How to own your own home is a problem which confronts the great
majority. That it is oftentimes easily solved, however, is revealed by
the following simple experience as related by H.M. Perley in _Life_:
How did we do it? Simply by going without everything we needed. When I
was first married my salary was thirty dollars a month.
My mother-in-law, who lived with us, decided to save enough out of my
salary to build us a home.
When the cellar was finished, I became ill and lost my position, and had
to mortgage the cellar to make my first payment.
Although we went without food for thirty days the first year, we never
missed a monthly payment.
The taxes, interest on mortgage, and monthly payment on house were now
three times the amount of my earnings.
However, by dispensing with the service of a doctor, we lost our father
and mother-in-law, which so reduced our expenses that we were able to
pay for the parlor floor and windows.
In ten years seven of our nine children died, possibly owing to our diet
of excelsior and prunes.
I only mention these little things to show how we were helped in saving
for a home.
I wore the same overcoat for fifteen years, and was then able to build
the front porch, which you see at the right of the front door.
Now, at the age of eighty-seven, my wife and I feel sure we can own our
comfortable little home in about ten years and live a few weeks to enjoy
it.