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[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

James, I am working on becoming superwoman. :)
I don't have any desire for more than what you describe, and I pretty
much live the way you describe the path to that..small house,,,,cold
house,,,woodstove, etc.

> There are three things that are urgent in the lives of us all:  food,
> a place to live, and the means to stay warm in winter and cook our
> food.  If those three things are threatened, we are thereby, as we
> used to say, grabbed by the short hairs.  We are in distress
> immediately and we will expend whatever reserves we have or agree to
> go into slavery ... eh ... I mean debt ... to relieve us of that
> distress.
>
> Now imagine a position where you never pay money for your food, a
> place to live, or fuel to warm yourself and cook your food.  Nor do
> you pay money indirectly for those things.  If all your money were
> cut off, you would still have a warm place to sleep and enough to
> eat.
>
> It would make you a financial superman.
>
> There are many ways of going about getting to that state.  It helps
> if you don't need hard to obtain food, if you don't need or want a
> large house, and if you don't require every far corner of that house
> to be 72 degrees in winter.
>
> What happens in his state is ALL your money becomes discretionary.
> If you are skilled and clever, the vast majority of your time becomes
> discretionary as well.

> But imagine if, mortgage withstanding, you needed none of your cash
> for food, fuel, or any other such urgent need.  If you chose so, ALL
> your cash and ALL your discretionary time and effort could be devoted
> to eliminating the mortgage.

We are trying to do that.  First step was eliminating other debt, then
the mortgage..then, all income after the first 5K or so becomes
discretionary.

> This is my version of the Economic Basis of Homesteading.  Eliminate
> the urgencies down to those things you can more or less be 100% in
> control over and provide for yourself directly.   It is why we plow
> with a horse, cut wood with an axe and crosscut saw, garden with a
> spade, etc.  Whether there is money or not, we will have the three
> basic necessities of life and everything else is negotiable.

That is my goal as well.  It is why I am trying not to buy an electric
grain mill, for example.  It is why I want to grow my own rice.  It is
why I went to raised beds, etc.
> My formula is this:
>
> Arrange a way (and circumstances) where you can provide your food and
> fuel at no money cost to you.  This means that if there is a money
> way to do those things and a non-money way to do it, always take the
> non-money way.  Going into the past or being a luddite or backwards
> has nothing to do with it.  It's money vs non-money.  That's all.

We can buy beef or shoot bambi...you know which one we do.
We've spent weekend after weekend getting wood for the next few years.
It doesn't eliminate the power bill, but it does reduce it.  I have been
 trying to adapt to live with LESS air conditioning, but that has been
harder.

> Apply the money you DO choose to make first to anticipate needs you
> know are coming or are likely to be coming.

We do that when there is money leftover after the mortgage and utilites
are paid.


 You know the cow is going to die some
> day.  You know the truck is mortal. You know something is going to
> break in the house.  Don't pretend that it isn't going to happen and
> that it's just a matter of you being unlucky while others are lucky
> if it does.

I've had several rainy day funds wiped out by illness in the family.
Sure, eating right and reducing your risks by not doing stupid stuff
helps tremendously with medical bills, but there are always things you
can't control, like a drunk driver plowing into you, or an abcessed
tooth.  Right now, I need $600 for glasses and and a checkup.  I have to
get new glasses at least once a year because my eyes change.  I know it
is coming every year, but I never have enough money to put aside any.
If I get excess, I pay off debt.  It takes every ounce of energy and
juggling to break even or stay slightly behind.  I haven't been ahead of
the game enough to save in a long, long time.


> Next build up a personal grudge against your debt.  Be emontional
> about it and even if it's only the deposit on the soda bottle you
> found in the ditch, cackle with avaricious glee at the though of
> applying that 5 cents to your debts.

I've been doing that, too.  I don't think too many hobby homesteaders
would be combing the woods for metal to recycle.


> Take no prisoners and allow yourself no respite.  The retirement of
> debt is meat and drink, man and wife, it is what puts the lead in
> your pencil. Remember that you are now the invencible and immortal
> warrior and it's because you have food and a place to sleep no matter
> what happens.
>
> I know people in whom the fires have been lit and five years later
> they are out from under a mountain of debt and their anticipated
> needs provided for. And, says I, all because that bowl of soup on the
> kitchen table was from another universe than what was in their purse.
I'm not saying I can't, because I know I can. I'm saying I am in
process...I may be in the process of doing that for a few years yet.
Instead of 5 years, I need 9.  There are things that could happen that
could hasten that timetable, but I don't want to think about
that...right now..if I can make it through the coming year, I think we
can survive anything.

Bev

--
“Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to
hate. Hate leads to suffering.”        Yoda