brazzledazzler
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2015
I agree with all of these tips!I also agree with Clawdya's suggestion of "paying the mortgage" into your savings account starting now and making that a priority as if you really had a mortgage.
I find Zillow's mortgage calculator to be very accurate (within $50 or so) when playing with the house purchase price, down payment, PMI, etc. It will tell you the estimated final amount per month you will be paying with everything included (utilities excluded of course).
We are saving for our 2nd house now after selling our starter home almost exactly a year ago. We moved into my in-law's basement which is a full separate residence/apartment in order to maximize our savings goals since we are also saving for adoption. We're extremely thankful they offered to let us move into their basement even though it's been pretty rough for us at times since we lived alone for so long. By this winter/early spring we will have met our savings goals and will be ready to build our house or buy an existing one (if we find one we like...no luck thus far). Anyway, what I wanted to say was that we've had a few months of overspending where we kind of buy whatever we want since our financial obligations are so minimal right now...so do NOT do that! We are ultimately still on track, but it all adds up. It's worth holding off on vacations and other material items right now. We had our upcoming October trip planned and paid for before we sold our house so we're still going (we need a break anyway!), but if we wouldn't have had it arranged already we would have just saved that money.
I'm a housewife so we only have one income and I do little things to save money like Receipt Hog and Ibotta. I need to get back into Swagbucks (which I always redeemed for Amazon gift cards) but it's more time consuming than the other two. I make almost everything from scratch...granola, homemade Lara Bars, vegetable broth, yogurt, salad dressing, etc...all from scratch. I even make our own unsweetened coconut milk. We do spend a lot on groceries because we eat almost exclusively organic, but I've been noticing we're spending way more than we really need to on empty 'junk' like tortilla chips which we just don't need. I realized that the reason tortilla chips are making it into the cart is because we're out of homemade muffins in the freezer (I try to always have them in the freezer) as well as frozen homemade Lara bars (well, I make mine into balls because it's easier). So, not eating out and exclusively eating at home will help you save money.
Really think about the items you do buy and whether or not you really need them. Clothes is a big thing for a lot of people...this year I've spent a lot of money on clothing because I lost almost 40lbs...before I lost the weight, I hadn't purchased any clothing in several years. I'm now trying to restrict clothing purchases to items I really do need and just buy a piece here and there rather than several things at once. I do need shoes but I'm trying to space that out as well.
I feel for you girlie!! DH & I got married in April, and since June we have been budgeting and sticking to the budget to save for our first home. Pretty much, we're trying hard to live off of 1-1.5 income, and it is hard with student debt & car loans, but we have made big savings in food by doing everything you do: cooking at home! Before, DH used to buy frozen organic meals & snacks, or eat out for lunch; now, I make a big pot of delicious soup and that's lunch for the week! I think it is true, eating at home makes a big budget difference.
Swagbucks I found to be a lot less passive-earning versus Ibotta or Perk. I got 5 cheap ($10 phones) and they have paid themselves off and then some Perking in the past year. Ibotta, I only discovered in July, and in 6 weeks we got our first $25 gift card!
Even with all these concessions, saving up for a home is difficult; Until I used Zillow calculator and actually looked at housing prices, understood them, I did not realize how hard it is to save to buy a home; I don't know how you all do it on 1 income!! That is awesome!!
