The northeast is buzzing right now with fear about rising fuel costs. It is a serious concern, and we estimate that we will spend around $5,000 to heat our house this winter if we are conservative with usage.
Gary and I thought that a better idea for my family is to allocate $1,500 towards fuel to drive south, leaving $3,500 our of the heating budget for expenses, mainly housing. Shutting down the house completely while we are gone will allow us to use the funds currently being spent on electricity, telephone, internet, etc. elsewhere.
We thought about Workamping as an option, but the places that are available to us are in areas that we could easily afford the camp fee. I have yet to find a place near that beach that is affordable or open to Workamping. So I don’t quite have a plan, but we have intentionally avoided making a firm plan, because we are looking forward to an adventure. We don't want to escape all the way to Florida only to be tied down to a volunteer position or a crappy campsite.
A few weeks ago, Gary and I were a definite go and excitedly began sharing our plans. Then friends would say things like, “We are really going to miss you!” and even worse, “But what about the chicken?” and I began to loose my nerve.
Someone else mentioned that all our food stores would certainly freeze if left unattended. (No problem! I will take it all with me! I can see my superhero cape blowing in the wind…SuperKerry, protector of the jams!)
We started brainstorming some possible obstacles, real and imagined. The first would be an inability to purchase food due to a severe economic crisis. If that happened we would high tail it home and bunker down with our community. But! What if that was preceded by the inability to purchase gas to travel? And that is where we completely lost our sense of adventure. Being trapped in
We went from a 99% go to something more like a 50/50. Just thinking about it caused stress. There are still very compelling reasons to go. We still want to go. I feel very fortunate that we are even in a position to be having serious discussions about this.
What do you think? Would it be adventurous or brainless to take the family to
And of course, what about the chicken?
1 comment:
Stay one more winter and eat the food you have stored. Save some of the money you would otherwise spend on groceries and use it towards going to FL next winter. And don't buy so many cases of chicken! It goes on sale often enough. Of course we will miss you when you go, but we wouldn't want everyone to worry about those chickens!!
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