Frugal June Bugs - Frugal Chatter continued

[Bronwen]

Can I ask a rather personal question here... How many of you own your home?

DH and I are both students, and DH just started his 3 year Computer Tech course (after finishing a masters degree in a totally separate field). My SIL (and best friend - married to DH's brother) just informed me that when they move out of here next spring (we all live in a 4 bedroom townhouse) that they will be moving into their own home (they're both students too but her parents are buying the house for them). They will be buying a back split and moving my MIL (DH's mom) into the basement. She said she wanted us to live there but there were a few reasons why they decided against it... the biggest reason being that they don't feel like dealing with all the family drama it would cause with DH's sister (our SIL). I hope all of this is making sense lol.

Anyway I am of course happy for them. We can only dream of one day owning a home with the credit we have and the fact that we will be in lots of debt from student loans. Owning a home was something I never cared too much about until we had kids. Now I'd love one. Not to mention our neighbor was robbed a few days ago and someone broke into his house last night. Would be nice to be in a better area lol. That being said, I don't want to move again until we can buy a house though... If we can, ever.

Anyway as I was saying... I'm happy for them but ever since they told me and DH I have been feeling sad. DH's parents don't have the means to help us and although my parents do, we have a rocky history and wouldn't even co-sign for us in the past, even though we have never paid rent late. I guess I should note... They have since then loaned us money on a contract since then and we *have* always paid them back on time.

... I'm not even sure why I feel sad. Maybe just cause having our own house is something that if it is possible, won't be for quite some time.

Anyway..... Time to get the kids in the bath :p

[saundyl]

cath so sorry about your auntie

[SassyAshley]

I bought a house with my mom 3 year ago which was good and bad. We kind of forced into it, we were living in a house my mom's mom owned (we were in that house for 22 years) and she decided she wanted to move into the house which was fine we always knew she wanted to be there at some point. But my Nanny being my Nanny put the cart before the horse before we had a chance to find a house she expectantly sold hers before it was even on the market leaving us with no where to go and did I mention she offered them a fast closing. So we found a house we could afford, which we now hate. We are in a townhouse condo, our neighbours directly are not bad but some in the complex I avoid. But with that being said we are NOT townhouse people our neighbours are way too close for us and I am pretty much held hostage because I have to park in visitor parking and there is not enough parking that I have to worry at times about somewhere to park. So I tend to come straight home after work and do not go out on weekends.

There are many issues with this house and to be honest I am sick of the money we have put into the house and we still have a long list of improvements that need to be done. It is beyond frustrating as we do not want to stay here. I am hoping in the near future that my guy will move to the area (he is currently 2.5 hours away) and I am not sure what mom plans to do one day if I leave she is leave the next day she might stay. My guy is well aware of the issues, the biggest one right now being I do not think she can afford to stay here if I leave and has already agreed that is need be we will get a house with an in-law suite for her which may bring huge issues as me and my mom are constantly fighting lately over whose house our current house is. I am sick of being asked my opinion only for her to not listen and do as she wants anyways and also the fact the whole house is hers and I am constantly being told to take all of my stuff to my room.

If we were able to right now we would move again, we would love to be in bungalow for mom's health issues not to mention if i could get her in a bungalow it would be somewhere I could leave her when it is time for me to move out. But being in a house it is impossible to save to move as mentioned there is a lot of work to be done on this house even just to be able to sell so instead of saving money we are spending it on renos and so on. Home ownership has positive and negatives, for me personally I cannot wait to have a house with my guy we can call out own but I currently own and live in a house I will be happy to walk away from.

Can I ask a rather personal question here... How many of you own your home?

DH and I are both students, and DH just started his 3 year Computer Tech course (after finishing a masters degree in a totally separate field). My SIL (and best friend - married to DH's brother) just informed me that when they move out of here next spring (we all live in a 4 bedroom townhouse) that they will be moving into their own home (they're both students too but her parents are buying the house for them). They will be buying a back split and moving my MIL (DH's mom) into the basement. She said she wanted us to live there but there were a few reasons why they decided against it... the biggest reason being that they don't feel like dealing with all the family drama it would cause with DH's sister (our SIL). I hope all of this is making sense lol.

Anyway I am of course happy for them. We can only dream of one day owning a home with the credit we have and the fact that we will be in lots of debt from student loans. Owning a home was something I never cared too much about until we had kids. Now I'd love one. Not to mention our neighbor was robbed a few days ago and someone broke into his house last night. Would be nice to be in a better area lol. That being said, I don't want to move again until we can buy a house though... If we can, ever.

Anyway as I was saying... I'm happy for them but ever since they told me and DH I have been feeling sad. DH's parents don't have the means to help us and although my parents do, we have a rocky history and wouldn't even co-sign for us in the past, even though we have never paid rent late. I guess I should note... They have since then loaned us money on a contract since then and we *have* always paid them back on time.

... I'm not even sure why I feel sad. Maybe just cause having our own house is something that if it is possible, won't be for quite some time.

Anyway..... Time to get the kids in the bath :p

[MrsSunshine]

no Bronwen, we don't and i don't think we ever will, quite frankly im not sure we want the responsibilties. were quite happy, most days, with where we are.. we are in our mid-late 40's. its not a priority. maybe in a few years will be looking at different ideas, but even then i highly doubt unless we win$$$ it'll b a home.

[alicia]

We rent, but we also own a condo townhouse that we rent out. It makes financial sense for us because rent is cheap where we recently moved, and our place in our hometown won't sell in the soft market of our price-range.

[Crochetlady]

Dh has proposed that we both turn off our computers for the week, so I probably won't be on. I figured I'd post here in case anyone actually worries about my unexplained absence.

I went through withdrawal when I was without my computer for 2 days. DH hates them and thinks I spend far too much time on it. He`s probably right but...

[Crochetlady]

We own our own house. It was a fixer-upper.(built in 1869) Needed so much work done.DH and friends did a lot of it but for many years we were living with constant renos. It also gets very expensive. We are now at the point that we wish we were renting so the repairs and upkeep would be someone else`s problem. I can see us in about 5 years looking into moving into an apartment.

[SassyAshley]

I can admit, I do not think I could go without my computer but with that being said my guy is 2.5 hours from me and this is how we talk most of the time. If we were talking on the phone as much as we talk on here it would cost us a quite a bit since we always talks on our cell phones. But I guess if we had another way to talk I wouldn't be on as much as back when he had his old phone and texting I would go days without using my computer at home but right now his current phone does not have texting.

[lizzie bargain]

Bronwen, Try to think outside of the box if you can and think positive if it is your goal to own a home at some point. Admittedly I did not come out of school with big student loans or bad debt but here is how I became a homeowner. When I started out I bought a bungalow with a roughed in apt in the basement-finished it off inexpensively for about $ 500-think good quality used carpet, appliances etc ( okay it was 1988) and rented it out to two young ladies with developmental disabilities. The money I received for room and board from them and support dollars for providing support to them was legally tax free-as are foster care payments I believe. Not that I am suggesting you do these things if you don't have a passion for them but just one eg of how I worked two jobs simultaneously and one was at home during evenings and weekends. Even running a day home or home business will give you some deductions for your house. What I am suggesting is try to think of a way to have part of your future house generate some extra income for you-by having an apt or another opportunity. I did this for 7 years and it really helped me pay off a lot in the early years. I also put any extra money against it and it still took me 18 years to pay off the mortgage as I kept moving to a more expensive house( total 4 houses) and eventually gave up my apt and tenants by house #3. It was worth the early sacrifices and now we do own our new home which is the best option for us-I know some people prefer to rent and some to own.

[Caseythegoalie]

We own our own home. We bought three years ago this past June...it took us a lot of time. We were 29 and 34 respectively...already had the three kids, two dogs and a cat, whole house. Newer home (about five years young now) which is nice as DH is not very handy! I still have a student loan and am going to school part time now while working. Its hard to imagine what we were doing with our money before as we afford our mortgage and its $400 more than our old rent + water,etc...? Anyways, I started with small RRSPs and paying off small debts. You can do it!

[coupon girl]

we own our own home (our second house -paid off the first house)-we have lived in it for 15 years now -moved when our kids were teenagers -(drug dealer lived next door to us and neighbourhood wasn't the best to raise teens)its a 2 storey cape cod house -spacious-we had our my mom living with us for 6 and a half years-she passed away in march -now the house is so quiet-til our granddaughter comes in oct-we are redoing a bedroom next -right now bathroom -I don't know if we will stay here many years-its hard to say -we will see as we age -in our early 50's now -but I still enjoy it just a few too many stairs sometimes-oh well keeps me in shape

[coupon girl]

oh my goodness just came home from my hubbies nieces hot tub with brother and sister-in-law -just the 4 of us -it was fun and relaxing til I started chocking on the wine -I stopped drinking as I think it had too much sulfate in it and I am allergic to it-then drank water -I am so relaxed right now

[Insane]

Can I ask a rather personal question here... How many of you own your home?

DH and I are both students, and DH just started his 3 year Computer Tech course (after finishing a masters degree in a totally separate field). My SIL (and best friend - married to DH's brother) just informed me that when they move out of here next spring (we all live in a 4 bedroom townhouse) that they will be moving into their own home (they're both students too but her parents are buying the house for them). They will be buying a back split and moving my MIL (DH's mom) into the basement. She said she wanted us to live there but there were a few reasons why they decided against it... the biggest reason being that they don't feel like dealing with all the family drama it would cause with DH's sister (our SIL). I hope all of this is making sense lol.

Anyway I am of course happy for them. We can only dream of one day owning a home with the credit we have and the fact that we will be in lots of debt from student loans. Owning a home was something I never cared too much about until we had kids. Now I'd love one. Not to mention our neighbor was robbed a few days ago and someone broke into his house last night. Would be nice to be in a better area lol. That being said, I don't want to move again until we can buy a house though... If we can, ever.

Anyway as I was saying... I'm happy for them but ever since they told me and DH I have been feeling sad. DH's parents don't have the means to help us and although my parents do, we have a rocky history and wouldn't even co-sign for us in the past, even though we have never paid rent late. I guess I should note... They have since then loaned us money on a contract since then and we *have* always paid them back on time.

... I'm not even sure why I feel sad. Maybe just cause having our own house is something that if it is possible, won't be for quite some time.

Anyway..... Time to get the kids in the bath :p

We own ours. But we were forced into really. We were renting the place and our landlord decided to sell. It was either buy it or move. I was just recovering from a broken ankle, we had a new baby and the rental rate is like 0% here. There is no way we were going to find a place that had the same rent and could accomodate our family of 6! Hubby's parents "lent" us most of the down payment. Well, his dad did which created a whole lot of drama with his mom; which made me feel awful. He's always said we don't need to pay him back but we've been insistent that eventually we will. Although I have no flippin' idea how. It's not that I hate the place, we'd been here for 4yrs, but I hate the responsability. Every time in the last year something has broken or is "going" I think about how before I would have just picked up the phone and called the landlord and it wouldn't have been my problem. The townhouse is not big enough for our needs. But, I don't know that we'll be able to afford to move for a very long, long time.

My sister bought a house with her hubby years ago. I was sad too. She was my younger sister and I desperately wanted to buy a house. I had a kid, she didn't. But I was in school and they weren't. We have a lot of school debt-a lot. I just had to swallow it and realize we were in different places and move forward.

[Insane]

I'm getting a meat order from a farm in AB, so trying to eat out of the freezer this week and next. It's amazing how much ends up at the bottom of that thing.

[sweet sparrow]

Can I ask a rather personal question here... How many of you own your home?

... I'm not even sure why I feel sad. Maybe just cause having our own house is something that if it is possible, won't be for quite some time.

You're still quite young (so don't give up yet!) and home prices are not what they were back when our parents started their families. When I first graduated, I was making a low beginning salary and living in my parents' townhouse in downtown Toronto. I shared the home costs, property taxes, bills, etc. with my brother, but still ate out quite a bit, went out with friends a lot, took over my brother's pet care costs (which were in the five figure range) and also tried to save where I could.

Fast forward a bit to marriage, to a person that also had a low income (and zero personal savings as his ex wiped out their bank account), one expensive wedding (though no debt incurred), and one year of renting... We took on a mortgage that some would think was huge, but we still saved as much as we could.

We finally own our own home, but we never would have been able to do it without help along the way. It's not as large as our friends' places, but it's what we can afford, and we're quite happy with it. Keep focusing on it if it's a big goal, try to save as much as you can each year and try to have fun doing it. It can happen, maybe not in your 20s, but I think it's quite possible as long as you keep trying. Do you know how much you need for the home that you want? It helps to have a goal in mind for what you're saving for.

We're still trying to pay off the balance left on our home, and maybe won't be finished doing it until our 40s, but it's also nice to be able to work towards that goal as a family. It didn't come easily and we appreciate what we have.