The decision

At one point my husband and I were your typical middle class to upper middle class folks. We had 2.2 kids, nice little house in quiet little neighborhood, new cars, and more bills than assets. One day, between our second and third child, I told my husband I wanted to come home for good. Not that he didn't like the idea of having a wife at home to keep the home fires burning and take care of the kids. We both daydreamed about home cooked meals, a clean house, nice little garden, and taking a very active role in the local PTA. (We were both delusional and stupid during those days!) However, we could never afford this. After all I made 50% of the household income and our bills were substantial. So, we set out to save! We'd take several hundred dollars out of my check each week towards savings and the rest would be applied to pay things off. That lasted one paycheck, "but the kids have a field trip and they needed______________" "but I needed a new suit, my other ones were getting too small" "but....but...but" The list of excuses grew and grew until a year later we still had no money saved and SURPRISE I was pregnant with number 3! Skipping forward nine months I ended up telling my bosses I would not be coming back after maternity leave. "We'll be fine" I assured my husband! Problem was that even after we lost my income, we didn't change our spending habits. Needless to say any savings we had were gone within a few months.

Fast forward 5 years, I am still a stay at home mom of 5. Yes, we've added to our little brood. We live on one income, sold our little house in the little neighborhood for 10 acres and an older mobile home. I can honestly say we are happier than we've ever been, and each month we zero out our bank account!

This blog will be about how we made it, what we do to sustain it, and how to keep with the motto "Less is More". I am a couponer and bargain shopper, and traded in my panty hose for a pair of work gloves and muck boots. My husband works 5-6 days a week and is on his tractor when he's at home. We are working to live a minimalistic life and be more self sufficient. This blog will discuss things from saving money at the grocery store to cultivating raw land and trying to turn it into a place to live. We will talk about recipes, laundry tips, craft projects, canning, planting, basic mobile home repair, child rearing, etc. We want to hear from you guys too. What tips do you have to save some cash or to keep a snake out of a chicken coop?

Why call it "The NOT so modern family"? Simple, because the bulk of people today want bigger and better, and we just want less...less bills, less to clean, less to complicate our lives.