Making Ends Meet – The Struggle was Real

When my family of five moved from the midwestern United States to Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico we were struggling to make ends meet. At the end of each and every month, we were greeted with the not-so-cheerful news that our checking account was running low and the beginning of the month stood looming with the onslaught of new bills. Mortgage, daycare, groceries, gas for the cars, insurance, the list of dues went on and on.

My husband was working tirelessly, trying to build his business while still maintaining his over 40-hour a week job. I was home with the kids, doing the best I could to keep them entertained and happy, manage my home-based business, and maintain our home.

When we could afford it, the kiddos would visit a home daycare. This was a luxury item, but any mommy of multiples will tell you, the occasional break is essential!

While our efforts managed to keep us afloat, my husband and I were both miserable.

Yet, we pressed on, month after month, doing everything we could to stretch our dollars while also making sure the kiddos never felt the strain. We still went for ice cream and we still brought home little surprises when we could.

We knew however, we could not continue like this forever. My husband could not continue to rush to a job every day, only to return home and continue to struggle financially.

We were losing our vision and our vitality.

Something had to give.

And it did.

When The Straw Breaks

My mother died. Suddenly and unexpectedly. I talked to her on the phone on a Monday evening and on Wednesday morning I received a call that she had passed. As an only child of a single mother, I was devastated.

In the hazy days that followed, I started to come to terms with the finality of death and the uncertainty of life. In that time, it became clear that what we were doing, the way we were living, was not the way it should be.

It took her dying for me to realize what actual living really meant.

So we decided that we had to make a change. We had to find a way to begin living the life we wanted rather than just dreaming about it and wishing for it. We had to find a way to make our dollars last while still pursuing the things we cared about the most.

There had to be a way to get all we wanted and more.

We prayed, we thought, we prayed some more. Then, one day, a casual side comment revealed the answer we had been looking for.

We had found our solution to living life on our terms.

We decided to leave it all behind and move to Mexico.

Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico to be exact.

Our Little Slice of Paradise

Mazatlan is a coastal paradise that provides the perfect balance of modern and historical. It is a colonial town, well known for its architecture, rich culture and brightly colored history. It is however, growing up and numerous high end resorts, first-class schools, shopping malls, restaurants and movie theaters have popped up.

Mazatlan is a great place for visitors and expats alike. Its family-friendly atmosphere makes it ideal for our ‘little’ family of five.

After securing a very nice rental home in a quiet part of the city, we went about selling and donating a majority of our belongings. We downsized from a 3600 sq ft home to a 5×5 storage unit and ten suitcases. It was a feat, but we did it.

We were determined to stop playing small and begin living a life by design: faithfully, intentionally and tenaciously.

*thinking about a move yourself, click here for a family-friendly moving checklist*

With some savings from the sale of our cars, our furniture and some belongings, we bought five one-way tickets, boarded a plane and set off for a new life of adventure on the coast of the Pacific Ocean.

In leaving behind conventional means of employment, we intentionally chose a place where the cost of living would allow us to live comfortably despite taking a significant income drop.

Due to the current strength of the American dollar in Mexico, living here in paradise has enabled our family to shave off just over $3,000 off of our monthly expenses.

Three-Thousand-Dollars. Glory be!

How We Livin’ Now

This shift in finances has allowed both my husband and I to delve deep into the things that we are passionate about. We are building our dream businesses around our kids and we are enjoying every minute of it. We are learning to live more with less, which has been nothing short of amazing!

Indeed, as we are still working to build steady monthly income, we continue to watch our spending. I cook many meals at home, we walk rather than pay for public transportation and we are conservative with our ‘stuff’ shopping. Overall though, we are still living very comfortably!

The kiddos want for nothing. They are thriving at their new school.

My husband and I are less stressed. We are happier. We are more present parents.

I am doing more things that make me happy and he is seeing some of his dreams come to life as well.

Tomorrow is not promised and we want to be happy now. We don’t want to wait until we are retirement age to live a life we love. Instead, we’ve started living our amazing life now, while we are young, healthy, and active.

By finding a place where we have reduced our expenses, we are able to do so much more genuine living.

We are far from retired. Heck, most days we grind harder than we did in corporate America. But somedays, when we’re stretched out, sipping cool drinks with our toes in the sand watching the kiddos splash in the ocean, it certainly feels like we are!

And I wouldn’t change that for the world.

We are living a life by design and for that I am grateful, grateful, grateful!

 

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