My Reply To Emily's ~~"How Low Can I Go?"

Hi! I believe Emily has a very good ideas of what she wants for her family. Her ideas are unconventional from most Americans, but not unrealistic. She wants to do more with less and live for Christ in everything she does. I understand her ideas. Mine are similar, but not quite so frugal.
Her idea to live in 500 square feet for a large family is unusual। Their is a family who teaches homesteading in New York state that raised their 12 children in a cabin that they built themselves that measured 20x24। They raised all their own food , lived without electric and made their own clothes। They had 2-3 outfits apiece। There are many places to live :tepees,trailers,yurts,hand-built cabins among others।
Just because Emily & her husband use no birth control, doesn't mean thy will have lots of children। They will only have as many as God gives , for God opens & closes the womb। My husband & I have been married 20 years & have 1 child। We have used no birth control at all। Our friends have been married just a few days more & have 12 living children & 3 in Heaven। So it all just depends on how many God wants to bless us with।
I think unless you grow all your food Emily, that your grocery bill will be bigger than $600 a month। The Duggers spend $3,000 a month on groceries।I know several families on the internet though that spend less than that। One family spends $300 a month for 8 people। She gives her menus on her yahoo group. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RadicalDebtElimination/
Clothes can be bought at Goodwill , yard sales or thrift shops.Clothes can also be made. I don't see clothes being a problem. We even have around 6 free clothing closets at churches that people give them.These are excellent shape clothes, some even new. There are even name brand clothes like Gap, Arizona ,Levi's, Eagle , etc.
I feel that the Tumbleweed houses are just high priced, rich people's toy houses.They are very expensive. I mean you can buy a storage shed from Lowe's and insulate it & have a nice home for $3,500-$5,000. Another great resource for solar & home building is http://www.freewebs.com/simplesolarhomesteading/ and his homesteading newsletter at http://www.homesteadernews.com/ . Tumbleweed does have some good plans though.
Someone mentioned, where are people going to eat , the floor? Well, in Japan people do sit on the floor to eat & they sleep on pallets too, instead of beds. I think it's really a very sensible way to do things.
Some comments I've commented on: 1)Treva-mattresses on floor are waste of space- true use sleeping bags & a foam pad apiece
2)Winter time not hanging clothes outside- people still do it all the time, it's called freeze drying the clothes& it works just fine
3) AnnMarie-- "tiny Kitchen" - New York Times column writer Mark Bittman says a large kitchen isn't an important thing , read this http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/weekinreview/14bittman.html?ref=weekinreview , a famous writer of cookbooks & his kitchen is 6x7 and here is another of his posts which looks delicious & shows a picture of the kitchen http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/17/anatomy-of-a-minimalist-column/
4) Meg-setting up to butcher is a pricey task in & of itself-we butchered every year ourselves when growing up & I'm trying to figure out what you mean by pricey?- good sharp knives, large pans, foil, bags & or canning supplies , which can be had by finding people who no longer can ,I put up 500 quarts in 1998 & I got all my jars free except for around 2 dozen we bought
Well, I hope I've not made this too long for folks to want to read, but this is my take on her post. I welcome comments!~~