Why I stopped buying things and started BUILDING them.
As I mentioned in a recent post, my life was recently changed by reading the blog of Mr. Money Moustache http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/. I learned all about financial independence (also called FIRE- financial independence early retirement) and my entire perspective has changed about the rewarding process of living frugal. When many people hear the word frugal, they often think cheap. The difference is that being frugal just means that you are more intelligent with how you choose to spend your money and can make it last longer. Oftentimes, I find that people feel we are living a life of indentured servitude because just having a roof over your head, having a car and buying groceries are tied to the all important dollar, ruan, yen, bitcoin and now STEEM DOLLAR. Learning these lessons gave me some strategies to cope with these realities. I also learned that spending less than you earn (and also earning more) is the ONLY way to build wealth.
When you choose to start living frugally, you have to make a few adjustments to your lifestyle. One of which is how you choose to aquire furniture and other household goods. First off, there is Craigslist. Craigslist is a great place to find everything ranging from GoPros to used bikes and just about any used item that people are trying to get rid of. The alternative is outright building your items from the ground up. Since we recently moved, we had the problem of trying to aquire all of the necessary home furnishings that go into owning a home on a limited budget. Keep in mind that my knowledge of building things and construction is somewhat limited. If you have a hammer on hand and you know how to use a screw gun, you are set. If I could do it, trust me, you definitely could as well.
Adirondack chair built from internet plans
The war of art
The first problem we had was that our walls looked extremely bare. We decided that we needed to put up some art. I started gathering ideas from Pinterest and came up with a custom design. We would construct a rustic looking sign with the love is kind proverb burned into it. We then went to the hardware store and picked up two 1x6 pine boards for just a couple of dollars, some screws and some varnish. I took the boards home, cut them down to size, screwed them together to form a sign and then proceeded to stencil in the words. After the words were finished being stenciled, I came back with a soldering iron and burned them into the wood. This took the longest. After that, I stained the wood and then used a satin varnish applying 3 coats over the course of a few days. When everything was said and done, we had a custom piece of art that gives us joy now every time we look at it.
Building custom furniture
A few weeks after that I had a day off and had nothing to do so I decided to construct a wooden planter box. I was able to get to the hardware store, procure all of the necessary items, cut everything down to size, and screw everything together in a matter of only a few hours. I came up with the design myself and got some pointers from the internet for putting in some of the drainage holes. I then proceeded to spray the box with Thompsen’s wood protector. Now, we had a planter box that was way more affordable then what was being sold in stores.
The next problem we had was that we didn’t have any outdoor furniture. It was at this point that I found some plans available over the internet and decided to construct a custom chair of the Adirondack style. This would be the biggest construction project I had ever undertaken. This time, after some careful planning, we picked up the necessary items and put together the chair over the course of several weeks. While the directions said it could be done over the course of a weekend, I had to allow for the learning curve and work schedule.
When all was said and done, we had some custom built art and furniture. The real value from these types of projects was that they give you experience and confidence using hand and power tools and you have to be creative in order to come up with custom designs, all the while saving some cash in the process. It’s a shame that woodshop and other skills are no longer being taught to the younger generations, but sometimes, when you try to do things on your own you can gain much more than just buying it at the store.