Did you choose to live simply or forced into it?

I choose to live this way so that I will not have to be a wage slave past the age of 31.I grew up with a sister and dad died when I was young with no insurance times were pretty hard but we survived alright.My grandpa taught me that there is no free lunch he made me buy stamps from him when I spent summers on the farm and helped me find ways to make $ such as picking blackberries and selling acorns to the forest service.I read your money or your life when I was 15 and realized that they were on to a good thing.When I was in the army at age 20 for 4 years I just continued on like I had no money (they pay for everything)I saved almost everything never watched a movie or anything.Put it all in cd's then stocks when I got out in 2000 I had $54,000 34k was my own money the rest profit, The last 7 months I was greedy and put it all in the nasdaq it crashed and I only had about 15k left.I never forgot my original goal of personal freedom and a homestead of my own and am still working to obtain it. You can read more in an article I will write for countryside magazine by april 2006.

Very much a choice!
I love country living.
I get the same thrill of satisfaction from looking at my shelves full of canned goods or opening my door on a bulging full freezer and knowing that I did
that myself as some women might owning a hugh diamond ring or sable
coat.
There is no music sweeter to me than birds in the woods out back in
the early morning or the clucking of my hens in the chicken yard.
The sight of my wash flapping in the breeze on the line on a summer day
or reading in a warm house in the middle of winter with no one else
around for miles delights me.
Those are the things that I need - not fancy furniture or new cars.
My only necessities are family, water, enough food,heat,our livestock, and tall trees around me.

Very much by choice. I am doing what I always wanted to do. Like the previous poster, I get a very large sense of satisfaction with my nice rows of home canned produce in the pantry and bulging freezers. I would rather walk in our woods than any place else on earth. I feel so blessed to be where I am doing what I am doing!!

[QUOTE=Mudwoman]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

If you haven't been to Mansfield lately you wouldn't believe it. The ol=nly break from the housing additions is the highways. When I graduated from Midlothian High School, Midlothian had less than 1700 people and I believe Mansfield was smaller. That was in '68.

One would have to have in the millions to buy 18 acres there now.
Ed

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"Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals, and happiness."
Thomas Jefferson to George Washington 1787

Both. I, too, get a sense of pride looking at our neat rows of home-grown, home-canned goods. So does DH. I look at it in several different ways.

One way I look at it as experience. In modern society valuable skills are slipping away without most realizing it. It shows in how many friends ask me to call them when I'm canning something, so they can learn how.

Another way I look at it is frugality. When I sat down and took a look at all of the things we CAN live without (comfortably) and normally take for granted (ie. paper towels) and added them up, I realized that we have been flushing approximately $7000 per year down the toilet. OUCH. We scrape by month by month, sometimes needing to dip into the credit, most times not, but we usually just get by. Now I realize that with a little extra effort and a few minor lifestyle changes, (baking own bread, making laundry detergents, this type of thing) we really do have an extra $7000 per year to pay down our house, student loans, etc. What a thrill!

Another way I look at it is free entertainment. Not only is it entertaining to play the "how much can we save, cut back, live on," it also fills our time with do-it-yourself entertainment. While my friends are out spending money on movies, dining out, ballgames, etc, we stay home doing fix-up projects, gardening, canning, cooking from scratch, watching the sunset and basically enjoying nature and peace and quiet. Living in the country and learning/living some of the "past-times" is and has been the most fulfilling time of my life.

When my wife and I filed for bankruptcy, that was the real turning point for us. Our vow to NEVER get into debt again (we're still making a mistake here and there, financially, but MUCH better off than before) led to us pursuing that "country lifestyle" we had talked about since the first day we met. Pursuing the country lifestyle not only landed us in the country, but the pursuance of "surviving in the country" led us to Countryside Magazine, and this forum.

I have been forced into it, by the big factory farms that poison everything and then make all the good food prohibitively expensive. I blame them all, from Tyson to McCain.
Money is an issue, but I would just go all out if I had more money. Grow all my own meat. But I am not, so I try to limit the poison to a minimum. At least I will never get fat!!

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A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

oh.. no. if i had the good furtune be wealthy I'd be walowing in a vat of coconut macaroons in the grotto of hefs masion I will have had bought out from under him.

I would be obceanly decadent, it would be lovely.

I'd have to give a lot of stuff away to keep me from feeling guilty... but ring the bell to call the bunies with more macaroons and root beer.

I live this way because its all I have been able to get, so, you have to enjoy it and not live wanting more when you know it aint gonna be.
so I enjoy what I have, and I relish the excess I sometimes find. I wish it was a lot more, but thats like wishing I could fly... not realistic.

sure.. I'd change it if I could, no question. I wouldnt "change it" I'd expand and improve it....thats all.

when you behave excentric and decident and your poor, they think your either nuts or trashy.
if you do the same and your rich, you get your own reality show on E!

lol

Simply Living, Or Living Simply - Living Simply Means Being Kind To Yourself. Living Simple Should Come Naturally, And More Intense As Each Year Passes By. Isn't It Simply Natural To Migrating Birds In The Sky? Saying "no" To Some Outside Pressure Is One Way To Be Kind To Yourself. It Is Not Being Self-centered. Setting Boundaries To What Is Or Is Not Important. Taking Time To Hear God's Voice, The Wonder Of A New Child, Seeking Solitude. Reaching To Those Who Are Tossed, Comforting Them. Take Time, No Matter What.

Simple Living by CHOICE!!! Nothing nicer than sitting down to dinner & looking at all we are eating & realize that we raised or grew it all. I think that I could be a Millioniare if I could bottle the smell of fresh air & sunshine. Like your laundry just off the clothes line.

2001 laid off from my very wellpaying 60 hour a week job. Serious drop in income. Took a few mos. off to look around for another and 9/11 happened. DH didn't like that I worked so much anyway so we had to re-think some things.I now drive a schoolbus 20-25 hrs. per week , have time to take care of the garden, hang clothes on the line, make my own laundry soap and all the other things I never seemed to have time or energy for :baby04: . It's the best job I ever had. Our little 1/4 acre now has a raspberry patch, strawberry patch, and a 8x16 raised bed garden. Today we doubled that and put in a second 8x16 raised bed for next spring. We don't have ag zoning so no live stock but are considering rabbits for meat. It's amazing how much you can do with a little patch of ground. We also live walking distance to the forest preserve and spend time there. In a few years (2?) when the 2 youngest are finished with collage we intend to get more land and a smaller house( as opposed to a little land and a big house) but in the meantime we make do with what we have and are paying off the debt we aquired when we thought things would be great into infinity.

I have a CAVE all picked out and a sharp stick to chase what ever for dinner. Life moves in circles and we are all going back to the beginning, so don't forget how to make FIRE.

I would say I chose simplicity but then I am the child of depression era children and they taught me well so how much is choice and how much is nurture is a very good question. My many siblings pretty much went a similar route so thinking about it now I suspect that our parents instilled it into us very well. Perhaps we make less choice than we think.

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

When we left the City, built our log cabin -- by falling our own trees, peeling them, skidding, fitting and setting the logs -- it was the most thrilling adventure. Everything is and was perfect -- life was and is good -- the best. When we are doing all the things we do on the homestead we are not even aware of a second of time -- did you ever have days like that?

Only, I am not talking only days, I am talking, all-the-time: there is no time.

We wanted to go and do all those things, not because we had to, because it was what we wanted to do -- it was and is a gentle passion -- and all consuming.

We love our homestead life -- hope you do too.

All the best,

Alex

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Thou art That

Choice! And a little of being forced into it.

If I do the work I love, which is wildlife biology, I make next to no money. If I do other work which pays better, I start feeling sick in my spirit. So I finally figured out that if I keep my needs simple, I can take a lower paying job and enjoy life more. That's my game plan right now. I got laid off two weeks ago, am now on unemployment for 3 - 6 months, and going back to school to become a high school science teacher. Once the training is done and I get the experience, I'd like to open up a nonprofit where young adults can learn compassion and responsibility for themselves and others by doing wildlife rehabilitation. I think it will be a lot of fun and keep me busy for the rest of my life.

But a major goal of mine is to get my student loans paid off and my house paid off. This seems pretty unreachable at this point, especially considering I don't have a job! So I'm just trying to do what I can. Reading all these posts reminds me that I have a long way to go.

Beaux

I don't live simply any more: I wish that I did.

But, DH and the kids have their own dreams, and so I shlep the kids around to scouts and educational activities such, and pinch pennies for more rides at the fair and what not.

Ah, well, they are entitled to their dreams also, and the need for STUFF will drop dramatically when the kids leave in a few years. And, I will be able to stop driving them around once they get their licenses.

But, when they DO leave, I intend that they will be well prepared for the lives that they will choose. I think that will be something mechanical for the youngest, and working with groups of people for the oldest. I suspect that BOTH will be city dwellers~

Now, I probably gave the idea that the kids are TERRIBLY indulged, but they are not. They EARN what they have and they must work hard for what they want. They have the option to kick back if they want, they mostly do not want.

They have sold lemonade at the Farmers Markets (Mom gets up, helps make lemonade, drives them to the Farmers Market, hangs around while they sell, teaches them to make change, takes them to the store the next day to spend it). They have sold scout cookies and popcorn to raise money for activities (with Mom at the street for safety reasons), and so forth and so on. It is FUN and SATISFYING, but it isn't SIMPLE!

I miss the simple days, but I cannot complain. This is good too, even if I HAVE written activities all over the calender!

It must be a Choice for everyone here, because if anyone was Really poor we wouldn't be talking by computer right now.

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Freedom isn't Free

Choice. But it has seen me through some lean times.

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"Humankind has not woven the web of life, We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.
All things are bound together.
All things connect"
~Chief Seattle

Choice! But I'm still working on getting there. I've always known the country was the place for me, surrounded by loved ones, animals, and rolling hills. Simple living is a reaction to the way I grew up--my parents made plenty of money, but we didn't work well together, so we spent it all on convenience items and emotional pacifiers, and none of us was really happy, and now there's not much put away for them. I'd much rather work together with loved ones to put in a garden, make a home cooked meal, and entertain each other. I just started a well-paying job, and I could have all the "stuff" I want, but I'm saving all that I can to have the freedom to pay off school loans and move out of the city as soon as possible. Who wants to sit in an office 60-80 hours a week and stockpile cash and toys, when you could be outside actually living your life and enjoying what you have?

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And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb.. And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.. They shall not hurt nor destroy In all my holy mountain For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord.

Definatly by choice. I love the relaxing way of life offered to those that are willing to 'walk the extra mile'. I prefer home-made foods, home raised foods, and the time the kids and I spend together to make it all happen.

Kaza

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