Happy New Year!
I know this post is a long time coming, but I've been laying low in order to get some debt taken care of, and the start of plans on what exactly will be done on our compound.
The Debt
As I chip away on this debt, I'm realizing that it'll be taken care of quicker than I anticipated. The expenditures between Andrea and myself are really getting locked down and we are making some pretty big jumps on our debt. I've started looking into not only making extra payments, but applying those payments towards principal. I strongly recommend this to anyone attempting to get rid of debt. Make those monthly payments, cut costs when you can, and apply extra, even if it's $50 towards the principal.
A New Goal
When we initially started looking for a home, our eyes got ahead of our paycheck and financial stability. As we eyed $400,000 homes, we were hopeful. The more we crunched the numbers, the more we realized that despite the home search websites telling us our mortgage would be around $1400 a month, the truth is the total monthly cost would be about $2400 a month. Between the mortgage, utilities, insurance, and other associated costs, the price is much higher. So, we set a new goal:
We'd save for the down payment, as well as 3 to 6 months of living expenses.
Our goal is a somewhat lofty one, but it is reachable, as we are working great jobs and make good money. Breaking the habits of frivolous spending and utilizing our money to the most of it's ability has made the goal a lot more attainable.
Currently, we rent from a great couple and have a really unique position. We split everything, cost-wise, and our monthly utilities are incredibly cheap. This allows us to save a ton, while knocking out debt, and getting us closer with each paycheck.
Planning the Compound
To help smooth the process of waiting and saving over, I've started to develop an action plan for what exactly we will do with the land we are looking to purchase. The blessing/curse of this is process is that I cannot gather enough information about what we will do and our plans for each area.
The goal is to make the land as self sufficient and productive as possible. This is going to require the permaculture school of thought with ideas like a food forest, hugelkultur, and incremental increases in beds, swales, and growth areas. The idea is to not get in over our heads with the work load, but maximize the output to feed ourselves and sell the extra at farmer's markets. Eventually, the goal is to take an acre and develop it for hops, but that's a long ways off.
The curse of all this is the fact that I can't plot my areas out based on what my land is, simply because I don't have the land yet! What I can do, however, is gather my info and utilize that when the time comes. I'm choosing to have digital copies as well as paper copies to add to a library when our compound finally comes to be.
One topic I'm currently researching is energy independence and how to minimize our compound's existence on the grid as well as backup systems for energy, heat, and water during storms or grid failure.
That's all far off in the distance, but before you know...it'll be here.
