Page 22 - C.A.L.L. #31 - Spring 2009
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Living simply is simply cheaper
CNN
For starters, she has no car and
Keri Rainsberger isn't rich. She works commutes by bicycle each workday.
in the nonprofit world for a relatively She also has no mortgage payment and
low-profit salary. Yet, as many chooses to live in an "intentional
Americans are scrimping for every community," a partly shared space
penny, she hardly feels the pinch. where $775 a month covers everything
from utilities to meals.
She still tithes 10 percent of her
income to her church, even as other "In one fell swoop, I pay for the roof
members have cut back. She rarely over my head, the food in my stomach
worries about rising gas and food and the lights to read by. That's a big
prices. And she never bothers to advantage," says Rainsberger, whose
balance her checkbook, because she high-rise living space is part of the
doesn't come close to spending what residential program at the Keystone
she has. Ecological Urban Center in Chicago's
Uptown neighborhood.
Her private quarters -
larger and a bit more
expensive than some -
are about 400 square
feet, divided into a
sitting room, a craft
room and a small
bedroom. She shares
bathrooms, showers, a
kitchen and a large
dining room with 28
other residents whose
ranks include young
professionals,
Residents of the intentional community at the Keystone Ecological Urban professors and retirees.
Center in Chicago, sit down for a group dinner
"It's like a college
"I live so far below my means that it dormitory, but with better
doesn't really register," says conversation," she often jokes.
Rainsberger, a 31-year-old Chicagoan
with a wiry frame and unusually sunny Of course, the concept of sharing
outlook. "I don't have to think about resources has been around since the
money." beginning of time and is used today
from Amish farms to the Israeli
How is this possible? kibbutz. For low-income families, it's
often simply a matter of survival.
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