How are you surviving financially?
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| Wed, 12-08-2004 - 1:11pm |
Hi everyone - I'm mostly a lurker, but I was wondering how you all are able to survive financially on one income. We live in a part of the country where a 2 bed townhouse goes for over half a million dollars, and we are barely surviving here. We bought it when it was cheaper, but we found out we are expecting again and need to find a bigger house and I don't know if we can afford to live here anymore without me working.
Our family is here, and I would like to stay, but I am so angry that we can't seem to afford a decent house in a family neighborhood here w/o me working. I think it's imperative that I stay home while our babies are young, but what do we do? Move to some other state away from family, have DH change jobs and do something he may not like, or stay here and have me work?? I am so angry because we have worked so hard to get all this education (we both have graduate degrees) and where we live that still doesn't cut it.
We could possibly make it if he worked even more than he does now - 12-14 hours per day and weekends. But then he would never see the kids. I just don't know what to think. This whole thing seems so unfair. :(
How do you do it? What should we do?????
-Melissa

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Whoa half a million for a townhouse? Where do you live? That seems incredibly high..I live in Ohio, and for a half a million, you can have a 3000 sq. ft. 4-5 bedroom house, thats ALL updated,, in the best neighborhood! Is there any way you can move to a suburb without going too far away from your family, usually you can find something cheaper. Does your husband work weekends? Maybe find a weekend job that would make it easier? You just have to figure out with your husband what the best thing is to do for your family.goodluck
katie
Well, hon, I am pretty sure that alot of us are just barely making it. As for a new home - the kids should be able to share a room for a few years if the room is of adequate size, so a new home should be a few years off yet. Scour your real estate market and look for a deal. If it's all cosmetic then go for it as long as the house is of sound structure and in a good neighborhood, you would be amazed at the deals you can get just because people want move-in ready homes. Then you just take care of one room at a time - a couple gallons of paint, some new curtains/bedding, and maybe a rug will do wonders and if you only do one or two rooms at a time you won't be breaking the bank all at once.
For my family, we are making it by living simple. No gym memberships, magazine subscriptions, etc. We do have Internet and cable and that's about it. We have a modest home that provides plenty of room for us all, yes we could buy a bigger house but we don't NEED it. We also just this month started following Dave Ramsey - he's a financial guy and you can find him on the Net. It's so strange to see how frivolous we have been with things now that we are analyzing it and scrutinizing every penny. You should check him out and read his message boards and maybe even make your own post to ask about this. We have gotten so much advice on how to do things.
Is your schooling/training in something that you can do from home? Are there any companies that you could possibly be hired on by that have a daycare within the building that you would office in? What about getting someone to come into your home that could watch the children if you decide to go back to work rather than a daycare center?
There are lots of options for you to look at - put them all down on paper and then weigh the pros and cons on each one. It'll work out, but like I said a new house should be years down the road since the baby will probably be in your room for a month or so in the bassinette (right?) and then the kids CAN share a room for a while (my boys have been sharing two years now and it's been just fine - my daughter even shares her room sometimes just because they all want to be together =})
Good luck and I hope I made some sense in all of this...LOL
Sherrie =}
Mama to
Kaelyn (5-13-97)
Kyle (12-13-99)
Jacob (11-30-02)
Thanks for your input - Here's the deal w/ us. We have one car. I take DH to the train station in the morning and he goes to work. It saves us a LOT of money (no car pmt, insurance). It also saves him from having to drive the 1.5 hr commute to work.
We have a master bedroom that we kept DD in for 8 months. We moved her to the 2nd bedroom, which is 9x9 feet - we couldn't fit a bed and a crib in there, or 2 cribs in there. Our bedroom is big, and we figured we would keep the 2nd baby in there for maybe 6 months this time around. We don't have a yard, so I thought that might be nice for a toddler, too.
There are cheaper houses, but they tend to be in bad areas like East LA (watch boys in the hood for more info on this area). :) We already live in a suburb, so there's not too much left.
It's just that this area has skyrocketed in the past couple of years - we live in the LA area... you should check out the prices on realtor.com sometime. :)
I'm also going to check out the internet guy - If we could just get through these first few years, then I could go back to work when the kids are in school.
Thanks again,
Melissa
Hi Melissa
I know what you are going through!!!
My dh & I recently bought a home, and had to maove to another city (about 1hr drive) from where we have lived most of our lives, becuase the prices of homes were around $400,000 - $500,000 for a 3 bedroom townhouse. There is NO WAY we could even think of affording something like that! So, we made the choice to move. Luckily dh's company he works for has a branch in this new city we moved to so he was able to get a transfer, and still works for the same place, and doesn't have to commute. I guess, the kids will have to share a room for awhile, but they might end up liking it!
Good luck to you!
Lesley
OK - so how about swapping rooms for now and giving the kids the bigger bedroom? It's a sacrifice, I know, but which would be a bigger sacrifice - working to afford the bigger house or swapping rooms?
I understand about neighborhoods and prices and such. We did what I described to you earlier - saved about $50K because the home needed all cosemtic work done inside and we were willing to do it and it's something that has only cost us maybe $4K. We will do another $6-$10K of updates which includes replacing all of the windows, new kitchen cabinets and restoring the hardwood floors but it's worth that little bit compared to another paying the huge jump in the mortgage just because we wanted move-in ready conditions. I live in S. Texas where our cost of living is nowhere near what your's is but then again our payscale's are comparable to our areas as well. A really nice 4 bedroom, 3 bath home that we would LOVE to move to would cost us in the range of $175K, we bought this 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom home for $79K in the area that we wanted to be in. We are considering buying that new house but not for another 5-7 years where we can put the 20% down - if not more from the sale of our current home - and not have to worry about a really large mortgage payment because of doing so. So we'll stick it out with the boys sharing a room and having to go into the garage to do laundry, etc. but it'll be worth it in the end when we can really afford to do it and not have to go through all the hassle and stress and worry about it.
Like I said - put all your options down on paper and do what works best for you. That's a starting point at least.
Good luck!
Sherrie =}
Wow, I bet cost of living is extremely high where you live! I think that is what it comes down to. Can your Dh relocate? I just wanted to show you an example of living in my area. Not that there are not million dollar homes in my city because there are. But I was you and I sold the townhome I would sure have a lot left over if I moved!
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We struggle here, but being home with them is well worth it. If you must, do what others have suggested and share rooms, change some things around the home to accommodate another child. It can be done if you try. People in other countries do it with smaller areas and bigger families.
I think you will think it was a great idea in the end.
Good luck.
Southern CA!
* yrs ago my Dh, DD and I bought this house. It is now paid off (which makes staying home easy). But there were only 2 bedrooms. In 2000 we had a DS and kept him in our room til he was big enough for a bed. Then we moved out of our room (the biggest room in the house) and gave it to DD & DS. He had one side she had the other. We moved into their small room. We always talked about building on. Then we started to build on in 2003 when I found out I was prego again. We gave the new room to DD and gave DS#1 a room alone and kept baby to this day in our room. Now when baby is big enough for a bed (about 1 1/2 yrs) he will share room with DS#1. DS#1 misses his DD still after a year being seperated and he sleeps with her sometimes still. There ages are 9,4,1.
We live in the country. We bought a 4 story house, full basement, full attic, now 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, a dining room, living room, kitchen and a wrap around porch with deck out back on an acre of land for 25,000.00. We put alot of work into it but its ours now and its so cool to look at the pics of how it use to look. Luckily for me my DH went College for capetnry. If I want it he will build it. Someday when the youngest gets old we will sell this and build our own home.
Rearrange your house, give up your bedroom for a smaller one, convert attic, laundry room, etc into a bedroom. There has to be a cheaper closer village to move your family. Youd be happier too. Eileen
Hi,
I noticed you said you lived in Mission Viejo. I live in Aliso Viejo and just thought I'd say hi and tell you that traffic is still the same! Glad you're happy in the midwest, tho.
Adrienne
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