Being content in plenty and in want

You know that verse that Paul wrote that says something like, "I've learned to be content in plenty and in want..."? (my paraphrase of course). Well, I think of that often since living in the shack, or the shed as Glenn refers to it. I find myself saying things like, "I hate living in this place," or "I hate stinkbugs," or I hate that I can never find anything when I need it." Usually, I resort to, "I hate this place." Hate is a pretty strong word. I think I use it too freely, because the truth is that I don't hate the shack. Since living here, we've been able to pay down one of my student loans tremendously. We took every bonus, our tax return, and any extra money that we could for the past 6 months, and we've faithfully been paying down my loan. In January, the loan amount was close to $25,000. Currently, we only have $6300 left to pay. How is that possible? We are not rich by any means. I'm a teacher for goodness sake! And Glenn isn't bringing home a six digit income either. So, how did we do it? We put our minds to knocking out our debt, which meant simplifying our lives. Not only did we go from a four bedroom townhouse down to a small (690 total square feet) house/shed, we also eliminated most of our bills.We pay rent, an electric bill, and a cell phone bill. Also, we are paying off my two student loans and the money that we owe back to the bank from our short sale. That's it. We don't have cable, but we do have an antenna, which gives us plenty to choose from. Our landlord supplies the Internet, we have no house phone, and we are using well water. We live with what we need, and we have a little bit of wiggle room.

So, technically, I don't hate living where we are right now. I don't love it either. And, that's okay because we will be moving again next month. I'm a little nervous to say that the new place is comparable in size, or maybe a little smaller? It's only two rooms total. The first room that you enter is a decent size and will be our bedroom as well as Aleena's room. We plan to buy or borrow a partition to section off the room for some privacy. Then, the main room is big enough to hold our kitchen table, have a little section for our couches, and a little section for our desk and computer. The kitchen has a full size fridge, which will be nice for a change!, and there's a newly remodeled bathroom. Because we've already downsized, I don't think the transition over to the new apartment will be all too difficult. The really amazing thing about this place is that it's only $500 a month, and this INCLUDES utilities! Can you believe that? Who ever heard of such a thing?

So back to what Paul said about being content in plenty and in want- I can see how it's important to find that place of contentment within yourself. Because if you can't find it in 690 square feet, chances are, you won't find it in 2500 square feet. Living in this new place will still be a sacrifice. It's not big, and I now have a walking 13 month old. Plus, we want to have more kids. I'm not sure how we'll have the room, but what I do know is that we will be debt free by April of next year. And, that will be a good feeling. If we can just continue to sacrifice and be faithful to pay off the rest of my student loans, and pay off the bank loan, we will be free to save our money. Ultimately, we want to own a reasonable home, and if we can save enough, we'll have a decent down payment. We'll do things the right way the next time we buy. Lesson learned.