Thursday, February 4, 2010

The First One

The architect in me has been procrastinating this first posting. "It has to be perfect" I keep telling myself. Some major inspiration filtered in through the mail over the past couple of weeks. My W-2 forms. All five of them, with a grand total of under $20K (pre-tax) earned in 2009. It has been a hard year for many of us. When I lost my full time architecture job in October of 2008 I panicked. The recession was officially in full swing and there were no architecture jobs to be found.

Over a year later I am still living in Richmond and supporting myself, albeit on approximately half of what I was earning before. I haven't had to move back in with my parents or drain my savings account as I once catastrophized. That's what this blog is all about. I want to share what I have learned about living minimally and surviving this recession. Losing my job has turned out, in many ways, to be one of the best things that has happened to me since graduating college. I have begun a new career direction as a Professional Organizer and feel empowered by my ability to live off of so little.

And so begins the minimalist of living "cheap and chic" in Richmond.

Kristen Ziegler

2 comments:

Prof. Title said...

what if you win the lottery...will you then create the converse? And so begins the maxima[list] of living "ostentatiously rich and unfashionable" in Richmond. *subscribe* ... tell me your secrets.

Anonymous said...

Hahaha. Wouldn't that be swell?