I’m going to launch into a few more frequently asked questions! If, at the end, this leaves you with more questions, please comment here, or Facebook, and I’ll get to them next go-around. These posts are so fun, and a great way to move quickly through some topics I don’t often get the chance to write much about.
To see last weeks questions, check out the post here.
QUESTION: How did you buy your home? What is the program you’re always talking about?
ANSWER: Purchasing our home was pure luck, a total gift, and felt a lot like magic. The long story, made very short, is that we sold a wine rack (that Charlie made) to a really sweet local woman, we chatted a bit when she bought it, and off we both went. A few months later, she sent me a message on FB (we were FB buddies, as we’d hit it off) asking if I might want to look at her home before she got ready to sell it, as she thought we might both love it, and qualify. This felt like the Golden Apple, as we had very little money and no savings. This was how we learned about the Kulshan Community Land Trust. It’s a program designed to make housing in our city permanently afforable. Their site is easy to navigate, and answers most questions. But, the two I get the most are “will I qualify?” and “will you make money when you sell it?”. To answer the first, I don’t know! There are income qualifications, along with “first time home buyer” qualifications, so if you meet both, then yup! You’re in, but I don’t know the specifics (they’re ever changing) or your own specifics. As far as the second… yes, and kinda no. Part of KCLT is that you commit to only taking a small increase in the value of your house each year instead of how the market grows (which can be really fast around here!). The value of our house still grows, but much slower than the rest of the market so that it stays more in line with the way peoples’ wages increase with inflation – so not at all like traditional buying/selling. It’s not an investment property, as the goal is a permanently affordable homes.
QUESTION: How do you food budget? How do you live on one income?
ANSWER: Food is our number one expenditure (excluding our mortgage, obviously). It seems like we spend all our money on food! And, in effect, we almost do. We like to eat mostly organic, humane meat, and a lot of fresh veggies and juice. We also really like to eat out in our town about twice a month. We budget a specific dollar amount per week for food, and, when we first began that budget, we used cash only. When the cash was gone, we ate what we had (!). Now that I am really used to the budget, and we have it pretty down, I use our card (we receive a dividend, so we use it as frequently as possible, but still spend like it’s cash – if the money isn’t in the account, we don’t spend). The best budget tips for food that work for us are to do one weekly shop (as much as possible, sometimes we run out of fresh fruits or veggies and have to stock up midway), meal plan meticulously, meal prep liberally, and be willing to be bored. What I mean by that is that we often eat the same thing a few times in one week, and that saves us considerable money, while keeping us eating some easy to enjoy whole foods more regularly, and saves us from splurging.
As far as living on one income… we never really have. We always have pursued other small side jobs to help make up the difference. I’ve done childcare, writing, and sponsored posts on and off for years. Charlie has done handy-man work, odd jobs, and the bulk of our padding comes from his woodworking. Having those tiny extras (except on very rare occasions, none of these jobs have added up to more than an extra $200 a month) is what has always helped our budget feel doable, because it’s “unbudgeted money” (for the most part, except for the times that we’ve gone after odd jobs at specific times because of a bill, or expenditure that had to happen, like dental care).
To create our budget we’ve always worked backwards. Starting with what we make each month, and then deducting each bill, payment, and necessary spending (gas and groceries), then putting a specific percentage away for giving, and now for savings too. Like most famillies, we’re one health care crisis away from ruin, but are more secure now than ever before. Having those tiny side incomes has helped us considerably to be able to keep our very tight budget under control.
QUESTION: No-Poo Hair! What? How? How do I get started?
ANSWER: I wrote all about this several (SO many!) years ago, here. But the quick and dirty(clean) is that I used to use a diluted (tiny) amount of baking soda with warm water as a wash for my hair, and then a diluted (tiny) amount of ACV (apple cider vinegar) as a conditioner/rinse for my hair. I slowly worked my way away from that, and now I just use hot-hot water, scrub well, and shampoo about once every two months or so. It’s really very straight forward, the hardest part is getting started. Your hair will be super oily and gross as it adjusts to not having all the oil stripped from it daily. So working towards just washing LESS is a great way to get started. And? hat season is a great time for this! The benefits that I have seen (and nothing scientific here) are that my hair feels much healthier, is far less greasy than it used to be, and I am saving significant money and time by not using any products. My hair also grows exceptionally fast , but that I think is a combination of collagen and a healthy diet, along with hair genetics.
QUESTION: Is homeschooling what you thought it would be? Do you like it?
ANSWER: No, and, mostly. It’s nothing, at all, like I’d imagined. Having come from a very schooled background, I could only really imagine school. So, I imagined school… at home. Thankfully, my dear friend (who has seen me through laughing and making fun of her for telling me she was going to homeschool…. omg, I am the literal worst) is a bang-up home schooler and she helped me to feel good about needing to create and then also breakdown my ‘homeschool classroom’. For my own brain, I had to try to make it like school, and then realize that wasn’t going to work for us. Now, we school all over. On the floor, the car, the pretty custom desk Charlie made, and over meals. School is…. always, and sometimes never. We don’t have a set schedule, or much in the way of routine (it comes and goes, with all the new needs or plans, or the seasons). This coming semester will be a bit more routine oriented because we have more time at home, so doing some morning school, concentrated, will be doable. But, for the most part, I’m not sweating it. She’s 7, and not behind in anything. So play, exploring, and reading all the time are my only main goals.
Now, secondly, ‘Do I like it?” …. I LOVE learning with the girls, being with them daily, and not having to undo a lot of problematic things that come along with school. Homeschooling has been the most decidedly adventurous and stretching experience in motherhood I’ve ever had. It isn’t my first choice, but due to money, and availability, it’s my best choice. And I wouldn’t trade this extra time with Noele for anything.
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