Basement Living Digest

Basements are durable living spaces where a little warmth goes a long way. Other people's basements are a great option if you are unstable newlyweds looking to save some money and travel or if you have kids and are saving up funds for their diapers and college. No matter your situation, basement living could be for you.

When choosing your basement, be sure to acknowledge all options. Relatives and in-law's basements usually offer their space rent free. Though you will feel like horny teenagers when you sneak downstairs for some action, the fact that free food is included evens things out. You may feel obligated to spend some time with your landlord/father-in-law so be sure you get along with them first. When inhabiting an extended relatives space it is best to peek into their medicine cabinet to ensure serious psychological issues are not a problem. Don't worry if they are though! You can always sleep with the lights on.

When moving into your new place be sure that whoever is letting you stay there moves most of your stuff in. You want to make sure they feel included. Feel free to cheer them on while you drink O'douls in your lawn chair. Basements can also be decorated easily with the help of yard sale chandeliers and self painted murals. Homemade flower arrangements also add a classy touch.




While living in Dayton Ohio, my husband and I spent the better part of a year residing in my father-in-law's basement. The basement was an entirely private space. It was not all fun and games but we were able to save some money, travel and be unabashedly selfish. My parents believed that Jared and I were playing video games in the basement or laying by the pool all day while taking vacations sporadically. Though this was not the case we let them believe this for a while - purely for entertainment purposes. Our lack of employment did not include not working. While avoiding conventional employment we were still extremely productive people.

We bought a questionable old house that Jared completely tore down to the 2x4's and rebuilt. That extended our basement stay for a little while, much to disapproval of many people in our lives. The house was just a few streets over from Jared's family. Some out of state siblings (who I am convinced hate us and our our nonchalance towards employment) were appalled that we didn't mind being around our relatives for more than 2 hours at a time, and that we actually wanted to live by them.

(This is obviously the "before" picture of the house... creepy.)

While visiting my parents in SLC Utah we were touring their new house they had designed and built. Walking through their fully loaded basement I commented, "wow, this place would be perfect to spend the next few years of my life." My dad, Brad, was not amused.

Jared and I have always had goals and plans for reaching them. It just so happens that one of our goals was to be bums and not have paying jobs for a little while. After our shenanigans in Ohio more than a few people were surprised when we got real jobs and bought a house in California.

Slowly but surely our families are beginning to believe us when we promise that we will not be in jail or on welfare within the next two years.

Vacation Fun

A majority of my teenage years were dedicated to extreme rebellion and the proverbial flipping off of the man. Teen angst combined with my parents idea that the only vacation was one to Disney World bred disaster. My family went to Orlando, Florida numerous times. Each day was celebrated at a different theme park. My parents were a little shy to try new destinations, and with 7 kids to wrangle, I didn't blame them.

During the final trip my three brothers and I were left to wander the theme parks without supervision. I am sure my parents were simply trying to avoid the embarrassment a 17 year old girl and her brothers would cause. Obviously our time was spent causing all the trouble we could. Our creativity and ability to outrun security made for fond memories. Although I am not necessarily proud of these moments, I feel it my duty to share the following with you. (OK, I am proud of some of them.)

I am compelled to preform any double dare that comes my way, and when my brother dared me to cop a feel I had no other choice. I think this is the monk guy from Robin Hood.

Another half and hour was spent hiding in a King Tut display at Universal Studios. My older brother and I hid by Mr. Tut's mummy and as soon as the theme park tour came through we jumped out. Even a hulk hogan look-a-like screamed like a schoolgirl. A pregnant lady almost had her baby. Our get-away was almost ruined by fits of laughter.


This picture of my little brother Daniel was not easy to capture. In order to get next to the statue and preform the purple nurple, Daniel had to evade the 16 year old pimply faced guard. He jumped the barricade and executed the nurple with the grace of a ninja.

Daniel was by far the best person to troll the parks with. For something as simple as a churro, Daniel would wrestle the costumed characters. We would stand in line like we were going to take a picture and as soon as 13 year old Dan got close enough, he would get them in a headlock and force them to the ground. Security response was always immediate but those 8 seconds were some of the best seconds of my life. Winnie the Pooh being especially memorable.

My older brother Jake was brilliant in this photo. He seems to be catching the trolls dump with ease and skill. The employees of the gift shop were not as impressed as I was.

I totally mooned a giant magnifying glass.

Not much of an explanation is needed here. This was not one of my finest moments, but a masterpiece nonetheless. After the camel toe incident this one seems rather trivial.

Needless to say our shenanigans convinced my parents that theme parks bored us. Our next big family trip was a cruise taken at the beginning of May, and will have to wait for it's own post.


amen.

Shameless Shopping

Jared and I are extremely frugal. I would even go so far as to say we are "cheap". But the last few weeks our behavior has been taken to a whole other level. Examples of our frugality:

• We have an extensive collection of DVDs. I mean its ridiculous how many we have. Two cabinets are full of everything from The Goonies and Labyrinth to Bride Wars and 7 Pounds. We are too cheap to go to the movie theatre, so we are always on the look out for sales on movies. Many date nights have been spent searching for a DVD and watching it while we bask in pride at how we only spent $5.99.
• I cannot remember the last time I paid full price for anything. I always buy clothes on sale or go through a friend to get the employee discount. I never buy groceries that aren't on sale. If I can find green beans for a good price we'll eat that for the next 2 weeks. Saving money makes the beans taste better.
  
• I am also Costco's #1 fan. Can you think of anything better that 3 bottles of toilet cleaner for $7.99? I didn't think so.
  
• I am a farmer's market fiend. I drive to Ventura some Saturdays just to take advantage of the amazingly fresh food and low prices. I am usually the only white person there and I buy a lot, so in my broken Spanish I can barter them down a little.
• I use the library like a crack whore uses crack. Free books? Count me in.
• Every Saturday I make sure my garbage can for yard waste is full. Whether it's filled with palm fronds or weeds I make sure that I am getting my money's worth of trash collection.

As I mentioned before the last couple of weeks we have taken this to a whole new level.

• At work, the computer freaked out and printed nonsense on about 300 pages of paper. When I was emptying the trash I saw it. I dug it out and lovingly saved it. Only one side was ruined right? I could totally make little notebooks out of it for my nasty drawings.
  I brought it home and Jared said he was proud of me.
• Jared also did his fair share of dumpster diving. He came home with about 15 nice size cardboard boxes. Brand new! I don't know what we need them for but we'll figure something out.
  
• While we are passionate yard sale shoppers, Jared bought a new bookshelf for ten dollars. It is really nice and originally $20. It was totally worth the $20, but was that good enough? No! We should have just stolen it.

• We carpool when we can and plan our errands out to minimize gas usage. We have been looking for a more fuel-efficient vehicle and even considered a stripped down Nissan Versa. No air conditioning. No radio. The windows had to be rolled up and down manually and it didn't come with the floor mats. Yes. I actually considered this option.
  

I took a step back and finally realized that sometimes you have to get some things you want along with the things you need. Otherwise there is no reason to work so hard and save so much.
While I think it is good to not waste things, there is a fine balance that must be maintained. Maybe someday I'll be able to attain it, until then I will proudly comb through trash for little treasures.

amen.