The first reason had to do with our apartment becoming infested with black mold inside and outside of the walls and the landlords would not fix it. Having a son born with lung issues, this was an immediate concern for his well being.
Another factor was the cost. For about $200 less per month, we could have a home with a yard, a shed and about 500 more square feet of moving around room. That is correct, a two bedroom apartment we inhabited was $650 a month and for apartments of that size in the nice area we were living in, that was on the low end. We moved to our mobile home and lot rent was $408 a month for our corner lot. Initially we were paying the owner of the mobile home an extra $65 a month in our rather lax contract for deed deal until our taxes came back in February and we were able to pay off the rest of the $3500 purchase price. The price for our home was really inexpensive as it is a 1973 model. The mobile home across the street from us was brand new in 2008 with a hefty price tag of $40,000. Three, we had had an opportunity prior to the economic collapse to purchase a home with a sub-prime mortgage. Although we did look around for a few months and even attempted to purchase a home, the deal fell through and we were forever grateful. I had had that feeling in the pit of my stomach--as we were whisked from house to house, sat in front of number crunchers and at one time told that we had to move fast because big changes were coming soon--that purchasing a house was a bad idea. Ultimately it was because I had an outstanding balance on my car coupled with my husband’s poor credit choices when he was younger for why we did not get the money pit home we were hoping to make our own. I felt that the mortgage guys we spoke with knew what was coming down the pipeline and were trying to get in as many commissions and people in homes as fast as possible. Within a year of our rejection, the big crash in the housing market, as well as the rest of the economy, sent our nation into a downward spiral that we as a nation are still trying to clean up. This downward spiral has limited job prospects and has opened our eyes to adapting our style of living to a more frugal lifestyle.
I grew up in the 1980s, the era of Reaganomics. My dad worked for Caterpillar and things were going well until the Big Layoff. The Big Layoff turned into no one wants to hire a Cat man because of the union and the open-ended question of when he would be called back. We went from a comfortable frugal lifestyle to working poor. Any money my parents may have saved was gone shortly after the layoff in order to keep the household functioning. We had to travel to Bloomington, far away from anyone we knew to grocery shop because we had to get food stamps, the ultimate shame.I will delve into the Frugalnomics and growing up more at another time, but this serves as a point in life lessons and sculpting my future based on my past. I learned a lot from this time, but I was dumb in my twenties and the lesson on frugality that I learned from them did not stick until I had a family of my own and we moved into our humble home.
I have seen so many people lose their homes, suffer from economic ruin and crawl through bankruptcy court as a result of this latest collapse.
As a result of all of the lessons learned in life, our mobile home has become a learning lab for us in homesteading and frugal living. It has served as our headquarters for our lives and for our budding production house and film studio. Repairs are minimal but enough to feel what kind cost and pain one can incur in a real house.
This year, I am taking more steps to increase our frugality and prove to myself that I can alleviate my brown thumb and create more of a self-sufficient homestead for my family.
We have now lived here for about two and a half years, rent has gone up $10 a month and our skills and goals for our homestead are finally coming to fruition. We have grown a lot in that time frame and are now moving forward into becoming the type of family that I had always wanted.
At times I feel that living in a mobile home has made some people look down at us and view us as “those type of lower class, trashy people,” I have also learned not to let my perception of what others think about me cloud the decisions I have made to positively influence my family. The positives have far outweighed the negatives and have catapulted our adventures in urban homesteading.
Yours truly,
Emilie
After thought: Thank you for reading my first blog. I look forward to providing you a weekly (or bi-weekly) blog in my adventures in urban homesteading, film production, screen writing, frugal living and raising a son. Please feel free to comment and I will do my best to reply in a timely manner.
