For one young couple, 'the simple life' meant starting out in a tent

While some might dream of downsizing and retiring to a simpler life—say to a 400-square-foot cabin in the woods—Mandy and Jeremiah Jones decided to start out that way. After college, the newlyweds lived in a tent for more than a year while Jeremiah constructed their small cabin. Unlike most young couples, they now live in a house that’s completely paid for. Five wooden steps lead to the door of their home in rural northwest Arkansas, which is surrounded by curious cows and a pet chicken named Phineas.

Married for two and a half years, the Joneses graduated from College of the Ozarks, also known as “C of O,” where students work for the school in lieu of paying tuition. They met when Jeremiah was working as a waiter and Mandy as a dishwasher.

“I like to call it our Cinderella story because I was in my extra-large dish pit gown because there was never a size left because I worked the nights,” Mandy said.

With no college debt to worry about, the two agreed relationships would take priority over acquiring things that tend to sink other young couples into debt.

“It may take longer, the road may be harder, and there may be more sacrifice to it. But, in the end, it’s worth it not having debt,” Mandy said. “I think C of O really planted the idea of ‘don’t spend it if you don’t have it’. That mentality, to us, is freedom.”

That freedom and sacrifice initially took the form of a 14-by-12-foot tent. Jeremiah set it up on top of wood pallets after leveling the ground, laying concrete blocks and wooden planks. The tent flapped loudly in the wind, and they could often hear cows munching on grass on the other side of the fence. Once at 2 a.m., a bull got out and stomped around on their makeshift porch.

The tent had a bed, a basic kitchen with a toaster oven, microwave and a refrigerator, a cable spool as a side table, a closet area, a lamp, and a space heater. They had a portable toilet and a camper shower rigged up nearby under a Bradford pear tree. A hammock strung up between two other trees served as the guest room in summer. And they had electricity, though it was sometimes iffy. They couldn’t use the microwave and the toaster oven at the same time.

Despite those inconvenient moments, Mandy made it homey. She decorated around the zippered window with fabric and dried flowers from their wedding.

They made it through mid-December 2013, until uncharacteristic amounts of snow threatened to collapse the tent. Friends offered temporary housing. But when the worst of winter was over, they returned to the tent.

During that time, Jeremiah was building their three-room, red cabin. Recently they left the tent and moved into what Mandy says feels like a mansion. To bring in money, Mandy works with special education students in the local public school. Before installing the finishes in the cabin, they wrote Scriptures on the floors and walls.

“It’s in Proverbs 12:15 and it says, ‘The way of the fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice,’” Jeremiah said. “People have told me things like, ‘Hey, stay out of debt, don’t use a credit card if you can. Do these things because I’ve been there, I’vedone it, and you don’t want to do it.’”

Listening to wise counsel is one thing, and so is being willing to look for alternate paths.

“In Proverbs 16, it says there’s a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. … Our philosophy is, the road less traveled leads to life, and the road that masses of people are going on doesn’t necessarily lead to life,” Mandy said.

Jeremiah and Mandy aren’t just taking a road less traveled. They’re taking a road almost never traveled. They know most people aren’t willing to live in a tent or a 400-square-foot cabin, just to stay out of debt. But they say everyone can implement the idea of living on less.

“And so you ask yourself, how do you get there? I think that’s a reasonable question with a statement like that. And I think it would come through what can you downsize in your life? What can you go without? And we’ve decided that without a large house, without a very nice car, without the extravagancy of having a lot of stuff, we’re able to do just that,” Jeremiah said. “And so it just goes back to living a simple life. I think you can do that.”