Ok, no prob...

I have my own predilections and I don't make any apologies for them, but I try not to be an insensitive A-hole either... BUT, you won't find anyone (with the possible exception of GH) who has nothing but UTTER CONTEMPT for political correctness than me.

I actually admire the Amish... I couldn't do the stuff they do (work that hard) but I admire and emulate their rather austere lifestyle. Life is SO much easier and more enjoyable when you aren't trying to 'outdo the Joneses" all the time... Yeah, I have electricity and keep the A/C set at 72 all summer here (the air conditioner ran pretty much nonstop from April to October-- so what!) and yeah I have a bigscreen TV, but our newest vehicle is an 02 Ford pickup that's been paid for for over a year with 250,000 miles on it. We bought it used two years old and paid HALF PRICE what a new one cost. We live in a ~2100 square foot mobile home here on the farm, which only cost us $46,000 because it was a demonstrator, and we actually pay more than our notes to shorten the loan repayment (and therefore save interest). We're debt free and do everything in our power to stay that way.

By comparison, my sister and BIL live in a brick home in town, NO nicer than our well-built mobile home (pretty much top-of-the-line, not the cheap el-crappo trailers you find at most places-- we had to HUNT to find it!) but she paid $175,000 for it (last I heard) and pays about $1,500 a month on her mortgage (ours is less than $400, but we pay $400 or so to pay the note down faster). They have an 04 F150 my BIL drives like a racecar and my sister drives an 05 Ford (next one up from the Focus, can't think of the name of it... lil' bitty "mid size" car). Together they make around $80,000 a year and they are in debt up to their eyeballs, can't even afford to get out of town for the weekend. We take several trips a year to various places, some near, some far... including two trips a year to Indiana to see the kinfolks... I have to take my nephews to NASA JSC because my sister and BIL are too broke to take them... so we all get a Happy Meal and go to the space center...

We live "cheap" but I dare say we live better than a LOT of folks do!

later! OL JR

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