A Year in the Round: Why a Tipi?

a real broke joke. I could barely pay my bills and afford to eat at the same
time. When I did sleep, I dreamt of a real paycheck. A real job would make all
the difference.

After
many months of working my new big kid job, I was getting a little discouraged,
even depressed! I still couldn’t save any money to do all the exciting
activities I saw my friends doing in pictures on Facebook. They were buying
houses and going on cruises, getting nicer cars than the ones they drove in
high school and college… I felt left out and immature.

This
is no plea for pity. I don’t make terrible money, nor am I a shopaholic, or any
-aholic for that matter. My problem is different; student loans. A gigantic
pile of them, looming dreadfully over me each and every single month since my
six month post-graduation grace period. Uncle Sam and Ms. Mae watch over my
shoulder every time I go to a department store to just window shop, traverse down the road to the grocery store for bare necessities, or even buy a meager cup of coffee. They shake their greedy
heads in disapproval so that I wince and cross my fingers every time I reach
for my debit card in the checkout line.

After
a long bout of severe in-home budget cuts, I still didn’t save much money at
all. Something would always pop up that I forgot to budget for; an extra tank
of gas from driving too much, extra dog food in the winter because you keep the
heat down so low, extra human food in the winter because you keep the heat down
so low, beer because you’re still cold, a birthday lunch with coworkers that
you’d be considered a jerk if you didn’t attend, etc. The whole thing was very
discouraging.

One
winter evening I sat down on the cold living room floor with my budget, a pen
and paper. I really thought about all the things I paid for that a person could
do without. Couldn’t stop eating, and probably not the best idea to give up my
cell phone. But internet, that could go. I didn’t even get online that much at
home anyway. Maybe I should just get rid of my computer altogether? And while
I’m at it, why not just get rid of electricity, too? This digressed into
“Who needs to live in a damned house anyway?!!” That was it, one of
my biggest costs. I’d cut out my rent payments when the lease was over. But how?
I recalled an article I had recently read about non-traditional and possibly
debt-free structures in Mother Earth News a few months prior. Because I don’t
own land, I couldn’t build any structures, and I still have no idea where the
wind will take me in a few years (presently a little commit-o-phobic). Yurts
are awesome but there was no way for me to save up the 10k+ for one. They’re
astronomically priced for the tiny budget I’ve been awarded at this point in my
life. Plus, I don’t know how to build a deck. I’m just a girl, you know?

Wait…
a tipi? Oh, duh! It’s smaller and much different than what I’ve ever been used
to, but it’s very possible. After a fair bit of doodling, planning on paper,
jotting numbers and figures and thinking really hard, I decided to purchase a
tipi with my next year’s tax return.

And live
in it.