Reply #46: Ive been thinking about this alot lately.. [View All]

[BeTheChange]

We went to look at a house the other day and although the house was a good size, 1800 sq ft, the bedrooms were all very small. The shared living spaces were huge tho. The house backed up to 40 of acres of national old growth forest, which there was a path through, to a bay on the Puget Sound.

It was on a gravel road with just 2 other houses on it.. an acre.. my kids could have a freaking blast growing up. Plus it was reasonably priced. Reasonably priced enough that we could exist on one wage.. and even if we both lost our jobs, we could exist, in a pinch, on 10 bucks an hour if we could make it at our current position for 3-5 years.

It struck me that to live in that house, not a 400k McMansion, we would have to pursue a very different lives then most americans. We wouldnt have rooms with computers and tvs to send our kids too.. their rooms would have only been big enough for sleeping. They would have had to interact with us, interact with a book or go outside and atleast interact with nature, not a tv set.

We could have made blackberry jam and cobbler from the natural property line they drew.. my kids could have made forts in the forest and poked at the jellyfish that washed up on the community beach. It all sounds too simple to actually work out.

I think frugality and actually living life is highly underrated in today's society.