This post may be more along the lines of a philosophical post rather than an informational post, but it is something that I have been thinking about quite a bit as we discuss, dream, research, and plan for our hopeful move to farming. Right now my family (wife and two children) lives a pretty frugal life. We don't eat out much, we don't eat prepared foods, my wife is a very frugal shopper, we don't have extravagant things or clothes, and we keep track of our spending very closely so we know where our money is going. Besides that, we really try to keep our "stuff" level down. If we are bring things in we try to move things out that we don't need or used (sometimes we sell, sometimes we give, and sometimes we donate). In the long run we believe that will save us money, space, and frustration. Basically we are always looking for ways to save a little here and a little there.By the worlds standards we may be a little "overly frugal" or cheap! Because of our watchful eye we have been able to stay out of debt and able to save money each year. But, we are always looking for ways to cut corners because we know that in order to get to the farm we will need to sacrifice. Sacrifice is something that my generation doesn't always handle too well. I will be the first to admit that I was raised in a pretty comfortable life. We were no where near wealthy, but my family sacrificed so that I could have a lot of the things that I desired. That is the case for most of the people in my generation and now that we have reached adulthood we don't really want to go through the same stages that our parents went through.
Oftentimes we don't realize that our parents spent time living in small houses or not ever eating out because all we remember was our nice three or four bedroom house and weekly pizza take-outs or eating out. But, if we are going to be able to reach our dream of farming we are going to have to make sacrifices now and as we truly begin the farm.
So, what are you willing to sacrifice? Are you willing to scale back the "American Dream" lifestyle (probably a good idea no matter what you want to do)? Are you ready to simplify your life by not purchasing or hording as many "things"? I believe you will only be able to reach your goals if you sacrifice. In the coming weeks I am going to be spending some time putting together some goals for they farm dream in the next year. In doing that I'm also going to have to spend some time thinking of sacrifices that I can make to reach those goals.
