Introduction to Life & Home

Life & Home: Learning to slow down and live a simple life without debt, with less stuff and more room to love life and love others

My name is Vanessa. I am a follower of Jesus, wife to Chris, mother to Anabelle, Matthew (in heaven) and Cate, daughter, sister and friend and part-time medical research scientist. I live in Maitland NSW Australia. My interests include travel, home decorating, living without debt, and gardening. I love to read blogs about simplifying life, minimalism and getting out of debt. I have noticed that while there are a plethora of blogs on reducing debt, and home money management, there are few from those who have actually made it to their goal to be debt free and continue to live that way. One thing I've noticed with these blogs is the range of definitions of “debt free”. My husband and I live debt free, which for us means that we owe no-one any money. We paid off our mortgage in August 2011 (we bought a home when we married in December 1998), and have no other debts. We live within our means, which have varied considerably year to year and are not generally large. 

The other thing that isn't large is our home. We are coming to embrace our small living lifestyle and love the benefits. Our home is approximately 110 square metres plus a double garage and our outdoor area of about 40 square metres. It has 3 small bedrooms. We got the key a week before our wedding, and moved in after the honeymoon, so it has been the one and only home of our life together. We were blessed to buy a brand new house without the hassles of building, but it started out just a house - plain pale blue walls, one light bulb per room, some cheap carpet and vertical blinds and a washing line, but no front fence, no garden, no special features. Over the past 14 years we've enjoyed turning it into our home, for the first 7 years just for us and after that for the children we've added to our family. We are aiming to stay here and hope to remain content and grateful for God’s wonderful provision of this home.

My plan for this blog is to write about our journey of life & home - learning to live simply, deliberately slowing down the pace of our life and living with contentment and gratitude with room for generosity and love for others.