Ideas on living simple

Just one more idea for today (I will not be posting as much once I get all my initial ideas down!) and that is on living simple.

I was talking to a mom yesterday with a 2 year old and a 4 month old. She was telling me that they couldn't afford for her to not work full-time (She is a teacher and her husband also works full-time) and she went back to work when the baby was only 6 weeks old.

I'm not judging this person's situation, since obviously I don't know her personal finances, but I think we all have an idea of the amount of money we "need" to have to live. For example, Jay makes a pretty modest income and we have a LOT of student debt. But I don't need to work. Why? We own older, crappy cars (ok, ok, one of them is pretty nice. but its old enough that its very cheap by newer car standards). We don't own a house (yes, yes, a house is a great "investment" but it is also STUFF. A very big STUFF that takes a lot of money to upkeep. Also our rent is about $825 a month, and if we bought this house or a comparable one it would be a $1600 or more per month mortgage). We don't buy things (when we do they are almost always used). Our kids' stuff is almost 100% hand-me-downs (thanks to our friends and especially Jay's sister!). We eat really simple, cheap meals mostly (beans and rice kinds of things...at some point, i will post frugal meal ideas here). We don't eat out much.

So I guess what I'm saying is...do people really *need* to work, or do we just work to maintain a certain level of spending? How can moms that I know make more than twice what we do (with mom and dad both working) *need* to work, while I don't need to? Maybe its that we choose to work. My goal for the next 10 years is for Jay and I to both work part-time (I'm not working out of the home right now. Oh, yes, believe me I AM working!) And why not? If we don't buy a house, and especially if we get rid of our cars at some point, we don't need to double what jay is making right now by having me work full-time.

I would pay so much money to not have Emmett in daycare. And i guess I do. But money is just money. Stuff is just stuff. My baby is only going to be a baby once. If I owned a house, I would sell it to stay home with them if that is what it took. If I had a car payment, I would go car-free if that is what it took. I would eat beans and rice for EVERY meal, if that is what it took.

Its all a matter of what you are willing to "sacrifice". I guess I'm more willing to be poor than to have someone else raise my kids. I'm not trying to sound judgmental if you chose some other path, or if you really DID have to work when your kids were little. Its just something that I think about a lot.

It is kind of what I am talking about with the treadmill idea. We work to own a house. We work to pay for our kids' daycare. We have to keep working to upkeep the house. To pay for our 401K. To be able to go on a cruise vacation. Of course you may be more financially "secure" if you are on this treadmill. We aren't paying down our debts a lot. We aren't saving for retirement (that whole issue is so crazy anyway. There was a Frontline about it awhile back, and it just made me feel like its so impossible to do that now anyway).

Enough about that. Have I mentioned that I love living without a TV? I love, love, love it. I don't miss the thing at all. TV is stupid. And evil.