Reversing roles & budget realities on one (smaller) income...

We have embarked upon many new adventures in our 20 years of married life.  Most recently we gave up the McMansion for our tiny Hideout on wheels and we became less possessed.

"Open still remains a free life for great souls. Verily, he who possesses little is so much the less possessed: blessed be moderate poverty!" -F. Nietzsche in Thus Spake Zarathustra

We are also continuing the process of being less possessed.  We currently own two small commuter vehicles and a truck.  We are going to start by selling one of the small cars, a 2011 Ford Fiesta.  We hope to get that listed for sale this weekend - I washed the exterior this morning and Husband took it to vacuum it.  Then we will detail the inside together.  We are also in the process of selling off items in our 5x5 climate controlled storage unit so that we can get rid of that monthly expense of $60.  The proceeds of any personal property sales will go into our savings with the proceeds from our home sales. Our rental income each month also goes into savings.  We are fortunate that we have some wealth (assets exceed debts) -  approximately 50% of Americans have zero net wealth (debts exceed assets).  As a side note, our wealth which was held in real estate, has fallen significantly due to declining housing prices.  Compared to the purchase prices we paid for the properties we recently sold, we lost $75,000 - however, in 2006 we made a net gain of $100,000 on the sale of one home.  So we have taken the losses at this time and adopted a historic view of our real estate transactions. 

For most of our married life we have both worked.  My breaks in employment were related to moving to follow his job, kids, and school (I was unemployed for a year after the birth of Brother and during the last year of my doctorate).  Otherwise I have been full or part-time employed.  Husband has not had a break in employment, for more than a weekend, for at least 17 years!  So this adventure - him at home and me working - is new.  So far it is a huge stress reliever for me because when I work from home I don't have to simultaneously do childcare.  He is discovering the endless nature of mundane household tasks.  It is a significant role reversal!  We are only in the first week - we are still settling in.

So here's our new reality - our budget every two weeks is $1,300.  That includes everything from lot rental fees, groceries, gas, and fun.  Though I only work (and get paid) nine months of the year, this is the budget we will maintain to ensure we can cover our year-round expenses.  We have no debt of any kind. Part of Husband's new job is financial management of our household in light of our budget goals.  He has been managing our books for a couple of years (we have taken turns over the past 20 years) and we've taken steps to get our monthly bills to a minimum.  We've used an open source financial management software called GnuCash for years.  That's how we've kept our rental expenses and income straight for tax purposes. By using this program we can generate reports and know exactly how our spending matches our budget.  We estimate our monthly bills, groceries and gas to be around $1800/month, so that leaves around $800 for unplanned expenses and outings on our new, smaller budget.  For comparison purposes, at the peak of our earning (2015-2016) we were making, combined, a gross yearly income of  $168,000 (just from earnings not including rental income). Everything about how we were living then is different from how we are living now.  

A bit of a view of our metal building

I am 25% of the way through my work year - the academic year! Brother and I are now on fall break from school and so we have a mini trip planned for this weekend.  We are heading up the mountain to camp at our land.  While there we will retrieve some items from our garage/metal building and drop a few things off.  It is beautiful and peaceful there.  The kids enjoy climbing trees and discovering nature.  It's been getting cold at night so we may not want to stay more than one night.  We're not taking our trailer because the roads are unimproved. One day we will improve the roads, but for now we don't want to risk damaging the Hideout. We've owned this land since 1999 - it was our first real estate purchase! When we purchased it it was completely unimproved.  We have put in a well & septic and we built the steel building.  Our dream for this land is to turn the metal building into a 500 square foot, off-grid, small house with two lofts for the kids. The building sits on 72 acres of land.  In conjunction with the Hideout, the land offers us the opportunity to have an (almost) "free" home (taxes are around $275/year) once we invest in a solar system. 

Driveway on our land

While we are not clear on our timeline for working on improving our land further, it is currently serving as a storage facility for personal items of use or sentimentality, but no real value.  For example our winter clothes, extra blankets for the beds, overflow toys, and books are there.  It is also a nice getaway from the city and a cheap adventure for the kids.