Tag Archives: Musings

It’s OK to be Happy with a Quiet Life

by Katie on May 16, 2013 in Daily Life, Musings, Simple Living

The other day I was wasting a little time on Pinterest, when I stumbled across a quote that said “It’s ok to be happy with a calm life.” You know when you happen upon a quote, idea or sentiment that just really resonates with you? That’s what happened with this. I repinned the image and went on with my day, but instead of forgetting all about it like I do most things, I kept coming back to the quote and pondering on it. Today I spent a couple of minutes typing the words up (replacing “calm” with “quiet”) and printing it, so I could tape the message on our fridge as a reminder.

I think this little phrase struck a chord with me because for a long time I didn’t think that it was ok to be happy with a quiet life. I am actually only fairly new to this way of thinking. I grew up expecting my adult self to become a high-flying editor. In my teen years I watched a lot of Sex in the City and imagined myself moving to New York and strutting around in Manolos like Carrie Bradshaw. I wanted an impressive job, an incredible wardrobe and money. Lots of money. After uni I leapt at the first opportunity to move to Sydney, so I could start my dream life in the city… And then quite unexpectedly, things changed. I wasn’t happy. I slowly began to realise the life I had always thought that I wanted was in fact, not what I wanted at all. I hated working in an office. I couldn’t stand wearing heels for any prolonged period of time. I found the hustle and the bustle of the city exhausting. Coming home to our dark little apartment and getting takeaway after a day at work and a long commute was miserable. And most surprisingly of all, having more money didn’t make me any more happy.

In our society we are constantly bombarded with the message that we should want more. Advertising tells us life will be better with more. Our families and school teachers (who only want the best for us) encourage us to work hard to we can acheive more. The media and popular culture focus on celebrities and people who have more. More means success. So deciding that actually, we’d be happy with a bit less, can require a big adjustment.

A couple of years on, sometimes I still catch myself slipping into “more” mentality. I see people getting impressive jobs and promotions, driving new cars and buying big houses and I get caught up comparing my humble life to the their successes. But to compare myself to someone else’s version of success makes no sense at all. Though I am happy for my friends’ achievements, I don’t necessarily want them for myself. I actually really like my life! I love our shabby old house. I love my little Etsy shop. I love my Reuben and our fur babies. I love our op-shop dates. I love our trips to the farmers markets. I love that we are working on this home and making it our own, all ourselves. I’ve also come to realise I value time more than money, and that Reubs and I don’t need a lot of stuff to be happy. I now know that I find life richer, happier and smoother when we spend plenty of time quietly at home. I understand that I’m more confident in myself when I’m not totally focused on material things. I’m less anxious away from the crazy pace of the city. I’m healthier when I take the time to cook whole food from scratch. I’m more pleasant to be around when I’m not stressed. In the past I’ve had more money, more stuff and more conventional “success” than I do at the moment, but I don’t think I’ve ever been happier than I am right now.

I now know that it’s ok to be happy with a quiet life. Actually, it’s ok to be happy with whatever kind of life makes us happy! We just have to learn to let go of irrelevant expectations, listen to our hearts and do what feels right for us. Because at the end of the day there is no one way to be happy or successful. The formula for a good life is different for each of us.

You makes your life happy?

Katie x

Comments { 61 }

My Creative Journey (and Thoughts on the Fear of Failure)

by Katie on April 16, 2013 in Business, Daily Life, Musings

Thank you all so much for your kind words about my jewellery! I can’t tell you how much it means to me to have the support of this little community behind me. You guys are the best.

I mentioned in my last post that this project is something I’ve been thinking about for a long time and promised to tell you more about that soon. Today I wanted to share the story of my creative journey and take this opportunity to discuss something that, unfortunately, has played rather a large role in it. That’s fear.

More specifically, the fear of failure.

Do Small Things with Great Love necklace, made by me 2013.

Like a lot of kids, I grew up making things. I made “aquariums” out of shoeboxes and tissue paper, handsewed (very dodgy) clothes for my Barbies and spent hours creating little bracelets for my friends. I continued making jewellery right through high school and always wore a collection of handmade beaded necklaces. When I was at uni I went through a stage of embellishing singlets with sequins, beads, buttons, lace and ribbon. I even fantasised about making enough of them to have a stall at the local markets, but the idea seemed pretty far-fetched and silly, and I never imagined a person could make any real income off making things.

It wasn’t until I started reading Frankie magazine and subsequently discovered the handmade community, blog world and Etsy during my last last semester of uni (in 2009), that I realised that indeed you could. There were people making a legitimate living off making stuff. Handmade was a movement! I felt like I had found my tribe.

I started reading blogs and flirted with the idea of starting on of my own. I spent hours trawling Etsy, looking at the lovely things people had made and all the supplies I could use to make things of my own. I decided it might be fun to try and supplement the income from my day job by making and selling jewellery on Etsy. I got really excited, bought a bunch of supplies and made a little pile of necklaces… Then I lost my nerve. Suddenly the things I was making seemed like utter rubbish compared to what everyone else was doing. I convinced myself that my shop would flop, so I gave up before I ever really began.

Love birds diorama, made by me 2012.

Midyear 2009 I finished my journalism degree and applied for the position of editorial assistant on three craft magazines. Somehow I got an interview. I wore one of my necklaces to the interview and much to my surprise the girl who interviewed me, Sarah (who is now a good friend) commented on how much she loved it. I got the job. I decided that now I had a “grown up” job I definitely didn’t have time for stuff like Etsy shops and I put my small business dream out of my mind.

While I was working on the craft magazines I discovered more inspiring crafters and amazing bloggers. I decided I really needed to start a blog of my own. It was the perfect way to combine my passion for writing and documenting, my love of handmade and my growing interest in photography. I talked about starting a blog a lot. I talked to Reuben about it. I talked to my friends about it. I thought about it all the time. But I didn’t do it. Because all the bloggers that I was reading were already doing it so well, I decided I couldn’t possibly keep up with them. I imagined my blog being a sad, lonely space with with no readers, and I convinced myself that it wouldn’t work out so there was simply no point in trying. (Are you sensing a pattern yet?!)

Dress made of vintage sheets, made by me 2012.

Then I moved to a government job. Though I hadn’t been doing much creating of my own while I worked on the craft magazines, I think just being involved in the industry kept me feeling somewhat artistically fulfilled. Without that, I suddenly felt creatively starved. I started thinking about an Etsy shop again. I dug out my jewellery supplies and half-heartedly made a few necklaces and brooches, but I was convinced the pieces I was making were no good. I wondered what other things I could make instead. Around this time Reubs and I also started learning about simple living and thinking about making changes to our lifestyle. We decided it would be a good idea to start a blog together, in order to document our journey, but I doubted myself every inch of the way. Who would want to read a blog about a couple of nobodies interested in craft and cooking and gardening? Why would anyone care about our pursuit of a simpler, more sustainable life? What was the point? Why should we bother?! I think if Reubs hadn’t convinced me that it would help us stay on track with our goals and might allow us to connect with other likeminded people, I never would have clicked “publish” on that first post.

Thankfully I did, and blogging was good for me. The more involved with the blog world I became, and the more I saw other people creating things and making a living doing what made them happy, the more my inspiration to create and desire to start a little business grew. When we moved to Bendigo I was sure that with more time on my side, I would finally be able to get an Etsy shop going, but by this time I had abandoned jewellery making because I was so sure my creations were awful. I started sewing and came up with lots of designs for things I could make with the intention of selling them, but eventually realised sewing just isn’t something that comes naturally to me. Though I enjoy doing it here and there, I would go crazy if I had to sew all day, every day. I dabbled with the idea of collecting vintage pieces to resell but soon realised it wouldnt fulfill my urge to create. I had a million ideas for lovely handmade things (some of which I still hope to pursue in the future) but lacked the skills to realise many of them. I just felt creatively lost.

Liberty of London sweetheart pins, made by me 2012.

Then, while the purchase of our house was going through and we were staying with my mum, I started making little heart pins. Doing so reminded me of how much I enjoy making small things. How much happiness I get from working with my hands to create tiny details. I made about about eleventy million hearts and thought about putting them in an Etsy shop, but then decided that they weren’t quite right. I couldn’t put my finger on what was wrong with them, but they weren’t exactly what I wanted to be making. At least not on their own. I once again convinced myself that they weren’t good enough to put up for sale.

When we finally moved into our house, I found myself desperately wondering what to do next. I so badly wanted to be making things and was still dreaming of that elusive Etsy shop, but nothing I had been doing felt like a good fit. I was lying in bed one night, silently fretting about what I was going to do, when suddenly it hit me. Jewellery. It was so obvious. I wanted to make jewellery. I had always wanted to make jewellery.

I just had to stop convincing myself that everything I made was rubbish and quit admitting defeat before I’d even begun!

Glitter globe necklace, made by me 2013.

I spent the next few weeks obsessively searching for supplies, designing pieces in my head, then when my bits and pieces started trickling in, making, making, making… Which leads me to where I am right now. On the brink of finally opening my shop. I’ve come full circle and am back at that place where my small business dreams began, back in 2009. Making jewellery. Only this time I know I’m going to follow through!

Looking back on the past few years, I realise that what has prevented me from opening an Etsy store before now, has not been my lack of skill, my inability to make cute things, or my innate suckiness, but simply my lack of confidence and fear of failure. The very same thing that almost stopped me from starting this blog (and likely held me back from countless other things I can’t even remember!)

So I am trying to change the way I think about “failure”. It’s not that my self-doubt has miraculously dissolved, but simply that I am now choosing to do things in spite of it. I know that in the scheme of things opening an Etsy shop isn’t really a big deal, but the combination of my fear of disappointing myself (and everyone else) and my tendency to set ridiculous standards for myself, has made it much harder than it should be. I now understand that in order to get anywhere I have to cut myself a little slack. Rather than seeing the potential for failure, I must try to see the opportunity to learn and grow.

I’m slowly realising that there are no failures. Only lessons.

Have you ever let the fear of failure stand in the way of what you wanted? I’d love to hear what you do to overcome that creeping feeling of self-doubt.

Katie x

Comments { 60 }

The Italian Kiwi Fruit Incident

by Katie on March 14, 2013 in Daily Life, Environment, Food, Simple Living, Sustainability

Ever since reading Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and writing this post I’ve been making a concerted effort to eat more locally, especially when it comes to fresh produce. We’ve been deliberately steering clear of imported fruit and veggies, that come with a huge carbon footprint, and have been opting for Australian grown (and locally grown wherever possible). Reuben and I are lucky enough to live in a country that is capable of producing vast quantities of fresh produce, so from a sustainability point of view, it just doesn’t make sense for us to buy fruit and vegetables grown overseas. I absolutely love blueberries but have even managed to refrain from buying the pretty little punnets of New Zealand berries in the shops.

All that said, today Reubs and I were picking up some groceries and I was in a bit of a rush to get home. I hadn’t had any lunch so was starving and, as supermarkets are pretty much the worst place to be when you’re hungry, I was keen to get out of there as quickly as possible. In my haste I spied packages of kiwi fruit for just $2. I really, really hate when supermarkets pack fruit and vegetables in excessive plastic so I did hesitate for a moment before I put them in my trolley, but the idea of lovely, fresh kiwi fruit for such a great price was so nice, I couldn’t resist them. It wasn’t until after I got home and was unpacking everything until I noticed this:

That little plastic package of kiwi fruit had travelled all the way from Italy to land in my fridge. When I realised this I wondered exactly how far the distance between Australia and Italy was, so I googled it, and apparently it’s about 14, 400 km. That equates to a lot fossil fuel burned, just so I could eat kiwi fruit out of season! Then when I considered that the package of fruit had cost me just $2, and thought about all the money that must have been spent on transporting and storing them and making a profit for all the parties involved, I couldn’t help but wonder how much the poor farmer who grew them must have received. Suddenly, those sad little kiwi fruits really didn’t look so appealing.

Two years ago, I probably wouldn’t have even noticed where my fruit came from, let alone worried about it. And though I’ll never be able to buy everything I need or want locally, I understand now that every little bit counts. Every purchase I make sends a message. Silly as it might sound, those Italian kiwi fruits were a good reminder that we are on the right path. Together Reuben and I are learning and making positive changes to our lifestyle every single day. It’s the little, seemingly insignifcant, incidents like this one that show us how far we’ve come. And equally, how far we have to go.

Katie x

Comments { 33 }

Thoughts on Ethical Eating

by Katie on February 9, 2013 in Books, Daily Life, Environment, Food, Gardening, Musings, Simple Living, Sustainability

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about food. I’ve been reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (an inspiring book about a family who chose to eat only local, seasonal produce for a year) and I’ve been listening to local ABC radio a lot (I realise that makes me sound about 197 years old but my mum always has it on and I secretly quite enjoy it!) so I keep hearing the terribly sad stories of Australian farmers struggling to survive. Though I’m always quite mindful of what we eat and where it comes from I’m realising now, more than ever, how important our food choices are and how badly the current system of food production and distribution is failing us. All of us.

In our increasingly urbanised society, many of us are so far removed from the sources of our food, we simply have no idea how our choices affect our famers, the animals we share the planet with, our environment and even what’s on our own plates. We need food so we go to the supermarket and we buy it, without much thought for how it got to be there. That’s a real shame because the reality is, much of the food on supermarket shelves is attached to a slew of ethical issues worthy of our consideration. From the environmental impact of the use of pesticides, herbicides, genetic modification and fossil fuels used in agriculture and to ship the food, to the livelihoods of the farmers and treatment of animals who have produced it, and it’s impact on our own health; food is a big issue and something that affects every single one of us. It’s also an issue so huge and infinitely complicated, that it can be really hard to contemplate.

What can we possibly do to change things? Where do we even begin?

I believe in taking baby steps. For starters, we can all make an effort to waste less food. The average Australian household throws out 345kg kilograms of food every year (that’s a total of 4,000,000 tonnes of food nationwide!) which is obviously a huge waste of resources. We can try to eat more organic produce which is produced with less impact on the earth (and as an added bonus is often more flavourful and nutritious!) Most of us could probably benefit from eating less processed food and cooking more from scratch. Many of us could change our relationship with meat and eat less of it and/or only consume free range, organic meat that has been treated ethically. We can try to eat more local and look for fresh produce closer to home. In doing this we will be reducing the carbon footprint of our food and supporting our local producers. Some of us can even grow some of our own food, vastly reducing the use of chemicals and fossil fuels in the journey of produce to plate. We can’t all do everything, but we can all do something.

Since writing this post about food, Reuben and I have made some big changes to the way we eat. Recently I have had more time to cook and have been making things from scratch much more regularly. I’ve also been really concentrating on making healthy, nourishing meals, packed with lovely whole foods, so we now eat very little processed stuff. We’ve switched from doing multiple small shops (picking up a few groceries every day) to doing one big weekly shop, and we’ve stopped getting takeaway on lazy nights. Now if we can’t be bothered with cooking, we’ll simply have leftovers or something fuss free like eggs and mushrooms on toast.

We’ve also been better with finishing up leftovers and only buying products we know we’ll actually use. I still don’t really meal plan but in the last couple of months I’ve figured out what fresh ingredients are staples for us and we now buy those things, which always get used up, as the bulk of our groceries. If I see anything different or seasonal that we might fancy, I try to make a priority of finding a recipe for it and using it up ASAP, so it isn’t left forgotten in the bottom of the crisper. All of this has reduced our weekly food bill and waste substantially, which is great, but there is room for much improvement when it comes to the ethical side of our little family’s consumption.

The main point I have taken away from Animal Vegetable Miracle (and Whole Larder Love too) is that Reuben and I really need to concentrate more on seasonal eating and buying local produce. We usually go to the local farmers market (which, sadly, is only on once a month) and buy our fresh fruit and veggies for that week there, but I want to start planning ahead and buying a whole month’s worth of things like pumpkin and potatoes that will keep for the duration of the month. We also need to have a go at preserving seasonal and more perishable produce. Once we are in our own house Reuben and I will set up a veggie patch and get a couple of chickens to provide us with fresh eggs, which will reduce the amount of fresh produce we need to buy. And the environmental impact of food we’ve grown ourselves will be almost zilch!

Reuben and I don’t eat meat and have always bought free range eggs, but I’d love to find a local, organic dairy supplier. I’d really, really like to get my hands on some raw milk and have a go at making cheese, but given the fact selling raw milk for consumption is illegal in Australia, that might be a bit trickier. Of course there will always be things that we can’t grow or make ourselves or buy at the farmers market, but with us cooking from scratch more, our grocery list for non fresh produce has already reduced. I’d like to start buying more of our basic staples such as rice, flour and lentils from small local businesses like Bendigo Wholefoods, rather than the big supermarkets.

I am hoping that once we’ve moved and are somewhat settled in our new home we will be able to create a new, healthier rhythm around our food.

We all need to eat and, whether we like it or not, the way we eat and the food choices we make have a direct impact on the world around us. We have a responsibility to our environment, our farmers, our animals, our future generations and ourselves to make good choices. Though it often seems like we have no power to make meaningful change, in fact we do. We vote with our money and the way we spend it gives us a voice to industry. Though as an individual that voice may be only a whisper, as a collective we can make some serious noise!

Maybe you can only make one or two small changes, or maybe right now you are not in the position to do even that. That’s ok. All any of us can do is our best. What we can all do, at the very least, is be aware of the ethical issues concerning our food. Learn about them. Think about them. Discuss them. Change starts with awareness and education. If you’re just beginning your journey to a more ethical approach to food and would like to learn about more about the ethics of food and where your food comes from, I highly recommend reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer and Whole Larder Love (both book and blog) by Rohan Anderson. All of these resources have had a major impact on the way I think about the stuff I eat. And if anyone has any other suggestions for good reads on this topic I’d love to hear them!

Katie x

PS I know cost plays a really significant role in the way we all eat, so I am thinking a follow up post on ethical eating on a budget might be in order. What do you reckon?

Comments { 47 }

Our Financial Journey to a Simpler Life

by Katie on January 24, 2013 in Daily Life, Home, Musings, Simple Living

Money can be hard to talk about. I know I’ve debated back and forth with myself on how to approach the subject here on our blog. On one hand I want to be honest and transparent with you all, but on the other hand I’m very mindful of our privacy and wary of oversharing. It’s not an easy balance to strike. That said, I know some of you must have wondered how we went from moving in with my mum to save for a deposit, to buying our own house just two short months later, and I think it’s important for us to explain how we did it. Our finances obviously play a crutial role in our journey to a simpler life, so it makes sense to talk about them a little bit here.

Now, let’s start at the beginning.

Katie and Reuben, The Sunshine Coast 2006

Reubs and I have been together eight years (eight years!) and during that time money has been an almost constant struggle for us. In the beginning we lived on the Sunshine Coast, in Queensland, in a little rental house that cost us $240 a week. We were both at university and working retail jobs around our study. We didn’t earn much money but somehow managed to pay the rent and bills, as well as cover all the socialising and spending that comes with being uni students. We never saved any money but we went out every weekend and regularly bought new stuff. During that time we racked up a couple of thousand dollars worth of credit card debt. It wasn’t a huge amount and we figured we’d pay it all back as soon as we got “grown up” jobs. In mid 2009 I finished my journalism degree and was fortunate enough to immediately get a job in magazine publishing, in Sydney, so we moved to the big city.

Sydney Harbour Bridge, 2011

As I’ve mentioned before, Sydney was really tough for us. As a graduate straight out of uni, in an industry that doesn’t pay particularly well, I was earning less than I would have been in a full time retail job, and Reubs was working full time at a coffee shop. The cost of living in Sydney was much higher than we were used to in Queensland. When we first moved there we lived in a studio apartment in Manly. Manly obviously wasn’t the cheapest option but I had family there and we really wanted to be close to them. We were paying $350 a week on rent and, on our tiny wages, were struggling to get by. After about 6 months the financial strain was really getting to us and the cracks began to show. We decided we needed to find somewhere cheaper to live and looked all over Sydney, but couldn’t find anywhere we’d be happy to live for what we felt was a reasonable price. We ended up moving out of the city, to a little house on the Central Coast that cost $260 a week, and commuted the hour and a half each way to work. After a few months of commuting three hours each day we were both exhausted. During our time on the Central Coast we had both gotten new jobs with better pay, so with a little extra money behind us we moved back to Sydney where we rented a two bedroom apartment for $420 a week. Not long after that Reubs was in a minor car accident and the cost to repair our old car would have been more than the car was worth, so we bought a new one. Our car repayments were about $450 a month. Even though by that time we were both earning reasonable salaries we couldn’t get ahead. As well as our expensive rent and car repayments we were eating out a lot (because we were too tired and frazzled to cook), we had pay TV and were spending a lot on utilities. We still hadn’t paid back the credit card debt we had accrued while we were at uni and the debt had grown a bit.

Crochet in the park, Sydney 2011

It was at this point that we realised something had to give. Our lifestyle simply wasn’t working for us. We were exhausted by the city, unhappy in our jobs, fed up with the high cost of living and tired of living from pay cheque to pay cheque. We began daydreaming about running away to the country and living “the good life”. Around this time we also started reading more blogs. We stumbled across Rhonda’s blog and other blogs about living a simpler life. Suddenly, our daydreams seemed somewhat viable. We began making plans to change our lifestyle, launched our blog and started sharing our journey to a different kind of life.

In early 2011, not long after we started blogging, my mum had surgery. Reuben and I took a couple of weeks annual leave and drove down to Victoria to help out while she was healing. Unexpectedly, while we were here we fell in love with the place. Particularly Bendigo. We were charmed by it’s old architecture and miner’s cottages, smitten with the local op-shops and markets, and in love with the quiet and relaxed atmosphere compared to Sydney. We had a lovely lunch at a cute cafe and adored it. Within days of returning home to Sydney we had decided to move to Victoria.

Moving, 2011

In August 2011 we reduced all our possessions to only what would fit on the back of a ute and one tiny trailer, and we came to Victoria. We stayed with my mum for one month while we looked for work. We were prepared to go pretty much wherever we could get jobs but happily, Reubs was offered a position at the very same cafe we had had lunch at the very first time we visited Bendigo! We found a little cottage to rent in Bendigo for $240 a week and moved in immediately. Meanwhile, I was feeling a bit lost career wise. I had despised the two years spent working in cubicles in Sydney, and was desperate not to return to an office job. One day, about a fortnight after we’d moved to Bendigo, I was shopping for some sewing supplies and got to talking with the lady who served me at the craft store. It turned out she was the manager and she just so happened to ask me if I was looking for a job! I decided it was the perfect job to while away a few months until I figured out what to do next, and started working there part-time a week later. Somehow, miraculously, all the pieces of the puzzle had fallen into place. It felt like it was just meant to be.

Our little home, Bendigo 2012

We spent over a year living and working very happily in Bendigo. We made new friends and changed our lifestyle habits. We got more serious about thrifting and began buying 90% of things we needed or wanted secondhand, or not at all. We cooked from scratch more and dabbled with a veggie patch (with limited success). We finally paid off our credit card debt. We quickly realised we didn’t want to leave Victoria and it was where we wanted to settle long term. We talked a lot about buying a house but knew that on our limited income it would take years for us to save a deposit.

By October 2012, after almost eight years of renting, we were feeling quite desperate to get out of the rental loop, so we decided to go stay with my mum for a while in order to save for our deposit faster. As my mum lives about an hour from Bendigo and we only have one car it was going to be impossible for us both to commute to our jobs, and I’d always intended for my craft store job to be a temporary thing anyway, so we did the figures and worked out that even without my job, with the savings we’d be making on rent and utilities (still paying our share) we’d be financially ahead. We also knew being further away from the convenience foods and entertainment of Bendigo would help us to save even more quickly. I figured I’d look for a new job closer to mum’s place once we got home from our November road trip.

Road trip, 2012

Almost as soon as we’d moved in, Mum took us to have a look at a house around the corner from her’s that was for sale. We weren’t considering buying a house so soon, as obviously we hadn’t yet saved a deposit, but the house was listed at just $109,000 and mum was convinced it was a good buy. We went to see the house and fell in love with it. It was old and rough around the edges, but cozy and so full of potential. Though my mum is far from rich she offered to lend us the money for the deposit. She had sold some assets and wanted to use some of the money to help us out. We did our sums, discussed it all at length and decided to go ahead and borrow the money from my mum, then focus on paying her back as quickly as possible. We made an offer on the house and it was rejected. Then we made a counter offer of $100,000 and it was accepted!

We went to the bank and our application for a home loan was approved, but then the sale that we were depending on for the deposit, fell through. Of course we were shattered, but we were conviced the house was a fantastic opportunity and a good investment, so I trawled the internet searching for a solution. Luckily, I found an alterative option for our home loan. The loan was the same as any other ordinary home loan (same interest rate, fees etc) except that instead of needing a deposit, applicants needed someone with a home of their own to act as a guarantor. Obviously this is not something you commit to lightly. Had my mum decided not to go ahead with it we would have totally understood, but after consulting a solicitor, crunching the numbers and thinking long and hard about it all, mum agreed to be our guarantor. This not only meant that we would not need a deposit, but also that we wouldn’t need to pay mortgage insurance (which would save us a sizeable chunk of money) and we wouldn’t have to worry about paying mum back. Win, win, win! We applied for the loan and were approved. At the same time we refinanced our car loan. This means that instead of paying about $1410 each month on rent and car repayments as we were in Bendigo, or $2130 as we were in Sydney, we will now pay just $520 per month on the one loan (though we intend to pay more so we can pay our mortgage back faster and release my mum as guarantor sooner). That’s a huge saving and quite affordable, even on a really modest income. Though having someone act as a guarantor is generally considered risky and ill-advised (for good reason), in our situation, where the loan amount was relatively small and paying it back was going to cost us much less than what we’d already been paying in rent and car repayments, it made a lot of sense.

Baking, 2012

Obviously we are very, very fortunate that my mum was in the position to help us buy a house and was willing to do so. We realise few people have that option. Luck has played a bit of a role in our journey too. That said, there are choices and changes we have made, and risks that we have taken, that we know have contributed significantly to us being able to buy our first home. The biggest one being that we chose to buy an affordable house in a tinyl rural town. We didn’t look for the biggest or prettiest house we could afford, or a house in a trendy location. We didn’t overcommit ourselves to high repayments. We made peace with the fact that in order for us to be able to buy a home now we’d have to give some things up (mostly the convenience of being close to things in Bendigo). We made a lot of compromises and bought a cheap house, that we knew we could work on and add value to, with repayments that we could easily afford on one income. Housing in Australia is increasingly unaffordable and the median price of a house in Sydney in 2012 was $642,000. The reality is, had we stayed in Sydney or moved to another expensive area, we may never have been able to afford to buy our own home. The realisation that we don’t have to be in the city, live in a shiny new house or have the latest material things to have rich, fulfilling lives has been a revelation. We’re fully aware that houses in the price range of ours are becoming rarer and rarer, but they are still out there if you are able to accept some tradeoffs.

Our new home, 2013

Moving to the country, changing our spending habits and adopting a “make do and mend” attitude has changed and improved our lives immeasurably, and made it possible for us to live quite comfortably on less than half of what we were earning while we were living in Sydney. And we don’t feel deprived! We still go out, buy nice things and enjoy ourselves, we just do these things much more mindfully now. The freedom from financial burden that has come with cutting back is incredibly liberating and has allowed us not to worry too much while I have taken a little time off work. I now have plans for some exciting projects, I’d like to start doing more freelance writing work and I’m considering returning to uni for further study. I’ve also got time to work on our new house! I don’t yet know where the future will lead me in terms of work but I feel very grateful (and so privileged) for the fact that simplifying our life has given us space to breath and time for me to figure things out. We could never have afforded for either one of us to take any time off before now.

So that’s our story so far! We know the choices we’ve made and risks we’ve taken might seem strange, extreme or even stupid to some, and our lifestyle certainly isn’t for everyone, but Reuben and I are so happy with where we are right now. We feel confident we have chosen the right path and are sure we are building a beautiful, bright future for ourselves. Really, that’s all we could ever wish for.