Rockabilly Economics

This is a post that has been a long time coming.  I have been trying to figure out how to structure a post about the economy.  Since I am not book smart on financial issues, I can not come up with a structured post.  I am more on the come sense smarts of financial issues.  So I am just going to speak from my heart and ramble a bit, just spit out what I feel as the words come out.

They call me poor girl, poor girl, poor girl but I ain’t lonesome and I ain’t blue.  Cause I could never be a poor girl when I’ve got a house like mine.  It ain’t got a deck, ain’t got a master bathroom, can barely pay the mortgage.  But I got heart full of decorating ideas and that’s enough for me.

This is my adaption of Elvis’ “Poor Boy” that I sometimes sing when I am cleaning house, cooking or sewing. 

I love my house.  I do not believe I bought too much house.  It is only 750 square feet, which includes two bedrooms, a living room, kitchen, bath and a utility room.  There is also a cute little shack in the back that needs major work. 

When I first moved to the Upper Peninsula, I was living in ma & pa motels, until I could find a place to live.  Many times I would drive by a nearby manufactured housing retailers and I saw this house that looked like a log cabin.  I kid you not.  After I saw that I was like, “I am going to have a house like that by the time I am 30.”  Well, I got a house at 28.  I checked the info on the manufactured housing.  The up front price for the actual houses are cheap, but that when you add in finding a lot, hiring a crew to install the house and utilities it is cheaper to buy an older house that has already been  built.  

I checked into what my best option was in regards to whether I should buy a house or rent.  Around here, it is cheaper to buy a two bedroom house than to rent a two bedroom apartment.  But then, you have taxes.  Ugh.  But you do get a yard.  And if you want, you can do what you want in terms redecorating and remodeling.  Hell, if you want, you can paint the damn thing red with purple stripes and blue polka dots.

I did buy my house during the housing bubble.  But I was not thinking about selling it right away, to make a profit.  I wanted something that would make sense with my personality that I could decorate my way without having to make many changes.  I was and am still in it for the long term.  I never understood how or even why people were buying houses just to turn around and resell them.  Nor, can I understand why people are just leaving their houses, just because they being treatened with foreclosure, sometimes even purposelly wrecking them before leaving.  Even worse, they just leave the animals in the houses to wreck the place and possibly die and be lonely.  Hey, things are tough for me too.  I had a job and a half when I bought my house.  Now, I just have one job.  Sometimes I don’t pay the bank on time.  But I do try my damndest.  If you want something bad enough, you will do what you have to.  Not be all lazy and walk away.  I guess I am rather lucky, I have my family to help me out when times get tough.  If it wasn’t for my grandma’s good credit, I never even would have got the loan.

I don’t know a whole lot bout bean counting, charts and all that.  But I do know that there is a bunch of talking bout the economy.  What with the bailouts and polticians promising to lower my taxes.  Prices on everything is going up.  Utilities, food and nessecitties.  Fall is here and Winter is aproaching.  Sooner than many of us think.

As y’all know, I love Rockabilly music.  Not just with the music, but the Rockabilly lifestyle can teach us a lot about living in a reduced economy.  The Rockabilly artists of yore were a bit loud and out there.  But their roots were grounded in the poor South.  They didn’t have much, but they had a love for friends and family.  With the exception of maybe the clothes and cherry cars, they were humble and not flashy.  All people from that era had to skimp and not have much luxuries, things what we take for granted nowadays. 

Since getting my house five years ago, I have tried to live as Rockabilly as possible.   I’m not just talking about the chromed out kitchen, pink sewing room, colorful lamps with fiberglass shades or funky art glass.  I’m talking the economy side of it all. 

I sew most of my clothes or at least buy them at thrift shops.  I use my grandma’s 1950 Domestic 153 sewing machine.  She has no fancy doo dads or bells and whistles.  I suppose that’s why she is still running after 58 years.  Plus, when you are sewing in the Winter, it can help keep the house warm.  Your always moving around, which is great excersise and you don’t even feel like you are excersising.  Sves money on a gym membership and all those fancy excersise machines.  The movement of the sewing machine can generate a bit of heat.  Plus you are always using the iron, which generates heat. 

I can find cute vintage decor at a thift shop, and not pay much.  The trick is; find your own style, buy what you like, and don’t buy whatever the gay guy on HGTV says is the new trendy hot thing.  Nor buy something because it’s the new hot seller on ebay.  You will end up spending more money than you need to.  Because either the stuff you buy because the gay guy said so just won’t speak to your inner decorating heart.  Or you may not be able to sell whatever it is on ebay and you’ll be stuck with it not knowing what to do with it.  Plus you have to pay all those fees for listing it.

I cook all my food by scratch.  Or at least I try.  Once in a while splurge and order a pizza.  It is always cheaper to make food with ingredients than it is to buy pre-made food, plus it is much healthier to not have food with all those preservatives and funky chemicals that no one can pronounce.  I always make sure I have the basic ingredients on hand.  A well stocked Rockabilly kitchen should have all the dairy (eggs, milk [whole], real butter), flours, sugar, spices, baking chocolate, yeast, mayonaise or salad dressing and peanut butter.  I never have a strict meal plan for the week.  I just know that I need stuff for breakfast, lunch, dinner and desert.  It is cheaper to make a list knowing I need veggies and see what is on sale at the store.  Meat is the same way.  Just know what you and those you are cooking for like.  Also, never buy too much of something that can spoil.  If something like milk is on sale and you don’t use milk too often, plan on making lots of pudding and cake.  It only costs 25c to $1.00 to make your own bread, depending on the type of bread and recipe.  It tastes a whole lot better. The good thing about having such a small house is that it is easy for my house to get warm, just from cooking.

Well I hope this rambling post made sense to any of you out there.  I just had to get that off my chest.  Ad of course here is tonite’s Rockabilly After Midnite.