...and where are we supposed to pull THAT money from?!

So, my typical response when I hear about another price increase is, "and what orifice do you expect me to pull that money out of?" That has been a really regular sentiment lately! We are all aware of the gas prices going through the roof, not mention grocery prices. Now, our propane prices have gone sky bound! We contracted our propane in September of 2013, for $1.08 per gallon. As of this morning, if we had to buy it, it would be $5.19 per gallon. At last check, the expected price increase is to be over $8 per gallon. We hear of shortages, and even have heard of price gauging due to all the cold. So, once again, I say..."and where do you expect me to pull THAT money from???"

While we have only furnace and cooking that requires propane at this point, we still average about 800 gallon per year in usage. Do you know how much that amounts to? I do! That would be roughly $850 at the $1.08 we contracted(which is gone already!), $4,150 if we had to buy the 800 gallon today, and $6400 if it tops out at $8 per gallon. How on Earth would anyone, who works for a living be able to pay $6400 just to heat their house???? Well, I will not do it!

I am madder than a hornet right at this point. I am sick of politics - both with politicians and the crazy commodity/wall st. markets. I am sick of the gauging, futures, and all the corporate hands-in-my-pocket crap! I am tired of being told or hearing that the government will fix everything. Have you SEEN what the government is doing? They are lining THEIR pockets with OUR money! They couldn't pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were on the heal!

Personally, I have wanted to go off-grid for many years. I'm not talking the extreme of the Amish, I'm talking being self-sufficient without losing some of the modern convenience like indoor plumbing! I'm talking raising/growing all our own food, providing a home that is not only affordable to build, maintain, but one that doesn't leave a huge foot print. I'm talking eliminating the need to pay for stinking water(full of chemicals), propane, and even finding a functional and affordable way to have electricity without the high prices. Our income does not increase every time the other prices do!

Many steps have been made by my family to become more self-sufficient. We have been growing gardens for years, we raise our own meats, have chickens for eggs/meat, and will be trying to find a reasonably priced dairy cow for milk, we are adding to our gardens this year as we found many gaps in our annual food supply missing. I don't make more than 1 or 2 trips to town, or anywhere, per month...so we don't spend a lot of fuel for my truck. We don't eat out, well....we don't unless it's a special occasion...about 4 times a year. We buy a lot of second hand items, redo them and make them "new to us." We love to go to yard sales and auctions. We trade or barter a lot of the things we need/want. We are fortunate to have great family, neighbors and friends. We build/remodel everything ourselves.

Since we are in major conservation mode with our propane,(our last fill about a week ago...was all we had contracted), we have decided it is time to start making some changes to our house. With the colder weather, we found a lot of areas that weren't as weather proof as we had once thought. Not to mention the fact that because the house has leaks, the furnace runs more, and in return, we use more propane. So, in addition to my husband's new business plan, we have decided that it's time to return to a simpler way of getting heat...the only one proven to be cost effective. We are going back to wood heat. No, we are not putting a huge long wood stove in our house....there just isn't room for anything else in here! We are getting an outdoor wood furnace, that will not only heat the house, but our water too. In addition, if we ever decided to , we could add solar panels to it as well. Over the course of 5 years, this furnace will save enough other energy/propane to pay off our home(about $24000). Once Spring and Summer get here, we are re-insulating all the outside walls and roof of our house too. This plan will be a little costly to implement, but even once you figure the costs....the amount we will be saving will still be the amount shown above. Yes, spending $15,000 in home improvements and the furnace, will still net us about $24,000 in savings over 5 years.

We have crunch numbers, tried to find the cheapest routes, and even bought a house we knew would be only temporary to keep our expenses low. Now, we have to do some repairs and improvements so that our cheap house, doesn't end up nickle and dimeing us to death! We knew going into the adventure of home ownership that there would costs, we had to account for. After all, we bought a 22 year old(someone else's headache) home. It was smaller than we wanted, but it was priced well and we could get into it in the time frame we had to work with. So, when all is said and done, we will have about $40,000 invested into our home byt the end of this year, and our home will have the same value. So far, we are still ok, and since our house, buildings and property are valued at 3 times our investment...I am not too worried. I know a new roof and siding will be in the plans for the very near future, but we have to address the immediate needs to be able to do more later!

I have always been mesmerized by those people that use all recycled materials, and build their own environmentally friendly homes. Now, I do believe our time is coming. Our Earth friendly, and pocket book friendly home is beginning to take shape. While we can only do so much with our current home, our plans keep evolving for the home we are planning to build in 5 years or so...once this one is paid off. In the meantime, we are doing what we can to keep our costs low, and get all our debts paid off to be able to be debt free also in those 5 years.Yes, I have been told that this can not be done. I know that this thought process is not conventional in the world today. In my eyes, it's the only logical way of life though.

Too many of us have lived on credit cards and bank loans. It has cost us at least, double of the original price just for convenience, and now we are in debt to our eyeballs. We have to work 12-16 hours a day just to make payments on things we had to have immediately, instead of working and saving for them. The prices have gone crazy, I know. I do not believe that our grandparents or great grandparents would have ever dreamed of having more debt than you could pay off in a year! For us, it will take all of 5 years to pay off our current debt. It will take hard work, major budgeting and being conscientious to get this accomplished. It means not spending frivolously, making extra payments, getting less of what we want and only getting what we need. It means, to me, being responsible for our finances. It means being responsible for our lives and teaching our children the value of hard work. It also means showing our children, by example, that living in debt is a dangerous and irresponsible way of life.

In our home, we are making HUGE changes this year. Some of them will be more subtle, while others will be more than visible to everyone. It is time for change, it is time for responsibility, and it is time to make the younger generation aware that they are our future and teach them how to be hard workers AND debt free!

Bring on these Winter winds of change!
Salli :-)