mytwomonkeys Posted June 5, 2011 Share Posted June 5, 2011 WOW..we cant do that here in S. Florida! Sounds nice even though you call it an adjustment! we will be in north florida, in-between panama city & tallahassee. it was a blessing really. someone at our future church (my husband just took a position there as worship pastor) is going to let us live in one of their rentals for dirt cheap. they said they've been very blessed and would like to pay it forward. the church is really big into financial peace university, so we plan to take that class while becoming debt free quickly, and then saving for our new home. i'm really excited! it really won't be a sacrifice - just an adjustment ...and well worth it i'm sure:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momma H Posted June 5, 2011 Share Posted June 5, 2011 (edited) We have done lots since my husband is a real estate appraiser and has lost 2/3 of our income. We are moving to TN from CO to pay cash for a house with what equity we still have. (this is also so my husband can get a new career and not freak out completely) I drive a 93 Suburban with only a tape player etc. We eat a lot of meatless meals--lots of oatmeal and toast. That is really the hardest part--changing the way we eat. We get by on our pellet stove in the winter (in CO--we are moving to TN this summer) and it is often 58 when we wake up--we bundle. We almost never eat out and when we do it is the $2.89 deal at GoodTimes. I buy clothes for everyone at Good Will or Salvation Army (it's really not too bad! We get better stuff than we did before.) I almost never leave because of gas prices and the fact that when I go somewhere I have to spend money. I never thought this would be us. My husband used to make a really good living. However, I look back at how we have grown and what we have learned and I can't say I would give this experience up and I don't want to go back to the spendthrift way we used to live again even when things get better.:D I have no idea how we make it except we have a big a gracious God! I do want to add that we have no debt except for a little for home improvements we are doing to sell and that will be paid off when we close. We decided to move BEFORE we lose everything! Edited June 5, 2011 by Momma H add something Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LivingHope Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 Living in a 950 sq. ft. house on a tiny city lot for 9 years...with 7 children... enabled us to become debt free. We now live in 1800 sq. ft. house on 2 1/2 acres. Janell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsmykids Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 I have to say, we did something like that. When I was pregnant with our daughter we moved in with my parents (2 bedrm cape) we lived in the basement for 1 year while our house was built. Plus I gave birth to my daughter while we were there. She was just fine in a porta crib instead of a regular one. One great thing is checking on the children in the night. I didn't even have to get out of bed. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nd293 Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 Aiyaiyai!! Can I do it for three years? To achieve that much? Definitely! Paper the trailer wall with a huge graph of your debt and watch it decrease month by month to zero... That should make it feel worth the discomfort! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moxie Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 We have a mess of student loans we have to clean up so we're living in a small, one-bathroom home in a bad neighborhood while we pay it off. With the current market and interest rates, we're SO tempted to move up a bit but we're trying hard to stay here for a few more years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CalicoKat Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 We're about to get serious about Dave Ramsey extreme changes to our lives to get out of debt. I'd love to hear some success stories and encouragement! We're very seriously considering moving from our beautiful 2400 sq ft home into a 672 sqft single-wide trailer. :scared: We will be moving no matter what, because my husband has been unemployed for a couple of months and has been offered a job in another city. We went to look at homes to rent in the new city last weekend, and we'd have to pay at least $300-400 more a month than our current mortgage to rent a comparable house. So we've been looking at smaller houses, and talking about making a fresh start and trying to cut expenses to pay off our debts (primarily enormous school loans, which total a mortgage sized payment all by themselves). My husband's parents own a piece of property with a single wide trailer on it and would let us stay in it rent free, just paying the property taxes and POA fees. If we lived there, we could feasibly pay off all our debts and save up a substantial down payment on a home in about three years. Aiyaiyai!! Can I do it for three years? Part of me thinks it is completely crazy, and the other part thinks it would be crazy cool. We've been downsizing our stuff and clearing clutter ever since we knew we'd be moving, but since discussing this, we've had a renewed passion for clearing out/selling the excess stuff! That has to be a good thing. So anyway, I'd love to hear any encouragement or stories of folks who have actually become debt free, and to hear any extreme measures you may have gone to to make it happen! Putting our 3200 sq. ft home on the market so we can move and do what you're talking about. Family is selling us property and we're actually considering living in a 1800 sq. ft. pole barn. The smaller space we'll be moving into sometimes is overwhelming to think about, but remember there's outdoor living when to consider. If it's too small indoors, the kids will & can go out to play in good weather more often. I've seen it happen when we've stayed at my folks house. I've decided that laundry facilities should be the first thing I consider, where can I put a pantry, and then where can I plug in my freezer. Then I can think about summer kitchen because I will be doing more canning there than here. We're getting started on this journey too. It's bumpy and painful, but you can do it and the end result is hopefully more enjoyable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
journeytolily Posted June 19, 2011 Share Posted June 19, 2011 Scrappyhappymama, what happened with the trailer? Have you seen it, did you decide to make the move?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrappyhappymama Posted June 26, 2011 Author Share Posted June 26, 2011 (edited) Scrappyhappymama, what happened with the trailer? Have you seen it, did you decide to make the move?? Unfortunately, the trailer was condemnable. We were really open minded about what we would find, but it was much worse than we'd even anticipated. Broken septic pipes, holes in the walls, dead rats, most of the windows broken... just really, really bad. We actually walked around the place for a few hours trying to see if we could somehow make it work, gut it out completely, and live bare bones, but the trailer itself is literally shredding apart. There's no sound structure for us to build onto. So, we considered the possibility of hauling off the old trailer and buying an inexpensive used one to replace it. But, this land is in a (now) covenant controlled subdivision by a lake. My in-laws bought it over 30 years ago, and the by-laws have changed a lot since then. I had read on their website that only approved trailers could be put on the land. So I asked the property association and they said only NEW mobile homes were allowed, and then only on some of the tracts. She checked on my in-laws' land, and saw that now only "site-built" homes are allowed- no mobiles, no modulars, nothing. This, even though across the street on both sides are nice, well maintained trailers with garages and landscaping. Apparently, they were all grandfathered in before the new provisions. It's nuts!! They'd really rather have a broken down trailer on the land rather than a much newer one in good repair? And they really expect folks to build a house on the land, even though the majority of the homes in the neighboring streets are manufactured homes? I feel badly for my MIL, because her land is basically worthless now, but she still has to pay taxes on it and keep up with the yard. She uses the trailer for storage, but even that is against the covenant. So much for land ownership! :glare: So, we are still planning to downsize, but we won't have the awesome advantage we could have had, if the trailer had been livable, or even if we could have replaced it. At first, we were pretty discouraged, but most people who do the Dave Ramsey plan still have to pay mortgages or rent, so we know it can be done, and it's given us incentive to try to live lower for the next few years anyway. Edited June 26, 2011 by scrappyhappymama to resuscitate the kitty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elfgivas Posted June 26, 2011 Share Posted June 26, 2011 eta: i just read your last post. so too bad..... on to the next option.... (before the condemned email i wrote: okay, so i'm excited for you! with half an acre, you could sleep outside in tents in the summer sometimes! your dc could build a "play house".... you could be debt free in three years. hold that thought....) wow! ann Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MistyJ Posted July 24, 2011 Share Posted July 24, 2011 DO IT!!! We spent 2 years to get out of $80,000 in debt. Sold back cars, started driving paid for, humble cars. Settled credit card debt. Started using cash. We were slammed with some tax bills this year, but other than those and our mortgage, we are debt free. If we could get out of our house and into something smaller for the sake of eliminating debt, we would in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, our mortgage is upside down. I won't pretend that this phase of "living like no one else" doesn't chafe a little, but it's quite preferable to massive debt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renee in NC Posted July 24, 2011 Share Posted July 24, 2011 Unfortunately, the trailer was condemnable. We were really open minded about what we would find, but it was much worse than we'd even anticipated. Broken septic pipes, holes in the walls, dead rats, most of the windows broken... just really, really bad. We actually walked around the place for a few hours trying to see if we could somehow make it work, gut it out completely, and live bare bones, but the trailer itself is literally shredding apart. There's no sound structure for us to build onto. Sounds like the last two trailers we lived in!!!!:lol: The first one no longer had an occupancy permit because it had burned at one point. We fixed enough that they allowed us to have power and then moved in. I painted over YEARS of nicotine stains, put flooring in the whole thing (most had none, but one room had cat stained carpet that was horrific.) The electrician we hired almost quit on us - and we ended up paying him $2500 to make it not a fire trap. It got so cold in the winter that the pipes at one end froze INSIDE! When we moved to FL, we lived in a 30yo mobile that a very bad housekeeper had lived in for 10 years. The fridge had to be replaced because the cockroach nest burned up the motor. The humidity *inside* was so bad that the first stove had rusted through and we went through 3 microwaves (all 3 rusted out the bottom.) One wall in the livingroom was no longer attached to the flooring - there was a 1 inch gap all the way across (that I eventually filled in with expanding foam.) The floors were so bad that you had to watch where you stepped and the livingroom floor had "waves" in it.:tongue_smilie: We are much, much more interested in living within our means now due to our experiences over the past 3-4 years, but I seriously hope I NEVER have to live in a place like either one of those again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tap Posted July 24, 2011 Share Posted July 24, 2011 (edited) 10 years ago, dh and I decided to get out of debt. He sold his big truck and bought a cheap car with good mileage. My car was paid off so we kept it. We figured out what it would take to get out of debt in one year (including interest). We divided that by 12 and decided since it was less that we had coming in, we would do it. At the beginning of each month, we sent all of our money away. :( What was left, was what we had for food and emergencies. I remember my lunch budget, working 5 days a week, was $20--for the month! Yep, a dollar a day. Because our goal was one year, we bought nothing we didn't absolutely have to and I bought the cheapest version of everything. ie Even though it was cheaper in the long run, to buy a 500 ct Tylenol, I bought the 24 pack because today...was what mattered. Dh and I go no new clothes. The kids got what they had to have and it was minimal. Gifts for the kids were used or minimal. I didn't go to stores unless absolutely necessary and I didn't set foot in a mall for a year. This was a MAJOR change for me. We weren't looking to save money in the long term, it was all about getting through each month. So, I ran our freezer out of food and our pantry dry. The thing that was the hardest of all.....buying cheap shampoo.....lol. Once my liter of good stuff ran out, I had to buy the $1 grocery store shampoo. I hated it, but again...it was just one year, and I knew we would survive. ~~~ 10 years later. We have never again had a credit card balance. We have saved 10-20% of our income in to retirement funds. We bought our current home on a 15 year mortgage, and have 4-5 years left on it. We have a 6mths household expense savings account. We have a positive net worth, including our home debt. We had a very short car loan on my car, but only because the interest rate was less that we were earning on our savings account. To me, it was very, very hard, but I knew I could do it for one year. I actually think I am more successfully with intense short term goals, than easier long term goals. My dh and I make 1/2-2/3 of what most of our friends make. I don't know how many times I have heard people say...."you guys have a better life that we do with much less money---how do you do it?" Our answer..."we don't pay interest and we only buy technology we need or have a real use for---not just cool gadgets." Edited July 24, 2011 by Tap, tap, tap Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brehon Posted July 24, 2011 Share Posted July 24, 2011 10 years ago, dh and I decided to get out of debt. He sold his big truck and bought a cheap car with good mileage. My car was paid off so we kept it. We figured out what it would take to get out of debt in one year (including interest). We divided that by 12 and decided since it was less that we had coming in, we would do it. At the beginning of each month, we sent all of our money away. :( What was left, was what we had for food and emergencies. I remember my lunch budget, working 5 days a week, was $20--for the month! Yep, a dollar a day. Because our goal was one year, we bought nothing we didn't absolutely have to and I bought the cheapest version of everything. ie Even though it was cheaper in the long run, to buy a 500 ct Tylenol, I bought the 24 pack because today...was what mattered. Dh and I go no new clothes. The kids got what they had to have and it was minimal. Gifts for the kids were used or minimal. I didn't go to stores unless absolutely necessary and I didn't set foot in a mall for a year. This was a MAJOR change for me. We weren't looking to save money in the long term, it was all about getting through each month. So, I ran our freezer out of food and our pantry dry. The thing that was the hardest of all.....buying cheap shampoo.....lol. Once my liter of good stuff ran out, I had to buy the $1 grocery store shampoo. I hated it, but again...it was just one year, and I knew we would survive. ~~~ Wow! Impressive! I made a similar calculation a couple of years ago and nearly fainted when I saw how much per month we'd need to pay to be out of debt in one year. So, we just continually plug away and never seem to make much progress. 10 years later. We have never again had a credit card balance. We have saved 10-20% of our income in to retirement funds. We bought our current home on a 15 year mortgage, and have 4-5 years left on it. We have a 6mths household expense savings account. We have a positive net worth, including our home debt. We had a very short car loan on my car, but only because the interest rate was less that we were earning on our savings account. To me, it was very, very hard, but I knew I could do it for one year. I actually think I am more successfully with intense short term goals, than easier long term goals. My dh and I make 1/2-2/3 of what most of our friends make. I don't know how many times I have heard people say...."you guys have a better life that we do with much less money---how do you do it?" Our answer..."we don't pay interest and we only buy technology we need or have a real use for---not just cool gadgets." Congrats! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TammyB Posted July 24, 2011 Share Posted July 24, 2011 Rent free? Only 3 years? GO FOR IT!!! That is such an amazing opportunity. Just dig yourself a storm shelter if you live in tornado alley ;) Just kidding....well sort of. Honestly, that is such a blessing. I'd love an opportunity like that. I completely agree. What an awesome opportunity! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandsam Posted July 24, 2011 Share Posted July 24, 2011 When I first read your note about trailer, my first thought was that it would make sense to buy up a bit and rent a house. BUT - the trailer is rent free and that completely changes the picture. I would absolutely try the trailer. If it is nice, it will feel like a small house because it really is a house. Mentally commit yourself to one year, and as you close in on a year and see your debt diminish, then reevaluate. I think you have a fantastic opportunity here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SonshineLearner Posted July 24, 2011 Share Posted July 24, 2011 But, before posting more about the trailer, she commented that they can't do that ;( Bummer!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lilacii Posted July 24, 2011 Share Posted July 24, 2011 Do whatever it takes- The freedom that you will gain is far more rewarding than any "conveniences" that materialsm offers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teachin'Mine Posted July 24, 2011 Share Posted July 24, 2011 Go for it Aimee!!! :) Very cool opportunity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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