For the first two years of our marriage, Melissa and I were used to living on about $25,000 and paying for her to go to college.  When Melissa graduated we both got full-time salaried jobs, however, we did not change our lifestyle.

For a while we gave that extra income away.  But then we began to question the effectiveness of those donations and our lifestyle in general and instead started saving a significant portion of the excess funds.

Though it was only a couple of months, with those sorts of numbers the savings account grew quickly.

In addition, we sold all of our possessions.  This doesn’t net as much as you might think, but it helps.

Finally, since we have lots of time and little need of money, we’re hoping that we develop our talents, through things like this website, into an income to support our meager lifestyle.

When our van broke down, we lost most of our cushion.  We’re getting to the point where we’re thinking about where the next dollar will come from sooner than we expected.

But we have faith in God that we’ll get by.