Living in Old Singlewide Mobile Home... By Choice
Making more than $50,000 a year, I deliberately sold my home and moved my family into a 30 year old singlewide mobile home.
This is the house as we first saw it, this is not our homestead.
Why?!
To sum it up in one word--freedom. To use more words: security, happiness, reality.
Freedom - The Backstory
Married and newly out of college, my wife and I purchased our first home: a nice 1-story ranch on 1/2 an acre of land in a small neighborhood. Life was good.
Fast forward 5 years and we were expecting our first child and discussing the future. Specifically childcare vs. stay-at-home-mom. We chose the latter, which cut our income by 40%. Our savings were chipped at over the next year and we were then faced to choose our priorities in life.
Things vs. Children
We could not sustain our living much longer. Either my wife would get a job and put our child into daycare, or we would sell our home and other property and change our living conditions. We chose "Children" and put our home on the market for sale. We were willing to give up material goods and socioeconomic status to ensure our son would continue his rearing in the hands of his parents.
Over the next year, we rented, then had the opportunity to build a place on family land, but that is a story for another post or series of posts. COMING SOON
Security - The Warm Fuzzies
I'm talking about financial security. The freedom to have an expendable income again, to afford a vacation or (dare I say) begin a savings again. These were all things that we could not do without selling our home. Downsizing our cost of living was key in maintaining our lives and sanity. Compromising on the home type, we gained on the financial side. Old mobile homes are not in demand, nor are they popular, so the cost of one was much lower than a dilapidated home.
Happiness - The Old Man's Secret
Hardly anyone likes feeling stressed out. And nothing stresses us out quite as much (or as quickly) as finances. High bills, low income... it's a place we hate to be, but too many of us find ourselves stuck in. This is also the place that rarely holds company with Happiness. We were in this place and were tired of feeling beaten down day after day, bill after bill, trying to cling to our material gains. Once it clicked that things do not make us happy, it was an easy decision and quite the enlightening one!
Reality - It Hits You Hard, Bro
As we migrated through the above mental steps, it became clear what our reality was and where it needed to go. Sure, it would have been great to just cry and beat our feet and our bills magically disappear along with all our woes, but this is reality. That stuff doesn't happen, princess. Being directly engaged with our finances (earning and paying), it was easier for me to see the writing on the wall than for my wife. After a little time and tangible pressure on things, she agreed and came to the same decision as I did. I was very, very lucky to have this. It would have been another thing entirely if my spouse was not on board with me or did not see things eye to eye.
That's it for this post, but I have several coming out on how we built our place, renovated it, and so forth. Stay tuned!
Part 3 Now Posted!
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between you and @markwhittam, you will be inspiring many people to reach for freedom. thank you and cheers! am following you now.
There is no better feeling than being truly free from all the things we don't really need and getting back to basics. We'll done, I salute you.
Thank you, so much.
I agree, well done, your children are going to learn some real good life skills being in a lifestyle as yours.
You're not kidding! My wife and I talk about how different their upbringing will be from ours (we're from the city and commercialized life). My 4 year old can already identify the wild edibles from our yard and has helped with nearly every project. I'm determined to pass on as much practical knowledge to my kids as possible. :)
Part 1 and Part 2 are now posted, in case you missed them. Thanks! :)
We are in the same situation. We consciously chose to cut our income by over 50%. Moved halfway across the country to an area with a much lower cost of living, and we now live in an older manufactured home on 5 acres. We gave up a nice home in the city and I gave up a good job, so we could have the freedom to live our lives as we choose to. Now I homeschool, garden, and I am a chicken mama, all that fun stuff. We live small, so that we can LIVE.
Throws a virtual high five!! Yes!! :)
Part 1 and Part 2 are now posted, in case you missed them. Thanks! :)
You guys are awesome! I have had the same plan. I can pickup a piece of country land for 5,000 and place a used moble home on it. It will save me over a thousand dollars a month. I am on the same path.
Go for it! We've been out here a year and a half and wouldn't trade it back. Our home (we call it a home or house, not trailer) was bought off of CraigsList at a heck of a deal. I'm working on write-ups and videos on the whole process now.
Sorry about that but I understand. You have made it a great home. I really believe this is my road to freedom and out of the IT business. I hate being inside all day. I just want a simple life. You guys have a great thing going on. i wish you all the luck.
Are you my clone? :) I'm also in the IT field and consider this my "5 year plan" towards getting out from behind this desk!
LOL, that is great! If your anything like me then you didn't figure out until you were neck deep that you would never be an expert at your chosen career and that your skills would be useless unless you cram 10 1,500 page books into your memory every year. I am just tired of it and want to have a homestead. I don't mind working hard, i just prefer it to be outside. I would love to get a electrician card and put my time into that. At least I would be a master at some time. Anyway great talking to you. I am going to keep up with you guys and what is going on. i hope to get to the place your at in the next two years ( actually i am shoot for the end of the year but we will see how it goes).
You're so right! I've been lucky enough to have found a nice SMB company and have been here about 6 years. I really like the company and coworkers, but the 2 hour commute on top of the 9 hour workday is getting old. I wonder if working in the digital realm of IT makes some of us further inclined to desire to work in the outdoors on a tangible project? :) Good luck on your endeavor!
Part 1 and Part 2 are now posted, in case you missed them. Thanks! :)
Nice to see things worked out. I would love to do a downgrade and get out of the payments but the wife doesn't see things the same.
Same here.
I probably made it sound easier and quicker to convince my wife than it was in reality. It probably took almost a year of me mentioning it both directly and in a roundabout way for her to come around to entertaining the thought. For me, my flaw was in keeping her sheltered to our financial woes and troubles. I would hide the stress from her and still provide her with whatever she was used to getting while doing without myself.
You always have to be honest with your spouse. Decisions have to be mutual or resentment will fester. I talk to my wife about it and she starts acting like Ava Gabor from Green Acres.
Haha! That's the "other" side of this Green Acres :)
Just keep presenting her with info such as this view of what benefits it brings, down sizing is the future, we have to much stuff and its killing our life support that is mother earth.
Well said! The below video was an eye opener for us many years back:
Part 1 and Part 2 are now posted, in case you missed them. Thanks! :)
That is awesome I really admire you! I'm on the same path of self-reliance and happiness.
Thank you! Good luck on your path, I hope it is swift or you are happily distracted until its arrival. :)
Part 1 and Part 2 are now posted, in case you missed them. Thanks! :)
all the best...
Part 1 and Part 2 are now posted, in case you missed them. Thanks! :)
Hell ya lol :)) To Freedom ::)) My family would love to be able to do that ::))
I upvoted and Re-steemed this :))) Way To Go !!!! Freedommmmm ::))) @greenacrehome
Thank you so much! Steps, even if baby steps will eventually get you there if you want it enough. :)
You're Welcome and This is very true my friend ::)) It would be so nice to get away from everything .
Part 1 and Part 2 are now posted, in case you missed them. Thanks! :)
Thank you for updating me ::)) I will check them out ::)))
I love how people are re-thinking the "American dream." Mini-poll within this thread. What do you think this will look like in 10 or 20 years? More people doing this or less? Will the luster wear off or get shinier? I know I'm sticking with it.
What do you think?
I'm half and half. To look at it historically, there have been cycles of Homesteading or Back to the Land movements, so it could logically be construed that this is also a cycle. On the other hand, I feel like the cost of living has sky-rocketed over the last 10 years and that thanks to social media, we are able to share our individual mindsets on not accepting the status quo and hear that others are ditching the rat race, too. One thing is for sure, it will be interesting!
Part 1 and Part 2 are now posted, in case you missed them. Thanks! :)
Great post, thanks for sharing :-)
Love your logo
Thank you! I purchased the logo from an online source, then edited it over time into what it is today. :) We have some t-shirts and decals with it so far. I want more though. :)