Our new way to save money, means increase in our FFEF

**Denvergirlie** · 01-20-2010, 11:38 AM

So we are moving in Feb.

We are leaving this rental house, with an amazing below value rent were we have lived for the past 9 years. Love the neighborhood, but it is in the city which is what we don't love.
We are moving about 25 miles from city center Denver, up into the close foothills.
Our rent will increase by $350 a month. However, we have the option to not pay rent, and instead do work on the property to pay off the next months rent. Our new property is on 160 acres of pristine forest. Our job is to help the property owners, who also live in on site.

Our work will be plowing the driveway when it snows, repairing fences, trails and mainly cutting down deseased and dead trees, cutting that into firewood and selling it. (My partner is a former professional logger - so no worries on being physically able to do the job)

We are expected to do 60 hours of work a month, we get "paid" $20 an hour. So $20/hr x 60 hours a month = $1200 (rent amount).

If we don't do the full 60 hours of work (doubtful), we can instead pay the monthly rent of $1200 or a pro-rated amount (say we do 30 hrs a month, take a 2 week vacation and pay the difference of $600)
We don't plan on that ever happening, we feel the 60 hours a month will be easy to meet or exceed.

However, as we all know, things don't always go as planned, so it's time to increase our FFEF.

Our FFEF was full, considering the bills we have here in Denver, but not a full 6 months of the new place, if we had to pay rent.

I figure were my partner to break his leg, and I was to lose my job, then we would need to pay rent to the tune of $1200. So it's time to increase the FFEF. We are now at 70% full, and should have that complete again by mid May at the latest.

As for our normal budget, we have enough cash flow to pay for "rent" on a monthly basis, so long as my job stays stable, but of course we also have the plan of never paying rent, and instead doing the work.

We are super excited to get out of this city and onto this wonderful property. We are trying not to be all starry-eyed by the property, and put a plan in place for worse case scenerio.

If everything works out as we are planning, it will mean we can double our savings rate on a given month, but at the same time we are committed to getting the FFEF up to the new amount should worse case scenerio occur.

Just thought it was interesting, and thought to share. The FFEF has been in place since April 09, and it's so strange to me that we are backtracking to this step. I never thought that re-filling the FFEF would really happen if I was still employed, but things change.

There is also funny aspect to this all, we will be the "poorest" people that live in this area now.
The property owners literally just built a 8000 sq ft mansion about a mile up the road (to go with there 5 other houses they own in the western USA - they are VERY wealthy)
We are the "help".... our new house.... is 2800+ square feet, plus a basement, plus a 3 car garage.... a huge "move up" for us, and it all comes back to the fact that we are the domestic help with our own mini-mansion... moving from a 1200 sq foot house in .08 on an acre... ha, ha, ha.

**mateosbaby** · 01-20-2010, 04:22 PM

Nice! WTG! Hubby and I are looking to someday get out to the land and do some homesteading. I am jealous of you! LOL

**NikoSan999** · 01-20-2010, 04:42 PM

Congratulations! Sounds like you both have a good thing going and you sound so excited. Hoping it's all you hope for. Good luck with the adventure! Keep us posted on your progress.

**Denvergirlie** · 01-20-2010, 11:04 PM

Thanks for the notes!

We are super excited, the area is charming, we have all the space we want for garden, chickens, etc and we will finally have all the room in the world we could ever need.
Plus if the "free" rent works out as planned/ foreseen, we will really be able to save some serious cash.
We would love to buy our own land just like this, but we need to save the downpayment ... BS3.3 ... we want at least 50% down on raw land, if not an outright purchase.
We also need a car replacement (BS3.1) like ASAP, so it's not like we are going to go mad with spending that newly saved money.

But we feel really blessed to have this opportunity; to live on beautiful land, in a beautiful house, reduce our expenses, and still greatly contribute to our savings goals.

Anyways, BS3 is the step I'm on and couldn't be more excited.

thanks all

**mauimagic** · 01-21-2010, 12:32 AM

What a great opportunity!! Mahalo for sharing it and all that it entails!! Would love to hear more about your journey!! So glad that you are the right people for this to happen to!!

**Greebo** · 01-21-2010, 05:26 AM

Originally Posted by Denvergirlie

I figure were my partner to break his leg, and I was to lose my job, then we would need to pay rent to the tune of $1200. So it's time to increase the FFEF. We are now at 70% full, and should have that complete again by mid May at the latest.

A good plan - but I wanted to comment on this risk:

Make sure both of you are covered with good long term disability plans. (You both work for income, right?) You want to be sure that the payout of the disability matches your take home pay after taxes - or at least gets close. Many plans offer 65% which people think isn't much but that's tax free money where your income is taxed at 25%+ so it's not as bad as it sounds.