Blessed showers!
Jilly was super excited about the showers. She didn't even care that there's no privacy...she just said we'll shower in our swimsuits or else we'll just make sure the other knows not to go near there when it is in use.
She told me to go first since I'd worked so hard to put it together.
Not gonna lie. It was pure heaven after sweating all day installing it!
She took a picture of me with her phone since I was wearing my suit. I did the same to her. Except we forgot about towels. Duh. I handed her one and she did the same for me...but next on my list is to install a towel bar!
Almost flat broke after the shower purchase and installation, I spent the next day (a Sunday) dumpster diving for more stuff to fix up and sell to the consignment shop. They still have some of my stuff up for sale, too, so I check once every week or two to see if anything new has sold.
The good news was, they sold a few things. Jillian and I got ourselves and Katie a few new articles of clothing, opting to wear some of them out of the store.
Giddy with our progress, we spend the next day, Monday, a school holiday, at the beach. Katie played near us at all times, and we took turns going for swims and sunning ourselves so we always knew where she was.
As the afternoon started to give way to evening, I read a book required for school while Katie played behind me. Jillian made us some hot dogs for dinner.
I looked up from my book several times to enjoy the view.
We watched Katie play and enjoyed our yummy hot dogs.
As darkness fell, we got dressed and started the fairly long walk home. We switched off carrying Katie every few blocks. You can't see the straps too well in the dark, but I carried our wet suits in a backpack with a waterproof cargo section.
Hopefully I can find a towel bar at the pawn shop sometime this week.
**
Wishing Well
On Friday afternoon, we stopped by the wishing well on the way to the library. It was a silly whimsical thing to do, and neither of us really expected our dreams to come true, but it was fun to dream.
I researched tiny houses and sourced materials while Jilly read a book. Katie, of course, played in the kids' corner.
With summer and Jilly's 18th birthday quickly approaching, we made happy plans to save up and get the trailer, we hoped, by the end of my senior year.
The not-so-great thing about fall would be that Jilly would switch back to night shifts only, so I could come home from school and watch Katie. We'll barely see each other, but once we have our tiny home completed, it will be worth it. And once I am out of school, we'll have to keep rotating our schedules or else pay for daycare...which will eat into our earnings a fair amount.
"That book I read at the library was really smart. It's by this guy who grew up poor and learned from a friend's father how to be smart about money. Right now, we're doing things all wrong. We need to save at least 10% of everything we earn. I know that sounds impossible given our situation, but if we invested just $1,000 at age 18, even if we never added to it again, it could grow to over a million dollars in 40 years."
I laughed. "How are we going to get $1,000 to invest?"
She winced. "You won't like this. But we need to make a slightly new plan. There's another financial wizard guy that the first book recommended. I read some of his stuff on my phone over the internet. First step is to put $1000 in emergency savings. The second is pay off any debts, but we don't have any. So, for that, we just agree not to get into debt. The third is to save 3-6 months of expenses in case of job loss or short-term illnesses or something so we don't have to get in debt to pay our bills."
I sighed. "It does sound smart, but it's going to take us so long to get off this lot..."
"Maybe not. The $1,000 emergency fund will be quick if we put every spare penny toward it first. We don't really need anything else on our campsite now that we have a bathroom. We can keep roasting veggies and having the occasional meal out, and buying a couple small things here and there, but if we focus, we can have that $1,000 saved by halfway through summer. Maybe even sooner if my tips are good. The 3–6-month thing, that's saving some money while you work toward other goals."
I hated it because it made our tiny house feel farther away by the second, and I knew Jilly was being smart but also kidding herself about our campsite being "doable" until the tiny house. We fight more often lately, and mostly because of schedules and just living this "tent city" life.
To prove we could still buy a few small luxuries here and there, she brought home a toy for Katie.
Several nights later, she paid for us to have dinner at a local diner. Not the one she works for, but one a bit further away.
"See? We can still have a few small splurges, and still save up our emergency fund. It's already up to $150, and we're not even out of school yet."
I couldn't argue with that.
**
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