16 Tons

You load sixteen tons, what do you get

Another day older and deeper in debt

Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go

I owe my soul to the company store

Now that vacation is winding down its time to start preparing to go back to reality, back to Whidbey, back to the woods, back to the dark house and back to bills. Bills, bills, bills, as much as we need money I can't help but hate it so much.

I read all the other cruising blogs and it's beyond me how people/families can just quit their job and sail off. I mean, I get how they can do it, it's what we want to do, but how do they afford it? It always seems to come back to money and every cruiser out there has written posts about money but none of it seems to gel for me. They either work while they are travelling, lucky if you have the kind of skills that allows you to do that, we aren't so lucky. Or they managed to save up an exorbitant amount of money before they left, enough to carry them through years of sailing before they need to stop and reload the kitty again. Nice idea, but we are not savers.

Mark and I have been together for almost 15 years and we have always been behind the eight ball where money and debt is concerned. We always manage to pay our bills and have all the necessities of life plus all the toys and un-necessities we could want and I guess that is why we never seem to get ahead, living from paycheque to paycheque. But the same desire that makes us want to sail away on a boat is the same one that keeps us in debt.

 I've always had this impression of time passing me buy, life is fleeting and we need to do and experience while we can. So we do and experience, we take R.V trips and two months vacations in Florida, put the kids in all the activities they want, throw extravagant parties, etc... And we have enjoyed our life style but if we ever want to actually embark on our sailboat phase of life, things need to change, and that is going to be difficult for us.

While we were away, things got a little 'bumpy' back home. 

Propane prices doubled and stank needing to be filled, doctor bills insurance won't cover, phone company changing our plan without informing us, broken dryer...

To say the least we are feeling the pinch. 

Normally we wouldn't be concerned, just annoyed; but now that we are trying to switch gears from credit cards to savings, we are realizing that we are living beyond our means and if we wish to actually finish the boat refit before we retire then we can't really afford to keep living where we are.

There are so many things I would change if I had my time back. Above is pictured the house we are renting, first impressions it looks amazing. How cool is it to live in a log house? Unfortunately very cool. Being made of logs it isn't air tight, it's barely water tight, as well as being huge it is a pain to heat. Wood, so much wood. I am drowning in wood. Walls, roof, floors, and our property is completely wooded, so dense that what little sunshine we do get can't filter through the trees, this makes our property shady and cool and the house dark and dingy. 

With the propane prices doubled in our area due to the bad winter out east we can't afford to keep heating this huge house and it grates on us to have pour so much money into a place we hate living. Especially when there is water tanks, lifelines, trampolines, depth finder, and a million other boat things to buy.

Lifestyle change is never easy and shifting priorities and making big decisions are facing us, and as I list furniture and things to sell to raise money for boat projects rather than defaulting to the credit cards, it's scary.