So over the years since this adventure began we have had to live without the option of using credit. It has been a revelation.

When I read the Tao Te Ching (Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life) I realised how ‘things’ just tie you down. Don’t get me wrong it is nice to have nice things, but now we do ask do we really need them? And more importantly do they justify the cost? I realised that debt just ties you down: to the job you hate, or the job you loved when you got the loan, but that you gradually came to hate during the lifetime of the loan, but were stuck there because of the debt. It ties you up in this Matrix of a world we live in, this Truman show. And now I don’t want credit.

Debt stops you living in the here and now, because in your here and now you are restricted by something you bought in the past. Debt stops you going with the flow, because you are trapped where you are, or you think you are.

So back to us. During the last two years we have toyed with building a small extension. But then the profiteering in the world began and we thought ‘Do we really need more space to heat?’ But we still toyed with the idea. In January my age hit me, and the little voice in my head whispered to me how I am not getting any younger, do I want to spend the next few years renovating? ‘Fuck it!’ It said ‘Get a loan, get it all done.’That is how on one winter Sunday afternoon we found ourselves applying for a loan.

Now we have nada credit, no cards, no nothing, we were a good option. The next day the bank were on the phone to RD asking for more details. But…. ‘Life’ stepped in. I went back to work after time off for my big 60. I got in to an email copied to me, it was telling my manager my contract was coming to an end in 30 days! Now this was an oversight on his part, and I am still in my job, but what it made me do was stop and ask myself what the hell were we doing? Here we both were in a situation where one of us could leave our job if we were not happy, where we could go part time, where we no longer had to put up with one ounce of shit from anyone. Getting a loan would change ALL that.

When RD came home and said the bank had called I told him I didn’t want a loan. As it turns out he had come to the same conclusion. If we were still living in France we would not be able to get a loan, let’s stick with that.

Our lessons have been learned, they are the greatest gift from these adventures.

Rosie