The answer I want to give is, "How can we not?" I mean this is LIFE. I don't want to spend the time I have here on this planet slaving away and missing out. I want to see things, do things, explore, find and create. But I know that's not what he/she/soooo many people mean. So I keep that to myself. The real question (and the number one inquiry) always comes down to the money.
Well, if you know us personally you know that we are absolutely not rolling in the dough. I broke it down a little in the Crew page on the blog... but for those who want a little bit more this post is for you.
We were just like so many other people out there 10ish years ago. We had stuff. New stuff, big stuff, little stuff... we had ALL THE STUFF.
Then we had a baby. And we realized that we didn't really need all the stuff, or the bills that go with that stuff. What we wanted and needed was to give our girl (and ourselves) something MORE. Something bigger and better and unique to us as a family.
Unfortunately, we had already dug ourselves a pretty impressive hole. So, we dug our selves out. Day by day. Inch by inch. Penny by penny.
About 2 months after Coco was born we started plotting and scheming our way to a life afloat (She's 8 now). We had pictures on the fridge of the places we would go. We scoured the net for the right boat for when the time was right. We worked. We worked so much and never saw each other. We stopped buying 'things' and started paying off the things we already had. We cooked at home instead of going out to dinner. We cancelled the cable. We used the library. We skipped the mall and learned to love the thrift store. We politely declined the invite to the movie. We invited people over for coffee instead of meeting them at the coffee shop. We kept track of every single dime we spent. EVERY SINGLE DIME.
We still enjoyed the things that mattered to us. Amazing food (thank goodness Hubs is a chef), walks on the beach everyday with Coco (pays to buy before the market takes off), and living in St. Augustine we never were lacking for entertainment. We just learned how to find it. We didn't go without the things we wanted. We just took our time and made educated decisions when buying them (no more impulse buying).
It wasn't easy. It was so challenging and frustrating sometimes. But I don't remember the $5 coffee I didn't get~ ever, or the new shirt I didn't buy. I do feel grateful that our house is paid off and we saved enough that we~ CAN.JUST.GO. And there is zero guilt.
Are we living the high-life now? No. We still live on a super tight budget. And yes going back to work is on the horizon. Are we living? Hell yes! Every single day is open to what we want to do instead of what we have to do.
I remember a few years back a customer (I was tending bar at the time) said that it was all great and good now to have my toes in the sand and live a bohemian life. I bit my tongue because that's what you do, but if I could have really responded I would have said SCREW YOU! Life is too short and magnificent to not have your toes in the sand or your head in the clouds. And you can absolutely be responsible and respectable without sacrificing that. It sucks that the norm is to put your head down and follow the crowd and that is what makes you normal.
So the money thing. It's money. We need it to buy food and shelter. So we sold our 'stuff' and saved the money we did make for years and years. We live super simply with the big picture in mind every day. After making some stupid decisions for years, we started making smart ones. We caught up. We managed and now we coast. For a little longer.
