Stigma

What's good for the rich is not necessarily what is good for your family.  Unfortunately the values of the ruling class are those that are contained in every commercial, TV show, news article, etc...it's called cultural hegemony and people have understood and talked about this since the early 20th century.

To understand the hegemonic influence of the wealthy, most people need look no further than to examine their views of a family living in a trailer.  Do you feel that it is just not right or trashy or low class or some other negative judgement?  If so, you may be internalizing the values of the wealthy as opposed to the values of the working class.

Working class values stand in stark contrast to those of the wealthy.  Here are a couple of examples:

1.  The rich like to show off how much money they have by engaging in conspicuous consumption.  Rich consumers are concerned with the way they are perceived as a result of the crap that they own.  It's not enough to have a car, it has to be a sports car...At best the working class can only engage in crass consumerism - where they try to one-up their friends and family through their consumerism.  It is a messy game and the end result is debt.
2. The rich are invested in the current systems of energy and war.  They spent a great deal of money marketing the military to the working class.  The military,in turn, pursues foreign oil interests funded and staffed by the working class.  Americans who are extremely patriotic are buying the advertising being sold.  War is not good for the working class because we are the ones dying for the interests of power.  With very few exceptions rich people do not send their kids to war.  
3. The rich believe in socialism of risk, but not in socialism for the greater good.  For instance when the banks crashed in 2008 the working class paid to bail out the banks even when home forclosure was at an all time high.  The working class socialized the risk to the bankers, but did not socialize the greater good of home ownership.  The same thing happens when Amazon and Walmart underpay their employees and the working class taxes end up paying for the welfare benefits for those underemployed workers.  The rich keep their labor costs low thereby minimizing the risk to their investors and keeping profits high.  Meanwhile the working class has to prop up those workers who don't make enough to survive.

I could go on and on...the criminal justice system comes to mind as another disgusting example...healthcare/pharma....food subsidies...environment....damn, the whole meat and dairy industry...its a bad deal for the working class these days.

Let's clarify the values that will help the working class.

1. Valuing relationships, leisure, and your time over things.  
2. Valuing savings over spending
3. Valuing love over war
4. Valuing a clean and healthy environment over pollution
5. Valuing freedom over being a wage slave
6. Valuing health over the toxic shit being advertised

So....if you live by these values you may end up living in a very small house, apartment or RV - the goal would be to maximize savings over the cost of housing.  Will you face stigma?  Yes, because the cultural hegemony is so strong.

So much money is being spent on advertising and trying to convince everyone that the values of the rich should be the values of everyone - but that is bullshit.  You know it, I know it.  Working class people from the conservative or liberal side have infinitely more in common with each other than they do with the 1%.  It's time we stopped turning on each other and judging each other and instead worked together to figure out how to set this system up with our values in the center.  A first step is to ignore the stigma and embrace the values of the working class.  Your parents and grandparents were in the same boat as you and your kids will be there too - why not try and make this country work for us and for the next generation?  Imagine media messages crafted with working class values; imagine laws written to support workers not the idle rich - what a wonderful world it would be.

Benefits of living with less...

Today I am really thankful for our simple life.  It's a hard truth to understand until you live it - buying more stuff will not make you happy.  I'm doing laundry today.  We do laundry once a week and it takes a couple of hours because we use multiple machines at the laundry facility in our community.  When I owned a house I had a laundry room.  I used to ALWAYS have laundry to be done.  I never got caught up.  I owned more clothing, bedding, towels, etc than I needed so I could let the laundry pile up and still have more clothes to wear, towels to use, etc.  These days I donate anything that I don't wear.  If I buy a new piece of clothing I get rid of another.  As the kids outgrow things I donate and replace.  We own about a weeks worth of clothing each - it is plenty.

Our family of four has one tiny cupboard for dishes.  We have four bowls and four plates that we use as our main dishes.  We have some storage containers and three glass mixing bowls of different sizes that come in handy.  We have a few cups, but we mostly just use our water bottles all of the time.  Doing dishes is easy because we have so few things to wash.  We can't make a mess on top of a mess because we don't even own duplicates of anything.  It is so simple, basic and easy.

We don't waste food.  We are limited by our small fridge and our pantry size.  We buy exactly what we will eat and then when it is gone we shop again.  We don't throw away food like we used to - we don't lose things in the back of the fridge.  Our space is precious and we can't use it to store things we are not going to eat. We make salads and canned soup and things on the grill.  I make crockpot meals.  It is easy and simple.  We eat vegetables, fruits and greens every day.  It is a healthy way of living and I feel good about using up the food we buy.

The kids play with their toys.  They don't have many.  Brother likes Legos and Sister likes dinosaurs and dragons.  When their screen time is done, they play with their toys.  They don't have too many to overwhelm them.  It is easy to put them away because they each have one bin which holds all of their toys.  I don't have to stress about toys everywhere - I remember what a disaster the toy situation was in our big house.  Toys are valued here, the ones that are not played with are donated.  It's a good system.

When your space is free of all the clutter so is your mind.  Whatever the future holds I know that I will always value a simple life and a small house.  It's the most liberating feeling to be free of all that stuff.

Speaking of liberation: Since we have been back from our summer adventure we have been clearing out our 5x5 storage space.  We had three boxes left of our leather bound book collection and Husband has been selling them on ebay.  We sold most of the books in lots by collection, but these are the few that didn't fit into any collection or were unique in some way.  In a couple weeks he has already collected $1000 for some of these items.  Overall it seems we recouped about 2/3rd of the cost of all those books - with many collections you're lucky to get back 1/3 of the value, so we are very happy about that.  We've put about $12,000 into savings from the sale of all the books.  It's been a royal pain selling them and it had taken a lot of time, but we are finally down to the last box.  This experience has been a lesson in the truth that it is much easier to acquire things than to get rid of them.

Finally, speaking of savings - I love having savings.  With no debt and low expenses, even with our summer trip, we have been able to grow our savings significantly over the past year.  Of course selling things has helped increase the savings, but there is a portion of my paycheck that has been going to savings for over a year and we have not had to use it. In a country where 40% of our fellow Americans can't afford a $400 emergency without selling something or borrowing money it is a good feeling to have cash in the bank.  Currently we have the bulk of our savings in CDs bought at different times and with different maturity dates.  This investment strategy works for us and is also simple.  There is little stress, it is straightforward, has a guaranteed return, and allows us the option to change our strategy at regular intervals.  Watching the savings grow is joyful and allows us the freedom to consider various options for the future.  Most significantly we have freedom - we own ourselves and our things without any obligations to a bank or a lender.

There are so many benefits of living with less.  I partially attribute my improve health to the reduced stress and the increased sense of control I feel.  I no longer binge drink or eat - I am not even tempted.  Choosing to live simply includes making good choices for yourself and your family.  There is an added sense of mindfulness and peace associated with it. There is also an increased sense of thankfulness for what we have - especially each other and our health - perhaps that is the best aspect of living with less.

"...I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference."
-Robert Frost

Schooling, learning, and teaching

We are very focused on education around here!  Each day we have a number of educational obligations, not least of which includes Brother completing fourth grade.  There is some irony on the homeschooling road.  We have been very concerned about ensuring that he keeps pace with the public schools and his peers.  The irony is that when he was in public schools we felt he was not sufficiently challenged. We are continually ensuring that he is challenged and as a result he is undoubtedly much further along than his peers.  For example, we have only been "in school" for approximately three weeks, but in that time he has covered over half of a math workbook that is supposed to last the year!  Clearly we will have to keep moving ahead to keep him challenged.  Likewise, with language arts, science and social studies (which are all integrated through the Moving Beyond the Page curriculum), we find that our summer adventures have really added a depth to the material.  He has first-hand knowledge of geology, fossils, and volcanoes from National Parks and museums so studying rocks and minerals was a breeze and actually rather superficial compared to what we have already learned.  We also explored a number of archaeological sites and learned about American history while traveling.  These experiences give us a great deal to draw upon when reading Little House in the Big Wood or Sign of the Beaver.  Husband is directing his education and working with him each day; I take the lead on teaching him piano and building upon the formal lessons he took in second grade.  When he surpasses me, I will have to find him a new piano teacher.  By the way, the piano leans up against the wall by my side of the bed.  The stand folds up behind my bedroom door.  When we play we set it up in front of the couch...it's a minor inconvenience, but it works in this tiny house!

School for Husband is going well - he is 2/3 of the way through his degree and is finally taking all the difficult upper division computer science classes.  I am settling into my classes this semester.  I was told that the third time you teach an on-ground class is the time you finally find your footing and I see the truth in that now.  I am more comfortable than I was last year.  

Sister is growing up so fast!  She is more interested in learning her letters and numbers as of late.  She loves doing her preschool workbook and reading books.  There were times past where she would get all frustrated with us trying to teach her letters or numbers.  Now she is asking about words and letters she sees.  She still has her own way of writing and she pretends to write stories in her own little cute script.  It's adorable....see?  

Unfortunately the weather has remained very hot and we are still packed inside the Hideout.  As a result the biggest challenge is allowing Brother the space and quiet to concentrate and complete his tasks without interruptions from Sister.  

I've been figuring out how to cook outside and with the appliances again.  It's a way of thinking that I had to remember from last summer and come to terms with (I've been rebelling and hoping it would cool off).   However I am sick of trying to find something decent when eating out and I want my own healthy food.  Tonight I made a wonderful salad with a frozen/steamer/microwaved bag of veggies on top.  It was awesome - I ate it too fast to take a picture!  

I am a thankful wife and mama.  Life is good, we've settled back into life in the Phoenix area and have found our routine for the school year.