About Us

The Homesmiths Are...

What feels like a long time ago, when Megan was 21, she bought the house that our family is still living in. It’s a half double, in town, and is on .06 acres of land. She started a small vegetable and flower garden and used what grew in the summer when she could and that was that.

 

 

While working full-time, she paid off her student loan debt and her car debt. She managed money well enough, never going into any other consumer debt but never saving any more than a small emergency fund.

At the same time, but in what would seem like a different universe, Bennett was in seminary. He went through six years of schooling before he felt that he wasn’t called to be a priest anymore. He left the seminary and pursued a special education teaching degree.

Fast forward a few more years and we met working in a school together. While Megan was working full time in her career as a nurse and Bennett as a classroom aide, he was also going to school to finish his degree.

We knew going into our relationship, specifically marriage, that debt was not something that we wanted. We dreamed of paying it off quickly and having a dream house eventually with kids. We also felt though that God was calling Megan to be able to be a stay-at-home mom, raising our kids as well as she could while directing a healthy lifestyle to the best of her ability.

 

 

When we got married, Bennett’s debt totaled over $70,000 and he still had several classes that we wanted to cash flow. The student loan debt was a compilation from seminary and an issue with the school he was in not knowing how to take someone with his bachelor’s degree major and transfer it to a special education master’s. He ended up with a dual Masters in general and special education and unfortunately, the loans to prove it.

As most people know, teachers don’t make a lot of money but once he graduated and was earning a full-time teacher’s salary along with Megan’s full-time nursing salary, we were able to pay down a good portion of the debt before we had our first child.

During this time in the summer Bennett was doing odd jobs and extra summer school hours, Megan was selling DIY projects on Marketplace and we were doing what we could to save and bring in extra money. One thing that we did was garden, not to necessarily save money but to have higher quality ingredients at home that we didn’t have to spend extra to have.

 

 

As we ate food that we had grown, Megan started pursuing more DIY and healthy lifestyle alternatives that were within our reach without extending our budget. She has learned and is still learning about gardening and canning, food from scratch, and home skills that improve our lives. The little changes that she made here and there started an itch that keeps growing in both of us. Our hopes for a “dream house” have evolved into a property that will let us grow produce at a much larger scale than what we currently can, not only for us but also to give to our friends and family. Through trial and error and research, we are desiring a less processed food source that we can create and offer to those around us. We want land that will allow our family to spend time outside and provide the benefits that hard work can offer.

The catch though is that we don’t want to do this with the student loan debt hanging over us. We don’t feel like it would be right or even manageable. Our goal is to cash flow our future but we can’t until we’ve paid down the debt. So we are using where we are to learn, plan, and practice both skills and patience.

 

 

We are willing to do a lot to pay off our debt and get to where we want to be but there are standards that we are choosing to keep first. First and foremost, God is the center. We are always prayerfully seeking His guidance, wisdom, and plan for our life. If or when that changes, we will do our best to follow and obey, even if it is different from where we want to be. This means that no matter our financial situation, we will always tithe. This also means that despite some financial experts extolling the virtues of working around the clock to the best of your ability, we give our time weekly to where God asks us to in our church. We do not believe in sacrificing our relationship with God or family for the sake of money. Because if we get to build our dream house three years earlier but don’t recognize each other, will that have been for the best? We don’t think so. So we have a schedule, routine, and plans and we spend far less than we make. We also remember that there is more to life than paying off debt or living a certain lifestyle. We want a balanced life that also lets us pay down the debt quickly.

As we shared at the beginning of this story of ours, we created the Homesmiths as a way to hopefully bring in income to reach our goals without sacrificing our values. We also want to use it as a way to share what we’ve learned and what we are doing in the hopes that it will encourage and inspire others who are in a similar situation. We are genuinely grateful for the time you’ve taken to peruse our site here and hope you’ve found encouragement and motivation. Feel free to contact us with your thoughts or questions.

Sincerely,

Bennett & Megan

The Homesmiths