14k A Year

I still laugh to myself when I realize that our combined taxable income was 14,000 dollars in a whole year! I am wondering how we even survived to be honest. I know that cost of living only keeps rising and same with cost of gas... so this amount of money seems almost impossible to work with. But I know this was one of our best years yet, so how does that work.

Least Amount of Income = Best Year.

As I sit and think about it I can think of so many reasons why this equation works but I have narrowed it down to three.

1. Keep A Low Overhead

2. Have Free Fun and Low Travel Expenses

3. The Kindness of Others

1. Keep A Low Overhead- I know it's usually taboo to talk about finances but I feel like its a struggle we are all going through and there are a lot of ways we can help each other if we weren't all embarrassed of our situations or too proud to talk about them. Cause honestly, we all are dealing with it! So here is our financial story, maybe it can help someone....

When Jordan and I first got together six years ago we had (combined) over $25,000 of debt and our monthly overhead was $3090.00 and we were only 21 and 22 years old. This is what our monthly financial break down looked like.

Jordan 
$500.00 Rent
$65.00  Credit Card
$30.00  Credit Card
$150.00 Insurance
$100.00 Car Payment
$400.00 Food
$150.00 Gas
$65.00 Phone
$20.00 Misc. Fees
TOTAL: $1480.00/month  
           $370.00/per week  
           $49.00/day

Jules
$400.00 Truck Payment
$200.00 Insurance
$80.00 Credit Card
$400.00 Gas
$400.00 Food
$110.00 Phone
$20.00 Misc. Fees
TOTAL: $1610.00/month   
                 $402.00/week   
                 $53.66/day

We knew that this was out of control and knew that if we ever wanted to be free to travel more we had to deal with our financial situation first and foremost. It was extremely hard to travel when our cost of living every month was SO high. (probably not that high compared to others, but at the wages we were earning this was a ridiculous amount). We can't take the time off of work because there are too many bills to pay and we simply just "can't afford" to go anywhere, especially not for more than a long weekend, which was much too short for our liking. That was the problem and we hated it. We were young and we wanted to adventure as much as possible. 

So this is how we fixed our problem...

The week after we got married we moved to Tucson. This was not our ideal place to live but we knew the cost of living was so cheap and we had the opportunity for some great paying jobs, so we decided to stay for one year and get things caught up. Within one year of working very hard we reduced our cost of living tremendously....

Jordan
$500.00 Rent
$65.00   Credit Card
$30.00   Credit Card
$150.00 Insurance (we combined our policies and saved a ton of money)
$100.00 Car Payment
$400.00 Food
$150.00 Gas (Jordan walked to work and my new job was only 2 miles away)
$65.00 Phone
$20.00 Misc. Fees

Jules
$400.00 Truck Payment
$200.00 Insurance
$80.00 Credit Card
$400.00 Gas
$500.00 Food (we spoiled ourselves a little bit with nice beer, but we ate every meal at home except for one night a week. This cut our food costs way down.)
$110.00 Phone (by joining a family plan we ended up saving a ton!)
$30.00 Misc. Fees (combining accounts)
$412.00 Rent (Jordan worked for our apartment complex and saved us a ton of money
$50.00 Utilities
$60.00 Internet/Cable

Our new monthly over head after one year: $1462.00/month
$365.00/week
$182.75/person/week
$26.10/person/day

By paying off our credit cards, paying off one car, selling the second car, combining our insurance, getting on family plans, and eating at home we have reduced our cost of living by $1628.00 per month!

We left Tucson immediately after our year was up and spent the next 6 months in Kauai and the 3 months after that we moved home to Cali to get things ready to buy a motor home. In April 2012 we found our Destiny. After the initial investment of $5500.00 we have yet again been able to reduce our cost of living by getting rid of cable, high utilities, and rent.

Jordan and Jules
(Gas: This is a varying factor. Some months we barely spend $10.00 and some we spend $1000.00. So we keep this separate from our monthly budget and save the amount needed when we are ready to go to the next place. I have the gas mileage pretty dialed-in on Destiny, so our budget is usually right on point when we head out.)

$0.00 Rent (through the kindness of others, work trades, and an adventurous spirit we haven't had to pay for rent for two years)
$110.00 Phones
$48.00 Insurance
$65.00 Credit Card (We don't like having credit cards anymore but we still have one credit card that we use for emergencies. It came in handy this year and we were grateful for it. But trust us this will be payed off ASAP!)
$400.00 Food
$30.00 Misc Fees
$25.00 Propane (The beauty of not having a working fridge is that you go through a lot less propane. We only use it for dishes- if we are hooked up, and showers- again only if we are hooked up!)

Our new Monthly Total: $678.00/month
                                            $169.50/Week Combined
                                            $84.75/person/week
                                            $12.10/person/day

Jordan and I each have to make $85 a week to survive (without fun or extras) and that totals to about $8136.00 a year.  Our life two years prior totaled to $37,080.00 a year-  it blows my mind and really makes me wish that we could have figured this all out sooner because we would have had so much extra money to adventure with! But I am glad we are starting to figure it out now so we won't be in a hole later in life.

So the real reason I brought all of this is up- I was trying to figure out just how we lived off of $14,000 a year. Well it turns out our overhead was only $8136.00 so that means we had $5864.00 left. What did we do with it? ......... Well I guess you could say we drove across the country and back!!! We saw 7 National Parks, we drove across the Mississippi River and imagined Huck Finn out there on a big log raft, we wandered up and down Beale Street in Memphis dancing to the blues, watched undiscovered bands light up a Nashville stage, played in the orange and red leaves of Arkansas, watched snow fall in Missouri, ran from tornadoes in Oklahoma, visited with friends Texas, climbed miles under the earth into caves in New Mexico, spent a summer in Montana, laid in fields watching meteor showers under the biggest sky you've ever seen, wondered through lava fields, marveled at the northern coast, stood in reverence of the giant redwoods, soaked up sunshine on the Colorado River, climbed the boulders of Joshua Tree and enjoyed thousands of miles on the road.

The way we see it- we could either spend our money on mortgages and car payments or we could just use it for gas money and new experiences! We'll take the second option...... it's a lot less stressful anyways!

2. Have Free Fun and Low Travel Expenses: This in itself is another way we are able to live with a small budget- have a lot of fun but do it all for FREE!!!  

If we were to stay at RV Parks even half the nights of the year it would add $6,500.00 to our annual budget. So we have learned where to stay for free and make it fun!!! Even in Walmart parking lots we find some of the best memories. We have also found BLM land way off the grid that we can camp for free and have great campfires or we use freecamping.net to find a place to park for the night. It's a pretty easy way to cut down costs as long as you are ok with "roughing it"... meaning not having hook ups. For us this isn't a problem, in fact I think we enjoy it more most of the time.

Jordan and I have also been getting very good at not paying for any of our "fun" activities- with the exception of our annual America the Beautiful pass that gets us into every National Park and most State Parks for free. It's pretty easy for us because our "fun" is basically being outside. We love everything nature.... hiking, walking, camping, fishing... rivers, lakes, forests, desert wandering, fields.... I don't know, maybe we are just simple people but we find our greatest days are spent in awe of creation without spending a single dollar or swiping our debit cards once. The days we actually have to spend money we call "chore days" because we would honestly rather go camping then go into town. 

We also love going into NEW towns and checking out their local scenes and such. Sometimes we don't spend any money and just wander, other times we will go out to their local watering holes and enjoy our evening but we try our best to spend a very, very limited amount of money. Every beer is another gallon of gas... so we just try to watch where and how much spend! 

We also love people, from all walks of life. We love to hear their stories, where they came from, what they are all about and where they are going. We love to invest our time and our hearts with them. We love to give love. This is a deep rooted passion in both of our hearts- something that truly brings us joy. And guess what? Loving people is FREE!!! All it really costs is time... they say time is money- but not for us, time is what we have gained from our journey into minimalism... time is what we now have to give! So between being outside and spending time with people our fun is mostly FREE!

3. The Kindness Of Others: This factor is really one of the main reasons we are able to survive with a low income. There have been so many people who have given us driveways and extension cords or a place to sleep and a hot shower. It has been a huge blessing to have so many offer us a place to park. It also makes the whole adventuring so much better as we get to see so many people in their hometowns. We often find that people love to show off their town.. even if they don't really love the place when we come into town they take us to all the "hidden gems." We love to see people in their elements and think it is so fun to see them so comfortable and happy.... they truly shine! Without the kindness of all the people who have hosted us or given us something to better our journey we would not be where we are today. We are truly grateful!!

So yes, 14k a year is totally do-able and it's possible to have a lot of fun too by careful budgeting, good planning and being flexible. We might not have the "coolest" clothes or the latest styles (or any style at all), we might not be able to shower everyday or have all the amenities that we could have but hey we get to see some pretty amazing things and develop some incredible friendships. I'd say it's a pretty fair trade off. Just like anything in life you are always going to want things you don't have. So yes, sometimes we struggle with the things we could have or see others have. Sometimes we pout and have bad days. Sometimes I want a house with a garden and Jordan wants a boat and a wood shop..... he wants an old truck, I dream of a crossover SUV..... I mean yes, we have dreams too just like everyone else.... but you know what if we would have kept our good paying jobs and bought all of the things we sometimes want, we would be dreaming of a debt free life. We would be pouting and wishing we were on the road traveling. We would want what we didn't have. The grass is never greener on the other side.... so we are trying to soak up every part of this stage of our life and make the most of it!

The greatest lesson we learned this tax season is.. if you want to have a more "free" life (whatever that looks like for you) get out of debt an stay out of debt. Jordan and I always talk about the fact that somehow our culture made it seem totally "normal" and "ok" to be in debt. We don't agree and feel it's a trap that adds so much stress to your life. We are no professionals on finances or life at that matter (we have so much to learn) but we have just seen the rewards and fruit of becoming debt free and living a simple lifestyle. We sometimes wish it for everyone and wish that everyone would sell their homes, buy a motor home and travel with us haha! We know it is completely unrealistic, but seriously we can dream right?!