Moving into the middle of BFE was a bit of an adjustment but in the end, we think it has worked out for the best. Between living here and writing this blog, our financial lives have changed. Here's some of the factors and some of the results of living in the middle of the desert, 120 miles from a city.
The first difference is the lack of stores. There is a grocery store and a poor attempt at a hardware store and an adult toy store and a Family Dollar. That's it. If you can't find what you're looking for in any of those, it's a 90 minute drive to get it.
We learned 4 very good lessons from this:
1. The Internet is a better invention than sliced bread, by far. We order things on line all the time. Shipping and handling are cheaper than gas and save us 4 hours of travel time.
2. We plan better. We anticipate our needs and we make lists. If we have to go shopping, we know what we want and what stores we'll be going to. We don't browse. When shopping on line, we try to get as much stuff from one place as we can. Just because S&H is cheaper than gas doesn't mean we don't try to reduce it when we can.
3. We go without. We used to impulse buy and now the only thing that stays on the list is stuff that we think we'll really need. When it's not Christmas, we might go for 3 months without going into town. If we still want or need something after 3 months, it's usually worth the purchase. When stores were close by, we'd go on a whim for a single item and then usually pick up some other neato stuff that we didn't really need.
4. We've learned to improvise with items from the available local stores. Did you know that you can MacGuyver a rolling pin out of a dildo? Our Easter sugar cookies with the rabbit imprint were a big hit!
There aren't very many choices for food out here. You have the casinos, McDonald's, Burger King, Arby's, Pizza Hut, Subway, and a local Mexican restaurant (which we really enjoy but how many times can you go there?). My dad has a restaurant too but we don't go there much because he never lets us pay so it feels too mooching for us.
That's it.
We used to dine out often but that has ended. We go out rarely (not counting our free meals at the casinos - and those free meals are why we don't go to the casinos to dine out).
This has been great for us. We save money and the food that we eat is healthier. Eating in the casino each day make it nice to stay home and eat. We'd much rather do that than go out.
Another big change was our house. Most of the "houses" out here are mobile homes. We bought a stick house but it's less than half the size of the house that we left behind. It was going to be a tight fit with five of us but my daughters both moved out and this house is almost big enough. If it had a basement, we'd be set. Of course, that would just about put it back up in space with the old house but that's not the point. The only thing that it's really missing is a room for my weights. I'm using the garage right now and that gets cold in the winter and also means that a car can't go where it belongs. This winter, I'm going to put the weight bench and barbells aside so the car can go in its car home. I'll use dumbbells and P90X for the winter to stay in shape.
The very positive side of this is that there is so much that we like about the smaller house. It's much easier to clean. Much. It's also less expensive to maintain. Utilities are less, taxes and insurance, and down the road, there would be probably be less to repair. Americans are taught to covet the huge house and we have broken out of that brainwashing. We want something that fits and is comfortable. Like a pair of jeans. You don't buy something that's 5 sizes too big.
One theory that we have always had but I'm going to throw it out here for new visitors is that we don't believe in working to support a house. Our house should support our needs as least expensively as possible.
There is more but I think I'll break this in two parts.