Home on Wheels

So here we are 3 kids, 4 cats and 2 parents. We have what is the typical 3 bed 2 bath and 2 car garage home with the big back yard and nice quiet neighborhood. But that was just to normal for us. The house as a good deal when we bought it 3 years ago and we have fixed up parts of it along the way.

We updated the bathroom... ourselves.. *mic drop* 

So why am I telling you this? Our 5 year plan was to be able to do more in our ministry and to show the kids the rest of the world. How do you do that when you are tied down to a mortgage payment and stuck in a revolving door of credit card debt? All you Dave Ramsey fans I hear you yelling at me. We tried that, thanks tho.

No matter what we did nothing got us out of the hole. With one income and the hubby becoming self employed now the 5 year plan was seemingly impossible. Then the housing economy turned in our favor, and kept climbing up in our favor. We saw that as as way out.

 If you had the chance to be debt free, reduce your overhead and spend more time with your kids would you say no? I hope you wouldn't.

In our view the kids we are given are gifts and we only have a short time to teach, mold and grow them into good humans. This was our chance. Saying no was not an option. So we prayed about putting the house on the market and decided to see what happens. We listed it at a higher price then the realtor suggested, 3 showings and 2 offers in 24hrs told us we were on the right track. The bidding war ensued and we were homeless 48hrs later! Guess that was a yes to selling it?

So the next part was the travel trailer. We had a budget of $15,000 for the travel trailer, our van could haul 8,700lbs so it needed to be under that and a bunkhouse. Again praying about it and waited to see what happens. Well a friend told us about one that was being sold by another friend! We inquired about it, 6,300lbs (check!) bunkhouse (check!), had one slide out and the master bedroom had a door not a curtain (check!)... the price?... $7,000!!!! Sign us up... oh wait one minor detail... it was 1,200 miles away. 

That seemed to be a deal breaker to us, can't inspect it and can't smell it and touch it. So no. The friends of friends selling it said "How about a truck to go with it and we will give you a good deal?"

So after what seemed like strong hints to get it we decided to go for.

My frugal self said "We don't need the truck I bet I could sell it!" You know by now that I love a good deal and love it even more if I can flip it and make some cash. So the truck that came with the trailer was a 2002 Ford Excursion Limited Edition 93k original miles. I found out very quickly there is a market for them and the right person will pay good money for one. 

When we got it back home I detailed the daylights out of it! She was so clean you could eat off the seats or the floor! 

So if you are keeping track the budget was $15,000 for a trailer. The Truck and Trailer combo was offered to us for $16,000. I bought the hubby and brother in law a ticket for $40 each to get there. They drove it back (my sister went too but got her own ticket). When the truck was sold a week later the new owners had not one think too pick at since it was so clean, they paid $14,500 for it. So you are left with a total of... $1,500 for the Travel Trailer. That was well under budget for us, I'm ok with that. 

So now we are well under budget and ready to remodel the new home on wheels! It is a 2006 Keystone Springdale 296 BHG

Does it need some love? Yes! Can we do it? Yes we can!

Stay tuned for the updates.. or check out our Instagram page Vegan Runner Mommy

Kids toys - Less is more

"Less is more? What a stupid saying." Right? How can less of something be more? Well I finally figured that out, but in the terms of my kids toys.

Do you have a play room for your kids? Or a mountain of toys that seem to procreate over night? That was exactly what our kids toys felt like, the well meaning family would send boxes of toys and then they grew more friends. I would go in their room and take out bags of toys, the broken and forgotten, the never played with and the who bought you this? toys. Still the mountain would grow!!

It finally came to a head one day when the blonde son asked where his blue car was that he could take apart. After digging in the toys we found it, part of it... the other parts were scattered in the room. That was it! I couldn't keep shuffling toys back and forth from the living room to the boy's room only to see that they couldn't find the ones they really wanted!  The purge began...

How do I sift through this mess?
If you are considering doing the same thing you may wonder where to begin. I started with the toys most often played with and put them in a bin off to the side. For these boys its: cars, legos, blocks, car tracks and trains. The rest were all 'meh toys', those went in a separate pile. All the broken ones, messed up wheel ones, the puzzles missing pieces and tossed them all in the landfill to hang out with the toys from Toy Story 3.

Then the lefter over 'meh toys' were sorted thru and put into give away and sell piles. If there is not an attachment or any care to play with them then I say give them to a family that actually wants or needs them! Like Andy did with Buzz, Woody and all their friends, so basically I was Andy's mom from Toy Story 3, but my kids were not going to college.

So now what? You still have a ton of toys left over right? Where did they come from? How can you get them to stop procreating? Tell the well meaning friends and family that the kids are good on the toys for now and if they want to buy them anything that an experience or lessons in something is even better! Art lessons, guitar lessons, theme park tickets, zoo passes etc...

After the mess is cleared up the feeling of a nice room were you can see the floor is such a nice feeling! The kids are more apt to play in the room now and cleaning it up is so much easier! So go make yourself a cup of coffee, turn on the tunes from your teen years and start sorting like its 1995! (Toy Story 1)