Happily Living Small

Yesterday, we celebrated my child's second birthday. Family and a few friends gathered. We requested that folks spare purchasing the typical giant gifts and, if comfortable/possible, instead contribute to the kiddo's college fund. The purpose behind this is that Emma has a closet and toy chest filled with toys. Also, the living room and dining room have gathered toys as well. This may not be the ideal for every family. Maybe you have a big house, maybe you live large. This is a good fit for my small family unit.
The family came together, got along, enjoy snacks, cupcakes. Before the party, the wife and I were initially worried that our house wouldn't hold all of the invited people. Unfortunately, some people were sick or unable to make it. So, in the end we had enough space.
After the party, cleanup was simple and my wife and I still loved each other at the end of the day. Chuck E. Cheese or outrageous spending hadn't caused the wife and I to fight each other and stress the kiddo. Emma had a blast and loved most
playing with...balloons! Of all things! This truly proves the Baby Blues dead fly theory. Baby Blues is a comic strip about a family and the struggles of raising children. One comic asks the reader to identify which item the baby will enjoy most. It goes from expensive toys to a dead fly. Who won? The dead fly. Before my kiddo grows out of this, I will get her some more balloons :)

YNAB Budgeting Tool Basic Review

I have reviewed another budgeting tool! YNAB. My Facebook feed has been telling me it is a good tool and I figured it was time to give it a try. Overall, I liked it. Here is my video:


Here is the link: https://youtu.be/80vGtAGgQto

To sign up for YNAB: http://ynab.refr.cc/CHSSFR4

Thanks for watching!

Reviving the Old Blog

It has been almost a year since I've done a post. Much has changed.

In the past 11 months:

• I went from 35 miles to 2.5 miles from work. Now I drive 0 minutes a week for work.
• My ol' faithful car failed smog. We decided to retire it in state retirement. They gave us $1k for him.
• We save $42/month on car insurance due to only having 1 car, and $175/month on gas. We also save about $80/yr on registration.
• I now bike to work. It is glorious. More on this later.
• Wife and I are now debt free! We sold the fifth wheel that we were living in, paid back a personal loan, a hospital bill, and my student debts. It was about $50k in all! 
• The mower given to us wouldn't work (Googling it suggested it was not an easy fix). Dear wife and I bought a reel mower (more details on how this is going coming up).
• We invested in a chest freezer (more on this too)
• I am about to go from saving the company mandatory 8%, to about 35% through retirement contributions and house savings.
• Contributing the above amount to retirement savings will reduce my tax bill about $1600.
• Wife and I are becoming more Tightwad Gazette and Mr Money Mustache oriented.
• Wife is now a crocheting machine!

I am looking to use this blog to record the new things wife and I try, and our journey for becoming satisfied through a simple self sufficient life.

Little Chicks and Random Thoughts

 Living in the country has certain spoils, like being able to purchase chicks and raise them for eggs. Over the past few weeks, we and the in-laws have been talking about raising chickens for eggs. Over the last year, egg prices have gone up, and we eat about a dozen eggs a week. The in-laws eat maybe 8 eggs a week...it is hard to count when I'm not home for breakfast.

Also, an advantage of "home grown" eggs is that you control the setting of the chicks. Want them to roam the earth in search of bugs? Set 'em free! Want to put them in the coop so they don't get eaten? Save the chicks!

The amount of money we will save from this is not huge. If 24 organic eggs from Costco cost $7, and we have to pay for grain/time spent watching them, we probably only save $20-30ish a month on eggs. But who doesn't want fresh eggs?

As I grow older, I'm continually impressed by the good life not coming from possessions but experiences and trying new things with companions. I get more satisfaction out of our family joking about the chick named "nugget," than making a few bucks from fixing troublesome technology.

Part of exiting the rat race is replacing it with something. How should I spend time instead of keeping up with the Jones's? I listen to podcasts to and from work to help keep me sane from traffic. What I listen to is budgeting, technology, economy and general side earning business concepts. It helps me refresh before I get home and enjoy the wife and kid's company, rather than being in a grumpy mood due to kamikaze drivers (I'm looking at you Subaru Impreza driver!)

This is definitely the "talk about whatever I feel like" blog post, but the point is that you should use your strengths to your benefit, but not at the expense of ridding your life of what is really important. When I sit on my deathbed, I'm going to think about the family, volunteer work, God, and has my life been spent well. Investment advisors will often tell you to start investing at a very early age so the interest will yield a high retirement savings. What if I treated my life like that? I'll do what is important at the young stages of my life and won't have to catch up as much when I'm a crotchety old man. This is one of the reasons I'm always looking to get slightly ahead financially. Not so I can be a rich guy, but so I can be a content old guy not anxious about income/family relations (assuming I get old. A bus could take me out!).

Having Joy in Life

For New Years day, the family and a group from a nearby church went on a walk. It was about 3.5 miles so you serious exercising people can chuckle at our limited walking ability. It was nice though. Emma was sleeping in the stroller, instead of continuing her fussiness. Grace talked with some locals of the area about life, animals and her childhood. My father-in-law told me about how the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) paid low prices to force the owners of the houses off the land where we were walking, built a road for a future dam, and then closed the project when the dam project was canceled due to invalid reasons that were later disproved. The land was never returned from BLM.

Dog without a leash

Although we complained about the dam and the unleashed dogs ignoring their owners calls, we all recharged from the exercise and community of shared beliefs. This brings me to the importance of exercise. Even small efforts to regularly work out can greatly improve your life quality.

When I was in college I was dirt poor and homeless. I did not have many possessions and would parkour. It was the free thing I could do that kept me strong, and helped keep me be happy. With that said, due to car accidents and sleepless night with the child, I completely got off an exercise schedule and didn't parkour anymore. To help combat this, our family has joined this walking group. Grace is miles ahead of me in exercising. She regularly goes to a gym and is excited to receive work-out equipment for Holidays. I have much to learn from my wife for utilizing my body to achieve simple living.

Babysitting. It Rocks

Today was a nice day. The wife and I celebrated our anniversary today. We went to P.F. Chang's today. How did we afford this extravagance while the RV is in the shop and we are living in a multi-family house with the in-laws? Well, my parents gave us a gift certificate and watched the baby Emma. Emma's great grandpa also saw Emma. Bless their hearts.

We went to the restaurant, and experienced what it is like to date like single people. It was lovely. I love my wife and understand how people have a hard time staying in love. My kid is amazing, and I developed a love for her I had no idea that I had. My wife is amazing too though, and I want to keep her loved.

After P.F. Chang's, we went to Barnes and Noble. This is something we used to do a lot while dating. It's a relaxed environment with a great selection of books. My wife looked up some books to help spice up our intimate life, and I looked up a couple books to help me know what I am supposed to do for blogging. They also had some very interesting games. Most of what we saw was not the best of deals especially considering used books. We did buy a few books there that were decently priced to help the local community and a few books online after the fact to help keep the budget in check.

This brings me to the heart of Simple Living. We don't need to make our lives complicated to help it feel better. The groundwork is good. I love Grace. I love Emma. I love my job. I love the challenges life throws at us. Simple Living means that I stop keeping up with the Jones's and enjoy everything.

My wife and I tell ourselves we are very independent...although I think co-dependence is a better description. I am totally guilty of over-burdening myself and the wife in the name of perceiving ourselves as independent.

So, what do I take away from this? More babysitting, more relaxing, and less stressing over the uncontrollable things in life!

Opening

Greetings. My family is committed to content living by frugality and simple living. I do not believe in abstaining from all forms of entertainment. I believe in living within our means and finding the most cost effective ways to enjoy life. Our family lives in a quiet area of the expensive state of California. Living simple and frugal is a challenge that many people reject. However, I believe to be rich in life, one spends little time worrying about possessions. This blog is about how we accomplish living rich, and what choices you can make to also live rich. Thank you for reading.