it is a chilly february afternoon in the bookstore and after the holiday
rush things have settled into a slower quiet pace that i thoroughly enjoy
in this video i thought i'd share a bit about how i manage my money in a rural area
there were definitely certain costs living out here that i thought may be interesting to share
now there's really no way i could cover everything and get into enough detail just in one video but
i will attempt to speak on a few things that i prioritize in regards to money management
i will discuss things more in detail about 10 minutes in so you can skip to that if you wish
so i must begin with food because it is one of the larger costs that i budget for and is always
several hundred dollars a month usually about what i make working at my bookstore once a week
as you may know from watching past videos i've had a history of not always prioritizing my health it
is an ongoing quest to eat quality foods and not just give into my sweet tooth when it's convenient
noticing my frugal tendencies early on i remember my parents always saying that saving money when
possible is great but try to never compromise your health i now see the wisdom in their words
and agree that if at all possible we should prioritize feeding our bodies
well and getting good sleep it's such a crucial foundation
in addition when i have a new home i definitely want to buy some extra food
to store for emergencies we are rural enough that it's possible after an earthquake or
other situation we could be cut off from supply chains so i really do want to be
ready just in case so i expect to spend extra money on that when the time comes
one expense i didn't anticipate when moving here was the cost of keeping my car in good condition
i need to usually change the tires for winter and then regular tires for the rest of the year
and of course those need to be replaced rural roads can be hard on the car causing it to need
repairs more often and then of course there's a very high likelihood that you can get into
an accident with a deer on the road thankfully i don't have to drive too much i don't really go on
road trips or travel very far so i only really have to fill up on gas once or twice a month
do
seriously
in regards to my wardrobe i don't buy new clothes very often i try to limit it and just use what
i have as much as possible you will see that i wear certain fast fashion items that i have owned
long before i became informed about how important it is to consider where your clothes comes from
but i also have to admit that i don't purchase sustainable fashion very often i have found that
the options available for tall people like myself are limited and very very expensive and i'm just
not able to rationalize spending hundreds of dollars on a single piece of clothing i really
do try to just focus on using what i already have and just wearing it until it's all worn out
i also try to buy used clothing as much as possible if you ever noticed
something particularly unique in one of these videos it's usually because it is second hand
i find a lot of interesting things at thrift shops and it is one of my favorite places to
go i try to keep in mind that some of the most sustainable and mindful practices we can do in
regards to how we consume is to simply use what we already have to be grateful for it using it fully
and not be excessive i try to apply that mentality on many things in my life financial and otherwise
so i was tidying up my house the other day and i realized that i had about eight full-size candles
like this size so i thought that was probably a little bit excessive but um i definitely am
a candle lover so i just kind of decided you know what eight candles it's all right i just
won't get any more i went to go meet a friend and she actually had a new year's gift for me
and it was a candle and then i went to my mailbox down the road and there was a big package waiting
for me and i realized it was a gift box from the mythology candle company which i've bought
candles from and i love and they gifted me the entire spring collection which
is shire themed which was so exciting so i had a blast opening it and smelling them all and i
was like oh my goodness this is like six new full-sized candles it's okay it's all right
it's okay you know it's not a problem unless you think it is right and then the story gets even
better i went to my p.o box in the town next to me which i check at least once a month or so and the
postmaster said that i had a couple packages there i just opened them and they're from you guys and
two of you lovely lovely people sent me
more candles i think within 24 hours i have gone from owning eight candles to like 30 candles
orange spice and vanilla oh my gosh
i think that's my favorite
anyway i laughed so hard when i opened those packages it is the sweetest thing to just accept
that together we are creating this problem because if i'm turning into the crazy candle
lady i might as well make it a thing and you know share with you guys my recent discoveries
woodwicks cotton wicks soy wax beeswax i could talk about candles a lot a lot quite
a bit the mythology candle company is very very sweet and they definitely started me on a path
where i'm gonna end up i don't know but i will keep you updated so moving on from my day i was
reticent to make a video talking a little bit more about finances i think sometimes it's a
a very complex subject to talk about i think people have a lot of feelings associated with
money i definitely do i thought it would be worth kind of mentioning some things that i
try to prioritize every month maybe it would give you a little bit of a perspective of how i manage
my money in the countryside even though i feel financially stable thank goodness now
it's definitely a relationship i wanted to improve with myself and my finances not seeing money as
an enemy or something that needs to be a constant source of fear the vast majority of people
i i'm close with that are kind of spread out all over the place all seem to have equal difficulties
finding affordable places to live whether they're in the city or in the countryside you know and
definitely here i just wake up every day being so grateful i have a roof over my head
it means so much to start a new journey with luke and to know that we hopefully will have a
place that will be ours i'm so aware too that if my life had just been the slightest bit different
it would have never been possible to do that and so i'm just so happy that i will be able to stay
and live in the valley i love so much when it is so hard sometimes to find places to live that
you can afford this is an interesting area in the state it is the poorest county and yet this area
in particular is a tourist hub so it's kind of a lot of interesting kind of contradictory elements
a local author wrote a book called dividing paradise on rural inequality and it was really
interesting and it really what i i took from and i think a lot of locals have taken from it
is how important it is to reach out to your community to be active in your community to
give what you can and to do everything possible to support not only the people here but the wildlife
and the valley some role models i had growing up were people who really fought for preserving
nature some that come to mind is of course beatrix potter john moore jane goodall they're
really fascinating individuals and i took a lot from their mission to try to preserve the beauty
preserve all this incredible landscape for the future and so every month that is something i try
to prioritize to find ways to give back especially through my nature conservancy which has done some
amazing things in this valley especially after the wildfires i share this because i personally
have found that getting involved in something you care about in any way you can whether you
are able to get involved in a big way or in a small way or just volunteer some time it's just
so fulfilling and it's just amazing to think that you can be part of building a future i think a
really positive influence teaching young children had on me was that i saw the future in their eyes
i saw how important it was for me to be an example to them not just tell them what i care about
but show them and i want them to see that i want them to see that that it is our responsibility
to cultivate hope and to cultivate that positivity and to really be there for them and
our little people i think really rely on us so much for an example on how to see the world
because of the challenges finding rentals in this area i have noticed that many young people do get
quite creative i've met several people who moved to the area and just lived in trailers while they
worked full time and eventually through kind of community connections they were able to find a
place to live and that is really interesting and inspiring and it's really fun to see young people
getting so creative and and finding ways to uh little by little work towards their dreams and
that's definitely something i've taken to heart you know it's just baby steps it might take a year
five years ten years a lifetime to get to where you want to go i will say that when i lived in the
city definitely as a very young adult i had many friends who would live in situations that were not
very safe for the sake of saving money and that is definitely something i kind of inadvertently
through naivety and through lack of experience got myself into as well when i was in the city i
rented an apartment that thinking back on it was probably rented out illegally to me
though i didn't really understand that at the time all i knew was that it was a lot more affordable
than other places and it was a very unclean space it had a lot of rat infestations there was a very
high chance of getting your food contaminated in the kitchen because of that and the room i was in
was not insulated and it had just one really small window because it was in an attic
and you couldn't get out of that window in an emergency and that was something that had never
occurred to me until one day a drunk driver backed into our gas pipe and flooded the house
a firefighter actually woke me up out of my bed he stormed through the door and just about
gave me a heart attack i was already feeling quite dizzy at the time because i'd just been
breathing in all this gas that was just flowing into the room and had nowhere to go it was just
kind of piling up in there and that moment will always stick with me for the rest of my life i
will see firefighters is absolute superheroes the reason i am sharing this story is because i
moved into that apartment without really seriously taking into consideration the question of safety
and a big part of moving there was because it was affordable and it's sad to think
that for the sake of being able to save a couple hundred dollars every month i was willing to
risk my life like that and it was a big wake-up call it was shortly after that experience that
i decided that i really needed to find a new job and a new place to live and that i needed
to call up my mama and tell her my story and and ask for help and stop being so stubborn and
i am forever grateful that i had a family that was willing to help me and was able to help me and i
don't know what i would have done if i hadn't had them there i don't know what i would have done so
yeah the moral of this story is whoever you are whatever place you are in life i hope
that if you are able to do so that you always keep your safety and your health into consideration
but yeah take take care of yourself you are worthy of help you are worthy of health all these things
are the foundation of you know working towards those dreams trying to find peace trying to find
healing but yes there has been some progress on applying for a loan thankfully it does seem to be
going uh well for us so far i was a bit worried because usually banks need two years worth of tax
returns and while i was able to show the income from my business last year the year before i was
still a teacher that put me in a financial bracket where i wouldn't be approved for a loan with those
two years of tax returns so i had to wait until i filed my taxes for this year in order to be
approved on my own but thankfully between luke and i it does seem like we're still going to get
approved because he's had a stable job working as a surveyor for several years in this area and
he's such a dedicated and hard worker and honestly thanks to him kind of all this is possible so yeah
i'm i'm so proud of him but yeah um so we will see how it goes i am so excited about all of it and of
course i need to conclude this by saying thank you to all of you you guys have changed my life
completely changed my life you have allowed me to make a living
through my art through sharing things i love through this valley and i cannot thank you enough
all right well i think i have talked more than enough maybe too much but
i hope you're all uh well i will see you very very soon and take care i am sending my love goodbye