getting out of debt

My husband Blake and I have been trying to get out of debt since March 2003. The big new house we built wasn't so appealing when there wasn't enough money to buy groceries. Barbara, our therapist said "Oh, your house poor". I had never heard the term before but yes indeed we were "House Poor".
Four years later I am sitting in a seventy seven year old home we bought at an auction for $98,000. A pretty good deal in our neck of the woods. Its not as fancy and the neighborhood doesn't have the status that our other one had, but I don't miss it at all. This neighborhood is old and the yards are big, the trees are full and there are children and good roads for walking. It's interesting how we fall into the trap of thinking we "need" something. The new house had three bedrooms and three bathrooms and an office. For the past two years we have had two bedrooms and one bath with three kids and we just added another child. She was happy to have a converted sun room. Now we are not saints so I need to add that we are adding two bedrooms and a bath but we are doing this on a tight budget and it is very basic.
We are still well within our range of affordability. We are in such a better place financially now than four years ago.
At every turn we have considered how to build as green as possible. On that note I will incorporate the three tips for the day from our experience:

1. Where possible put cellulose insulation in. Ours is from recycled newspaper and the price increase was nominal.

2 Build the smallest footprint you can, building only what you need. In our home we converted a large closet and hallway into a new bathroom by moving some walls. The addition is 24 by 16 feet using the large attic as another bedroom. This took a lot of thought and planning so I encourage you to live in your space and educate yourself before you build on.
Doing so protects wildlife and uses up less resources.

3. REUSE,RECYCLE,REDUCE: We purchased many items from Habitat for Humanity. Friends and family gave us things they no longer needed. Recycled we have:cabinets, doors, trim, toilets, sinks, hardware,and paint (that we mixed ourselves from mistints @ $5 a gallon: get creative). Most of our furniture is second hand and the other things came from IKEA. IKEA is environmentally responsible.
Part of the floors are the foundation that we stained from some stain we gleaned from a friend. I was sick to put carpet in but our budget just didn't allow anything else, we are limited on what we can purchase in our area. Industrial grade carpet with a tight weave and an antimicrobial, anti fungal pad proved to be the better choice on our budget.
Take your time and think about all of your options and be as creative as you can . Build for the way you live not for resale.

Namaste"
Courtney