Thursday, August 20, 2009

Frugal Family Goals

Why do I bother to save and invest? With so little, what do I hope to accomplish?

When my husband and I got married, I knew he was a gifted preacher. I have heard hundreds of preachers, a different one every week at Bible college, and tons online. My husband's preaching is among my top three favorites. Even though I hear each sermon once or twice, for practice, before Sunday morning, I am always moved by his words from the pulpit.

He is finishing getting his degree and we are looking into some open pastorates. We are looking forward to a time when he has his own pastorate, although he loves the pulpit supply work that occasionally comes our way.

We live in Maine and there are a plethora of churches without a pastor. Most are small churches in rural areas. Many cannot afford to pay a full-time pastor. Most pastors have to have another job on the side. A parsonage is not always provided.

We want to have a large family, but I actually aspire to have a small home. Small homes are more energy efficient, green, and promote (or force) a close knit family. With my husband's career future uncertain, a mobile home sounded like a great way to go for me. Then, if a pastorate doesn't work out, or if it is a few years before we get one, we can just take our home with us. This is especially beneficial where we don't know if a parsonage will be provided.

My husband, along with the majority of the population, was not as excited about a mobile home as I was. So I started looking into alternatives. I found this:



Yep, that's a house on wheels. It's not trashy, in fact it's quite chic. A teeny house is green, and I want solar panels! This is my goal, which fits in nicely with my husband's. I'd like to start building within the next year. Yes, I'm taking the role of "home-maker" quite literally.

I would like to have our life be as sustainable as possible so that even if my husband only gets $500 a month from a pastorate, he won't have to have a second job. That is what I am working toward.

4 comments:

AnnMarie said...

Oh wow, I love your blog even more, now. 1. I just moved to Maine, so we're almost neighbors. Maybe we really are (well, probably not as I think you live in an apartment and I live out in the "country") anyway, I live NW of Portland. 2. I LOVE tiny houses (wish I had one). Is this from Tumbleweed? If you haven't seen his work, search for it and drool over the awesome, compact houses he designs.

Robin said...

Tumbleweed houses are so cute, aren't they? I wonder how you'd fit your family in one, though! Especially in a cold-winter climate where you'd need space to keep the kids inside in the winter, it seems like it would be too small for a whole family!

Emily said...

Penny Saver, The tiny houses are quite big, much bigger than our apartment. It's the teeny houses, on wheels that I want that are so small. It would be a stretch with what they have available now. But the Tumbleweed company is supposed to be making plans for larger portable housing, to be ready by the end of the year, if I remember correctly, so I'm hoping those would suit us. As we'd be building it ourselves, we'd extend the loft for sleeping and make other modifications according to our needs.

Sadie said...

How many square feet would something like that be? I keep seeing little cottages that are 10x12 or whatever but I'm not sure about sq ft. Our apartment now is 800 sq ft and it's plenty of room for us (5). How many sq ft is your apartment? You've probably answered this but I've looked for a LONG time and can't find it. :)

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