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what money can't buy



I have been thinking a lot lately about money, and in particular our relationship with it. Today was our first Monday off. We now have Saturday, Sunday, and Monday off each week, with Monday being our resident farm work day. We need to work on tons of mushroom logs for next season! But back to my point, money. 

Jonathan and I have made a conscious decision to live in a manner where our time (with each other, on our land) is more valuable to us than money. Don't get me wrong, we have to have jobs. We are very fortunate to be given such circumstances that we can get away with out working much. We live with my parents, which is sometimes incredibly frustrating (we are grown adults, what are we doing here?!?) but we deal with it because of the value of what we are given here. We aren't simply living here because we have a bedroom, like if we were living with parents in town, we are doing this, dealing with this, for the land. We will never be able to afford 35 acres of land in a private location on our own. Buying that land on our own would mean committing to working 40 plus hours a week to pay for it. No counting the house, well, septic, electricity, etc etc etc. The advantage for my parents is that when my dad retires we would take over the things like taxes, insurance, utilities, etc. We are dreaming and hoping (and researching) of building our own little hobbit house cabin on the land, something small and self sufficient, that we could call our own home. We live here and this is our home, the land feels like home, but sharing a house with others can never truly feel like your own. Something I struggle with on a daily basis. This is me reminding myself how much it is worth the struggle.

And so we work, we work just enough. We have a car payment, maintenance, gas (which is a lot living out here) cell phones, and a few other small bills, but we are in a good place in our lives without too many expenses. We don't spend much money on stuff. We are the only couple I know that doesn't have a nice tv.  We have a 15 inch computer monitor, that hums and buzzes, which we have watched gratefully for three years. We only buy clothes from Goodwill. We only eat out on special occasions. We keep fast food to a minimum. We save all of our change for special purchases. We have learned to live simply and be happy with what we have. We are fortunate to have jobs where we can easily pick up extra shifts and hours on the schedule in case of emergencies or projects we need funded more quickly than we can save it. 

I'm not sure if this is an appropriate closing point, and I'm not sure that I have gotten across the message that I was aiming for, but sharing quite this much has been rather exhausting, so it will have to do.

Until next time,
Angela Kelly
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