No.845: Last Week at the Farmhouse // Could You Survive?

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Thought experiment of the week: If your ability to purchase things using debt disappeared tomorrow, could you survive?  If you had to see your purchases not as affordable “monthly payments” but the whole bill, could you afford it?

I listened to quite a few financial podcasts this week, pumping myself up for another intense season of debt reduction.  The financial forecast is pretty dire and most of the advisors believe that some sort of correction is coming.  In one of the podcasts, I heard a version of the question above and it really made me pause.

Like many Americans right now, we’re not in an ideal financial position and our answer to that question is no.  But we want to be!  We definitely desire to free ourselves from the stress and bondage of debt.  So instead of wallowing in frustration and despair, we’re ready to work intensely to get our house in order.  The goal seems significantly harder than four years ago, but we’re ready for the challenge.  Little by little…it all counts.

I loved and appreciated Grandma Donna’s sage advice (shared in the post below): “Get out of debt so you don’t have to pull that ball and chain around anymore. Some people get full of guilt or blame someone else when they find themselves in a financial crisis. We have to forgive ourselves for our mistakes in life. So we need to work on that and forgive ourselves for our financial mistakes so we can move one and get out of debt. It is difficult to look at the numbers when you are in debt but once again if you have to do it over again, forgive yourself and move on, it is going to be okay.”

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ making a simple chicken and potato salad dinner using ingredients we mostly grew on the farm. So satisfying!

+ elderberry season!  I picked a bunch before the birds got to them and then made my annual batch of elderberry syrup.  I like to freeze the syrup in ice cube trays and pop a cube or two in my morning water.  COVID is apparently making its rounds in the area again so I’m upping my immune system strength a bit earlier than usual.

+ selling fourteen unneeded items for the Car Loan Payoff Plan: nine books, a binoculars case, a purse, two dresses and a pair of sneakers.  After shipping and fees, I made $74.91!

Reading //

• The Deceptive Rose from Grandma Donna // “Okay, I just wanted to make you think for a bit because the more I read the newspapers through these years of history studies the more I have understood how we were prodded along to change. It did not matter that the change they were doing most often caused debt. The pressure to change was mighty and so many people started living beyond their means and still do today.”
• 1940s Capsule Wardrobe & What Clothing Cost from Vintage Dancer // Super interesting!
• August, 1940 … ish from Grandma Donna // Lots of great advice here.
• I Will Work Harder? from Rachel Woodham at Circe Institute

New Additions to The List // 

• Works of Mercy by Sally Thomas
• The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt
• The Soul of Civility: Timeless Principles to Heal Society and Ourselves by Alexandra Hudson
• Our Biggest Fight: Reclaiming Liberty, Humanity, and Dignity in the Digital Age by Frank H. McCourt Jr.

Watching/Listening/Playing //

• How Consumerism Keeps You Constantly Broke | Spencer Campbell from Damon Cassidy // Very thought provoking.
• Two American Families: 1991-2024 Documentary from Frontline PBS
• SPENT // This game is really eye-opening and the reality for a lot of American families these days.
• Purgatorio Cantos 7-16 of 100 Days of Dante from Baylor Honors College

Loving //

• my new mop system // An investment for my cleaning arsenal!  I love this thing.