The Penny-Wise Creation – Living in 150 square feet of space to save money

6 Months ago this week my husband David and I sold everything we owned and bought a 27 foot long travel trailer and moved in to it full time.  Going from a 2 bedroom / 2 bathroom apartment with 1106 square feet to a travel trailer with about 150 square feet of space was a bit of an adjustment.  The honeymoon has definitely worn off, but the goal is still the same.  Reduce our monthly living expenses and save money!

We were definitely living paycheck to paycheck, borrowing money to cover emergencies and crossing our fingers hoping that we can make it to the next paycheck.  It was a very frustrating feeling of always being behind on bills.  We were also feeling like we were always digging out of the same financial hole every month with no real hope of ever making it to ground level.  It was always emergency bills – the power is about to get shut off so put every dime of the paycheck this week into paying that one bill to avoid a catastrophe.  It was always damage control with no end in sight.

The stress alone was eating us alive.  The late fees, the overdraft charges and the not knowing how we were going to make it every month were draining us and our relationship.  We were paying over $2000 a month in basic living expenses – Rent, electric, gas, water and garbage.  Not including groceries, gas, cell phones, cable, car insurance, child support and health insurance.  70% of our income was in our housing and we were drowning.  The thought of having any type of savings for an emergency situation was just a dream.  We had to do something drastic.

Now that we are in the trailer full time, we pay $400 in rent/basic living expenses.  We are saving money every month.  We paid cash for the trailer and own our car.  We don’t have to pay water, electric, gas or garbage unless we need to refill the propane tank or call in the Sani-Can guy to dump our black water for us.  We are in a win-win situation.  We are putting away money into savings every month.  We are living within our means and seeing the reward that is waiting for us at the other end.  The dream of buying a house or land one day is a reality.  Whereas before the thought of buying our own property was just a dream.

We filed bankruptcy this summer, something that was 2 years in the making.  With both of us being divorced in our past lives and trying to survive with kids, paying child support (him) and me living without any help or child support,  it has been a challenge.  But now that are on the other side of our discharge, we have a fresh start.  We can lock down our budget and keep everything to a minimum.  We have to rebuild our credit in time and keep saving money.  Our goal is to try this lifestyle for the next 2 years.  We initially thought we might just put the trailer on a piece of land and continue living this way.  6 months in, I am not so sure.

We could not buy right now even without the bankruptcy on our record.  The market is really high where I live for buying and renting.    We moved into an apartment in 2013 because we could not afford the rental house we were living in at the time.  We only had 1 kid at home that year until he graduated in 2014 and went off to college.  We wanted to rent another house and enjoy a yard and gardening, but we could not afford to even get in the door.  Not only is the rent super expensive, the first, last and security deposits were equal to the monthly rent – who has $3000 or more just to get into a house? I make less than that in a single month! It was especially overwhelming because of having bad credit.  They make you pay for that on top of all of the other deposits and fees.  We opted for the apartment and that seemed like a good option.  Then the first year when the new lease was available there was an increase of $170.  Then the next year it was going to be $250.  We saw what we were facing.  It was almost like the property management company wanted renters to move out.  Old renters move out, new move in.  it is constant revenue coming in with security deposits, cleaning fees and so on.

You can’t get into a rental house with a yard for less than $1500 a month not including utilities.  Apartments in my area are anywhere from $1100 (studio or one bedroom) or a 2 or 3 bedroom for the same price as the houses.  To buy a house where I live requires perfect credit, 20% down and about $240,000 for a townhome/condo/ fixer-upper or $425,000 for a family sized home.   It is just not an ideal situation for us to even attempt that right now.  I can only hope that in the next few years the market will drop again – just in time for us to buy something.

For us we are trying something different to improve our lives.  It has not been easy.  Everything looks great on paper as far as the long term plan goes.  Living in a trailer is not ideal and is not for everyone.   There are so many things that we did not consider when we made the jump.  We were so focused on the goals and the budget, that we may have been naïve to what the lifestyle would actually be like.

You have so many routines and conveniences that are taken for granted.  Buying groceries, shoes, laundry are just a few things to mention. I knew that storage would be an issue the very first day.  I marked many boxes “trailer” and so much more marked “storage”.  However, more than half of those boxes that landed at the trailer had to go to storage.  I was very naïve.

I used to love to go to Costco.  Now, I can’t buy toilet paper in bulk because I only have enough room for a 4 pack at a time.  I can’t buy bulk anything.  I can’t fill my cart with meat that is on sale at the grocery store because I have the freezer the size of shoe box.  I have very limited pantry space.  Every square inch of this little tin box is precious real-estate.  I love candles.  No room for extra’s.  I love shoes… I am still trying to figure out storage for shoes.  Laundry has been a challenge.  I took for granted having a washer & dryer in the apartment where I could just throw a load of dirties in at will and BAM!  Clean clothes.  Now, I have to go to the Laundromat.  If I don’t do this regularly the piles of dirties seem to take on their own life-force in the trailer.  I don’t have room for multiple laundry baskets – I have one.  I really don’t have room for the one that I have, but I LOVE it.  It is an older wicker basket with sturdy handles.  I just have to make room for it.  But it is not big enough for mine and Dave’s clothes.  He seems to just pile them on his side of the bed.  I am not really sure how he deals with it – the piles make me crazy.  Taking time to sort and go to the Tubs N Suds is a pain.  (Laundry every week is also a budget item I didn’t consider – not only money but time in my schedule) It costs about $12 a week to do the normal laundry.  If I bring the bigger stuff like comforters or towels that will add another $5.  It takes me at least an hour and half to do laundry.  Who wants to spend that kind of time watching clothes?  I am so grateful for the bar in the same shopping center.  On the topic of clothes, transitioning from my summer to fall wardrobe is tricky.  Currently I am packing boxes to take to storage and bring more boxes back to hang in the wardrobe the same size as my refrigerator.  SMALL.

I knew that showers and using the toilet were going to be an issue.  I never imagined it would be this difficult.  I used to get up in the morning and not think twice about using the toilet and taking a shower.  Well, now those things are luxuries.  We are not hooked up to sewer or drain water.  We are completely self -contained.   When the 40 gallon holding bins get full we either fill our portable totes and drive them to the dump station to dispose of the waste or call the Sani-Can man which is the drive by dumper that charges $40.  I never realized that not only would I have to focus on budgeting money for our new lifestyle but water and sewage as well!

Regardless of all of these little adjustments that we have had to make to adapt to our new little life in our new little trailer, it’s working.  I am trying to be more organized in my living space.  If you neglect the place for one day it looks like a bomb went off.  We have a cat and he sheds – everywhere.  I am sweeping and vacuuming often.  There is a significant amount of upkeep on the inside as well as on the outside.  We had our first big rain a couple of weeks ago.  There was a leak.  That was fun!  Dave had to do damage control on the roof and watch a few Youtube videos to make sure he knew what he was doing.  It is not an easy life in that respect.

But you know what I am learning?  I absolutely love my husband.  We are working together as a team more than we have ever done.  I have learned that since we only have one TV (with bunny ears, no less!  Nope, no cable!) We are actually watching the same shows every night and doing it together.  We are cooking together and eating together.  Since the living room, dining room and kitchen are all actually the same space in the trailer it is a great version of an open-concept floor plan.  While I am cooking he can’t go run off to the bedroom.  Well, I guess he could but it is literally 4 steps from the stove.  We have bonded more and I feel closer to him than I have in a long time.  Our new lifestyle has been really good for our relationship.

I am also learning what I need and what I want are two very different things.  I recently pulled every item of clothing out of the trailer and sorted by “LOVE THIS” to “Eh, not so much”.  I put all of the “LOVE THIS” back in the wardrobe and everything else went to Goodwill.  I don’t need 5 wooden spoons.  I don’t need 20 glasses in the cupboard.  I don’t need 15 different cleaning products.  I need simple.  Less.  I need only what I need.

Well, thanks for reading my 6 month update.  I am still trying to balance my time and my checkbook with all of these changes.  But this is what I am sure of – it was the right decision for us – for now.   We have our house parked in Sherwood, Oregon and we are working full time in our 40’s.  We are happy living with less and saving more.  Every day is a new lesson and a new experience gained in our Penny-Wise way of life.  Please feel free to comment and leave suggestions!

Cheers from the trailer park!

A new way to cook – RV Life

One thing I can say about my first 3 months of living in my Travel Trailer full time is that I look at Cooking as a whole new adventure.  I have this little tiny grill that we used to keep in storage for camping or day trips to the beach.  This little guy has become my best friend.  It is my favorite way to cook.  But, as I discovered this past weekend, I live in Oregon.  This means that RAIN is not my best friend when It comes to cooking outside of the trailer.

Yes, we have propane so cooking in the trailer is not out of the question. As you can see in the picture I have a stove and an oven & it all works perfectly fine.  Note the counter space –  It really is not conducive to prep a 3 course meal, cook, eat and clean up.  It is very close quarters to begin with inside the trailer. There is not a definitive line between the kitchen, dinning room and living room. Most of the time I am tripping over the vacuum, kitty toys and garbage can. So, when I start adding cutting boards, cast iron pans, mixing bowls and food – it has been quite overwhelming.  I think I am getting the hang of it, so I wanted to share what I am learning.  I am trying to keep the clutter under control so I don’t just run out and grab a pizza or taco bell.  I am really trying to embrace living in my space and not just thinking of it as Camping all of the time.

Shopping.  Shopping for me is key.  I can’t go to the grocery store and pick up everything all at once.  I have to break it up during the week.  I don’t have very much space in the fridge or in the pantry.  I have basic things that I keep in the fridge – condiments, eggs, coffee creamer and beverages.  By beverages I mean wine, beer, ice tea, juice – you know I mean mostly wine, right?

That was a major adjustment for the first weekend in the RV.  I filled the fridge with wine because I sold our wine rack during the move.  There is not any room for a wine rack, and I filled the fridge with what I had.  After the first weekend I was playing a new role as the “RV Park Wine Fairy” – I went around delivering bottles of wine to all of my new neighbors just so I could put actual food in the fridge.  I made room in the fridge for human food, and made some new friends. 🙂

Back to shopping – I now buy boxed wine and keep ice cubes handy – yes trailer life is changing my “wants” and “needs” on a daily basis.  I want wine.  But do I need it in the fridge? See how this is working?  I need to put eggs in the fridge.  I need to put salsa in the fridge.  Wine takes up real estate and I just have to prioritize.  So, when I do go shopping I have a plan.  This is also brilliant for my budget.  I have a meal plan which makes me create a shopping list which makes me spend less on impulse purchases that I don’t have room for.

When I make my meal plan, I have been creating meals that I can either cook multiple things at once on the BBQ or I cook enough that I can recycle for 1 or 2 more meals.  Example: My husband wanted tacos this weekend.  I used the inside stove (since it was raining) and browned the ground beef.  I cooked way more than I needed so that I could use it for taco salads and nachos for lunch the next day.  We grated extra cheese, chopped extra onions and we already had salsa. Another example is cooking on the BBQ.  I grilled steak last night for dinner.  The coals were still pretty hot when it was done, so I threw on some hot dogs that could be used for lunches today.

It is becoming more of a routine for me to plan ahead.  This is NOT something that comes naturally to me and is something that I definitely struggle with.  It is forcing me to carve out time to plan meals, create a list, stick to the list and shop more than once a week.  I am finding new recipes, too.  I am cooking differently than I did when I had a standard kitchen with room for all of your kitchen gadgets and machinery.  I have downsized my supplies – even since I have gotten into the RV.  I have found that I need even less than what I thought I needed.  I have so many bowls.  Why do I have 5 mixing bowls?  It is still an attachment issue.  I might need that bowl.  I like that other bowl.  This bowl is for salad, this one is for pancakes.  NO.  I only need 1 freaking bowl.  It will free up space if I change my hoarding mindset and just have one bowl.

I am nervous about how I will think about cooking when the summer ends.  I can’t even tell you how much I enjoy sitting outside listening to baseball on the radio and cooking on the grill.  In about 2 months I will be tarpping the chairs and putting away all of my outdoor decorations and be stuck indoors when the Oregon Rain hits.  I will have to come up with a game plan of how I am going to deal with that…  I am sure I will focus on soups, stews and hot alcoholic beverages.  It will be fun!

In the mean time, I will be searching out recipes to utilize in the trailer menu list.  If any of you reading this has any good ideas – easy cooking and easy cleaning up ideas, please share!!

Thanks for reading! Cheers from the RV Park in Oregon 🙂

Rent Poor

 

I did an online budget about 6 months ago.  At the time, I was renting an overpriced 2 bedroom apartment.  The budget assistant took my monthly income and all of my other expenses – Rent, utilities, food, gas, car insurance, etc, then deducted everything from my income.  The budget software alerted me to the fact that my rent was eating up more than 50% of my income every month.  I KNEW THAT!!  Thanks for the RED alert!

The website I used gave me a suggestion that I only pay about 30% of my monthly income towards housing.  If this is not an option where I live, where you live, what are we supposed to do?

I have been battling with this issue for years.  Moving from the over priced Bay Area in California to Oregon 8 years ago helped. But, I have noticed that trends seem to move to Oregon from California, and the rental market is no exception. When I knew we were getting close to our lease being up this last year in the apartment, I knew what I was facing.  I could not find anything that was in the area where I work for anything less than what I was paying.  If I wanted to move outside of the area where I work, I could find housing a bit cheaper.  But with a car that is not in the best shape, the commuting expenses would eat up what I potentially would be saving with cheaper housing.  I felt like I was in a loose-loose situation. Thus, the Trailer Project was put into motion.

I read an article the other day titled “Renting: Just about awful for everyone right now“.  This article was very alarming to me.  Mostly because I am so affected by the rental market where I live, but it made me feel so hopeless for others that must be feeling the same.  One of the pieces of data from this article that blew me away is that 90% of working folk like us is dealing with the issue of paying 50% of their income towards rent.  Isn’t that like, EVERYONE?  The article gives a number of about 11.25 million households are affected by the high rental market.  11.25 million people are paying 50% or more of their income every month on RENT. Holy Crap!!

How are single parents doing it?  People who are retired and trying to make it on social security?  What about the Millennials that are trying to pay back Student Loans and find jobs that are in their field of work that they went to school for? What about the underemployed?  People that lost their jobs during the recession and have not been able to climb back up the ladder to a higher paid position?

What is the answer?  Oh – Buy a house.  That is what I hear all of the time.  I mentioned about 6 months ago to a group of friends that my lease was up soon and the rent was going up about $250.  (Right?  I heard you gasp.)  “Oh, wow! Michelle – you know my mortgage is less than your rent?  You should just buy a house.”  Um.  Ya – why DON’T I just do that?  Let’s touch on that for a minute.

Divorce sucks = terrible credit.  This also means I have a ton of work to do before I can get to a place where anyone would even consider giving me a loan.

Being a single mom with no college degree and trying to work my way UP the ladder takes a long time.   I am finally in a job in Oregon that took me 8 years to find since I left California.  I am making now what I was making 8 years ago when I decided to move to Oregon.  8 years….

I don’t have any family with any money to let me borrow for a down payment on a house even if I had gotten my credit score under control.

I have been paying more than HALF of my monthly salary on HOUSING. How am I supposed to get caught up on debt and save for a house when I am barely eating and living?

I was discouraged.  I was hopeless.  I was drowning!!  Every month I was in the red. I don’t even know how I made it every month.  Doesn’t it make sense to eliminate the most taxing living expense in my budget and get the heck out of that apartment?  Honestly – I don’t think I even had a choice.  It was a no brainer for me. Sell everything we owned and buy a trailer – outright.  No payments – no interest. We paid cash.  Was it hard, terrifying and most days clearly impossible?  Yes.   But believe me when I tell you this – looking at my bank account and my bills every month prior to the Trailer Project was way harder.

We are paying off bills left and right.  We are allocating money to things we never could have before.  New tires for the car?  Ya, I got that.  The boy away at college is out of food – ya, I got that, too.  The possibilities for us are looking pretty good right now.  Oh, and that rent to income ratio?  I am at 10%.  I do have to park my house in a space, after all.  But you know what?  I got this.  I am proudly no longer RENT POOR.  I am Rent Rich.  And you know what else I am?  A future homeowner.  I could not have said that before.  I felt like that goal was completely unattainable.  It was totally out of reach and no where even close to being on my scope of goals to focus on.  It is now.

I know my lifestyle is not for everyone.  But if you can unwrap your head around the things that you are holding onto every month just so that you can continue to live somewhere that you are forking over more than half of your income to every month?  Why wouldn’t you?  Is that rental house or apartment THAT important?  For me, having a little bit of wiggle room in my budget every month is WAY more important to me.

I love my Trailer Project.  I love having little space to clean, just the things I need around me and my outdoor space is AMAZING.  I am good.  REALLY good.

Let’s Talk Dirty!! The story behind Pits, Pans and Poop.

Ok, if you are a brand new, full time RVer like me, this is not something that you would EVER have thought about pre-trailer.  The thing I was concerned about was, where am I going to store all of my clothes?  Where am I going to keep all of my wine?  Where am I going to put the cat box?  Within about 12 hours of being in the trailer I was actually thinking about the 3 dirty topics.  Pits, Pans and Poop.

Most RV parks have full hook ups.  You pay a premium for these parks that offer sewage (black water) and other waste water  such as shower water & sink water (gray water).  These two different types of waste water disposal you simply just hook up to in these full service type parks.   You also pay extra for electricity in most parks as well as cable or Wi-Fi.  But in the trailer adventure that I am on, we are doing it cheap.  We parked our 27 foot travel trailer at an Elks Campground where we live in Oregon.  This lodge was built about 50 years ago with little to no upgrades to their RV Park since.  We have low ampage for electricity, about 30 amps, and this park does NOT offer sewer hookups.  We have two 40 gallon holding tanks for black and gray water.   I though these were pretty big sized holding tanks – till 1 week into the adventure and realized both were full.  So, using the toilet, washing dishes and showering fill up these tanks pretty quick.  It has been quite and adventure trying to figure out how to use less so we have to dump less.

One of my favorite phrases in the Office I work in is “Work Around”.  This is becoming the theme of my new found RV lifestyle.  Between my super smart husband and the valuable and resourceful folks that we have been meeting along the way in the last couple of months, we are discovering many “Work Arounds”.

I will start with Pits.  I am a 20 minute shower person.  But, in the RV this is not possible.  I was TERRIFIED to even use the Shower for the first month that we were in the trailer.  Especially after filling up the gray water tank within a week just by using the sinks!  I was washing dishes, brushing my teeth and even washed my hair in the kitchen sink one morning because I was at my max on how many days my hair can handle the non-wash and go look.  I have a gym membership at the local YMCA, and decided that the showers there would be a good work around.   I went every other day for about a month.  I was trying different time slots to try to figure out the traffic flow.  Swimming is kind of a big deal at my local YMCA.  The Junior High school girls are a big group and I happened to be in the middle of that shower jam one too many times.  It became more stressful than washing my hair in the sink.  I realized I needed to try a different option.

Since I was super concerned about using the shower – I had not even tried it yet.  Real estate in the trailer is a big concern, too.  We only have about 150 square feet of living space.  Because Edward the cat is our 3^rd resident in the trailer, he has to have a spot for his kitty pooper.  Since the shower was not in use, I used an old rug to cover the tub and put the kitty pooper in there.  Now that I was considering using the shower for a shower, I had to temporarily relocate the cat box.  This is inconvenient, but dealing with showers at the Y every other day is much more inconvenient!  And I love my kitty – so kitty pooper out to the kitchen area for momma’s shower time.

The hot water heater has about 4 minutes of hot water.  I figured this out pretty quick.  I wanted to conserve the hot water and the gray water tank space, so I came up with a system.   Turn on water, adjust to the right temp.  The shower head has a toggle on it so it is pretty easy to shut off the water there.  Shut off the water, strip, jump in and turn back on.  Shut off, shampoo.  Turn on water, rinse hair.  Shut off water, condition and soap up body parts.  Turn on water, rinse and get out.  Done.  I do miss my 20 minute showers.  In the last 2 months I have gone out of town a few times with “Shower Vacations” in mind.  I went to the beach with a friend a few weeks ago and literally took 17 showers.  I probably spent more time showering than anything else.  You really don’t realize how important things are to you until you don’t have access to them anymore.

I feel pretty well adjusted at this point and the showering is under control.  But I think this may have been the hardest adjustment for me.  We have discussed moving the trailer to a more expensive RV Park in the winter to have access to showers or sewer hook ups.  I think for now, I am making it work as we transition from secular living to RV living.  It really does make me grateful for a nice 45 minute shower experience!

Ok – PANS.  I like to cook.  When you like to cook, you have to be able to clean.  This has also required a work around.  Since I am showering a few times a week in the RV, I have to conserve gray water space in the holding tank.  I found a Rubbermaid tub that fits perfectly in my RV sink.  I wash dishes with sparing water in the tub.  When the tub is full, I take it out of my trailer to my plant area and dump the dish water in the flower pots.  I do the same if I wash my hair in the sink or need to spot clean clothes or do any cleaning in the RV that I need water for.  I have bought all natural cleaning products so I don’t kill any of my plants!  It has been working out pretty good.  Unless you are my husband – he would say I cook less now than I did when we were in the house.  We have been experiencing some pretty nice weather lately, too.  I have utilized my bbq quite a bit, paper plates and foil.  If I can save myself some work in the Pans department, I am all over it.

I know you have been waiting for it….  POOP  – There are 3 options.  Hook up your trailer and drive it to a dump station, pay $40 for a service to come and pump it out for you OR use these little portable totes to transfer the waste into and take those to a dump station and dump, wash and bring back to use again.

Option 1 – We don’t own a truck yet, so we have no way to tow our house anywhere.  We have a Scion TC.  Hopefully we will have the truck soon.

Option 2 – $40…..  Next!  (This blog is called “Penny-Wise”)  Several of the older residents at my park utilize this service.  It’s a company that also provides portable potties.  They come through once or twice a month and pump out the holding tanks for you.  I might consider doing it once in a while just to completely dump the tanks and have them wash them out for me.

Option 3 – $70 for an 11 gallon tote on Amazon and a FREE dumping site 10 minutes away…. Simple!  Well, simple enough for my husband to do.  If I had known THAT was going to be part of the adventure, I would have had a hard time with it.  He is amazing and handles the poop runs often for me!   My trailer next door neighbor also has a tote.  Between the two of us we share the “Load”.  You can dump 22 gallons vs 11 at a time, saves you a trip.

Another work around on poop is trying to limit doing your business at your house.  I go to an office every day for work.  I utilize the facilities available to me whenever it is possible.  It may seem a little stressful – but I am getting used to it.  I can honestly say that the dirty part of this transition has been the hardest to adapt to.  But we are adapting.  It is worth it for us at this point with all of the money we are saving, the simplified lifestyle and feeling more connected to each other in our relationship.   We are talking more, arguing less and really focused on our goals.

I hope you enjoyed my take on talking dirty about my RV Life.  Please share my article if you want and shoot me a line if you have comments or questions!

Cheers!

Michelle – Penny-Wise Living