Boot Hill features personal stories of people who have taken seriously our call to living more prudently. For somebody to really make it to Boot Hill, they need to show a change of heart or action or thought or all – bury the old and put on the new! We welcome your submissions, with photos, as appropriate. You can read additional Boot Hill stories featured in our publication Prudent Living Magazine (subscribe).
From A Community Member in Florida
Once upon a time, we had a credit rating of well over 700, which meant we had lots of credit available, extended by companies that expected things to continue on or get better for us, and used by us (making the same assumptions) to cover what seemed to be ever increasing expenses. But we both had good jobs, and were doing well, so we weren’t very concerned. Then one bad thing happened – requiring a $15,000 cash bond. The rest seems like a blur, but the net result was that we lost the house to a short sale, had to relocate, one of us had to take a three-month without pay medical leave, twice in a period four years, and then the other lost his job. After more than 20 years of faithful service to the same group, with multiple awards and/or recognitions for his fine work, the e-mail, still etched in his mind, began like this: “There is no way to sugar coat this, so I’ll get right to the point ….. ” They never even spoke with him personally. Without doubt, presumption had reaped what it had sown. Disaster. Flash forward a couple years. Now we live in a very small rented home, and we’re almost through paying off the unsecured debts. We live from paycheck to paycheck, but we can see the end of the tunnel, and the light we see is no longer a train coming toward us. We left the old life at boot hill, buried most of our presumption, and now we try to live within our means. It’s possible that within a year or two, we’ll have a little bit left over as we face each new year. But we’re not even assuming that. Instead, we’re trying to be better prepared for the unexpected. Sometimes you hear people say, “What’s the worst that can happen?” Our experience showed us the frivolity of that question, for sure, so we buried that at boot hill, too.
From Florida
Name withheld by request
Why do we garden?
For the past couple years we have been avid couponers, saving tons of money on all our groceries and toiletries.We tried a couple raised beds that were about 2’ by 5’ each and enjoyed it but didn’t really do a whole lot with it, didn’t preserve much, and actually wasted quite a bit of it. We basically thought it was more work and even more expensive than all the savings we had through couponing. What a change of thought this year!
After seeing the little bit of produce we got last year, researching the health advantages to growing your own food and buying less processed food, and learning the process and benefits of canning and freezing, we are now avid gardeners and have bigger plans for next year! In contrast to our four little raised beds last year, our garden is about 20’ by 30’. We realized that gardening is relaxing and enjoyable, and rewarding seeing the outcome of your labor and seeing your pantry fill up with produce for the winter! Our goal is to make it through the next 9 months on all the veggies we have grown, and even the organic fruits and berries that we have picked ourselves. This in the long run will save us so much money and most importantly, be putting healthy, homegrown and local foods into our bodies! Next year we plan to extend our garden to be about 30’ by 50’ for a few reasons. One being that since we are newer to gardening we have learned that some plants just need more room, such as pumpkins. Two, being that we want to plant more of some vegetables, and a couple more varieties of vegetables, and three, we just plain enjoy being out there and working together!
Stephanie Baker
