner.
I didn't know there was quite a folowing! :worship:

originaly i was born into a simple life,went in the marines,got out with a good paying job waiting.that co. relocated i stayed and pinched pennies.since then i have had several well paying offers that would require me to relocate and i find that this is what i want

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LIVE FREE - DIE WELL

I found this site because I was always looking up frugal living, simple living, country living, homesteading and someone pointed me this way. I have this need to simplify and prepare for days when knowledge of this sort may be necessary for survival. Others in my family are doing the same. Some in the family do not think it is necessary. I just know that I have to make the effort to do the best that I can with what I have. There is so much to learn!!

Trisha

I've lived in cities and can handle it... even enjoy it sometimes. But I moved here for a certain low-paying but worthy job and it just seems more practical to be as self-sufficient as possible. The job doesn't pay much, and my most obvious asset is land, so it makes sense to build a little place and take care of myself rather than go to all the trouble to move again and readjust to city-life. Beside, I like it here... it's home.

For me, it's a choice, mostly. As a kid I was fascinated by the Amish and by my dad's southern relatives (grandma's dad was a sharecropper until he could afford to buy his own place, and most of the family still in the south during my childhood had farm/homesteads).

Some things I was 'forced' into at the time, like learning to cook from scratch because dh decided Hamburger Helper was too expensive! I started organic gardening because one of my sons is very sensitive to chemicals. Canning came with the gardening, and also because same son has allergies to preservatives, additives, and artificial flavors/colors/perfumes. Same son influenced my move to making laundry soap instead of buying it.

All those 'forced' things, however, became a conscious choice after awhile because I saw how beneficial they were. Dh still shakes his head over some of the things I choose to do, but that's because he thinks his time at home is worth the same rate as he gets paid at his job, and cooking up a batch of laundry soap to him isn't worth his time. I think of my time not so much in how much money I would bring in, but in how much money I would save. Tending chickens vs running to the few stores that sell organic eggs and meat; spending a season gardening and canning vs buying like quality stuff at high prices if I could even find a store around here that offered it.

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Kris
http://thislittleplacehere.blogspot.com/

The short answer would be choice, but I prefer to think it was my destiny. I have known since I was 10 yrs old that I wanted to br a farmer like my uncles, I followed both of them around like a puppy, asking questions and learning as much as I could. We lived in the city, and as all who have grown up in town know, life happens. new cars, early marriage, doctor bills, morgages it all becomes a trap. Finally I came to the realization that it was all worthless, and not what I wanted at all. So after 30 yrs in this "prison", I am making my break this spring.
Rog

Choice -- went from a career in computers in the big city to living in a college town and driving to starting the homestead in the boonies!
What a long strange trip its been!

Choice. I'm a "low-maintenance" kind of gal.

all of the above. :haha:

actually, it is choice, but only because i learned all the hard lesssons early on. it sure wasn't any fun when i was literally praying the meals on the table to feed 3 kids, scavenging neighbors gardens and roadsides. now that my life is more settled and secure, it seems to be a habit i can't break. well, really i don't want to break it. i drive an old car because it works just fine, so why do i need a new one? stuff like that. bake bread because it tastes better than anyting you can buy. same with a garden. and livestock.

it's a quality of life issue.

"but getting him to give up the 3 acre 'lawn'-The rest of the property is treed, so no pastureland."

3 acre lawn- been there done that already. hopefully, never ever again!
theres a small lawn here and thats all. rest is treed!

for me, i wonder how difficult it would be to be unemployed and in the country/ woods, alone. have not done it and wonder how it will fly. i have already checked in on the programs available and there are mostly apartments in town, the place i dont want to be, but at least one site close by here.
have been in the city, in an apartment, for a year and couldnt stand it. i know i get really attached to the places i live, but it just didnt get more comfortable with time. lower michigan- need i say more?

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Are you feelin' it yet, Mr. Krabs?

Choice.

Mike

Choice. I always knew what I wanted, but found it difficult to go against the grain. I had to walk away from a 12-year marriage and start over ,,,,,,.

It turned out to be the best decision I ever made!

I love it here ... even the hard times (WINTER! need I say more?) are good in their own way ...

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"I love all of this mud," said no one, ever.

I grew up living simply and then went off to the big city to "do better". Couldn't find happiness there so returned to home area. Now I find that the local economy is such that we are kind of forced to live simply if we chose to live in this region.

This is a very interesting question. I have pondered the whole simple-by-choice or simple-by-force thing. That is one of the things that always turned me off about the Nearings (I know, many of you idolize them). I think it is much easier to choose to live simply when you have the reassurance in the back of your mind that if the going gets too tough for you, you can just up and change your lifestyle. Not having a choice allows for a more authentic experience but not a very comfortable one. So please don't criticize those who grew up with a life of forced simplicity if they are quick to enjoy a little affluence if it comes their way.

Homesteading makes being poor more fun...living in the city on my salary would be scary....in the country it makes me need to get back to basics....but it is all enjoyable.

We choose to live simply, long before we needed to and thank goodness we did. When we moved to the country I already knew that the country was where I wanted to be, my husband wasn’t so sure. But, after we got settled and began to live more simply than we had in town, raising our own garden and preserving what we grew got us started. Then along came the animals and everything simply snowballed from there. I was lucky enough to be a SAHM and take care of the garden and animals while my DH and sons worked and went to school. Then my DH lost his job in manufacturing after 34 years. We were devastated of course; but we are getting by much better than some others that he worked with; they knew nothing of gardening, and making do with less in general. We are getting by just fine, we don’t spend on the extras like we used to and we do more for ourselves than we ever did before. We like our life the way it is now, and even when my DH finishes his training for a new career we will still live this way.

Living simply is a choice. I choose to live this way, because it is easier. I will say that I now live with my daughter--ran out of money and energy at the farm I had. In making the move, I realized how very much junk I'd accumulated. I was appalled at how little was sellable. I still moved here with way too much stuff and am still getting rid of things. In the time I've been here, however, I've had a lot of time to think and realized that limiting myself was making life a lot easier. Also, I have learned how much info is available on the internet or on discs so have nearly stopped cutting out clippings of stuff.

I really pared down the number of interests I had to just a few doable items. I do a small backyard nursery, needlepoint, and quilt. Have gotten rid of or am in the process of everything that is not that.

I wear black pants or jeans and have a few tops a/c to the season, and how dressy I need to be. I have 3-4 pr. shoes that match. Getting dressed is easy. Most tops are some form of T-shirt, sweater or flannel shirt.

I keep my hair simple and short. I have 10 pair earrings for when I'm off the property (not much). I cut my fingernails to the quick once a week. I spend very little time on grooming, yet still manage to look OK, even somewhat feminine.

I have a set of basic tools handy to the greenhouse/garden. I keep a set of pens, scissors, etc. near each place where they would be needed. No one needs to go wandering off with tools and leave them somewhere else.

Every single thing I own has its own home. I always know where everything is and spend no time looking for them. This includes car keys.

I know there is a lot more, but the ideas have now become so much a part of my life that I'm unaware of them. I have too many things (incl this forum) that I want to spend time with to waste time with mundane stuff. I would skip sleep if I could.

I am always aware of ways to simplify. After cleaning up my parent's estate, I am aware of the mess I could leave behind for my daughter to clean out. Better to do much of this ahead of time. How she's going to divide up my last nickel three ways will be her problem.

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Best wishes,

Sandi

"Anger is an acid that does more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to the object on which it is poured." Corrie TenBoom

When I was growing up in Texas, my dad was a Texas Highway Patrolman. We moved every 9-18 mo until I got into high school and we settled in Mansfield, TX on 18 acres with all kinds of animals and gardens and an old 600 sq ft 2 bdrm shack that needed lots of work---that my mom managed to turn into a dollhouse. My parents both came from homesteading families

DH grew up in Menlo Park, CA outside San Francisco. The word homesteading was not in his vocabulary. Dh's dad grew up in CO farming and never wanted to go back to that.

Land was more my dream than his. He saw our place as a retreat from the city. I saw it as a way of life. After his transfer to Wash DC and subsequent lay-off, here we are and it has been such a blessing to have this place to come to.

The transition has been much easier for me than for DH. There are still times that he has a hard time with the lack of money and lack of outward appearance of wealth. DH's family thinks we lost our minds and they feel sorry for us. My family sees us with far more than they ever had and so blessed.

DH still has not found a regular job. He sends out lots of resumes and gets lots of letters of rejection. I am a nurse at a local hospital. We now live on my income from nursing and what I bring in from my pottery and what he brings in with various small projects. Our income is 1/6th of what it was. That has meant a lot of cutting back. I grew up frugal, Dh grew up with a money tree out back. He has gotten much, much better having been married to me for 11 years, but he still gets depressed sometimes when the "want bug" bites him and he can't scratch it. Dh's dad sends money sometimes when he feels especially "sorry" for us. I give my share to Dh and let him spend the money on his want list. I have few wants, Dh has lots. He worries, I don't.

It has been a choise for us, or rather a way we would rather live, We have had to live in town once in awhile after a move & new job started, but always had a garden, learned to tan leather home canned, sewing our own clothes when possible. I have been spinning wool for 5 yrs or so now, we are back out in the country after 12 yrs at the edge of town, where we had strawberry patch, fruit trees, garden etc etc. Dh built the pole building garage with our sons. We are much happier out here & plan on building a chicken coop this spring as we have already ordered the chickens, Had a Farmette in MO with milk goats, chicken,s cow ,steer in the 80's & dh changed jobs & had to leave . Missed it ever since.