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July 15, 2009

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So… what am I doing?

July 15th, 2009

In my last post I mentioned that James and I are working on downsizing... so, what does that entail?

Well, the lease for our apartment is up pretty soon, and our landlord has increased our rent by $50 a month if we decide to renew for 1 year. Frankly, that sucks. This landlord has already increased our rent $25—we were originally told one price by the real estate office, then when we were in the process of sigining the lease, we learned that it had been increased $25 because he had installed a washer and dryer for us to use... Personally, I think that he should have taken that into consideration when he originally decided on how much to ask for rent. But no. We're not going to continue living like this.

I recently went to a chakra-cleansing yoga workshop (which you can read about here), and for the 2 weeks following I have been having a hard time justifying the typical society in which we find ourselves—one of working 40 hours a week to send away a large check each month to some guy. That's not living, it's slavery—slavery to our stuff. I can't continue to live like this.

Then what are we going to do? James and I have formulated a very flexible plan, which involves us living in a tiny house... on wheels. It's not exactly a trailer, but it does hook up to a truck and can be pulled. Take a look.

  

This little house is the last one by this company, and there has been one buyer who's already beaten us to it. Fortunately for us, we've been informed by Julie, the woman selling it, that she's not confident that the sale will go through, and it will likely become available for us... it's a long story... and yes, we do have a plan B, and a plan C. This is the one I hope most-of-all to work out.

It's 8 feet wide by 20 feet long—yes, that mean's there is only 160 square feet of living space. I'm really excited about the idea of really lightening the amount of stuff I have, and working with only the necessities. I've packed up 3 trash bags worth of clothes, and I'm already starting to feel better. Deciding what to wear in the morning has become so easy. I'll be selling my desktop, my crappy laptop, and printers, and purchasing a refurbished MacBook Pro. I'm hoping to bring along most, if not all of my yarn stash... we'll see how well that goes over with James... If I have to, I'll store some of it at my parents until it's needed.

Today we gave the notice to the landlord, and I felt so relieved to finally know that in less than 2 months, we'll be moving out of his clutches. I do love this place, but some things, even nice ones, just aren't worth being chained down to have. I only hope that the rest of this process works out as smoothly as possible.

If you'd like to help us along on our journey toward financial independence, and happen to know someone who invests in Lending Club, please refer them to our loan, or pass along the word any way you know how! It's in the process of being funded, and there are only 6 days remaining for it to become completely funded. If it doesn't become funded, then we don't get it, which would make things quite a bit more challenging.

These next few months are going to be somewhat of a challenge, emotionally and physically, but I'm really excited about this goal and am willing to whole-heartedly perservere toward making it happen. I'll be sure to keep you updated.

(amusingly, James is playing some really bizzare triumphant music right now which feels very appropriate)

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