Wednesday, February 25, 2009

When Did Life Get So Expensive?

How do people do it??? Everyone, I mean. You. Me. Them. How do we get by from day to day? It makes no sense.

This home-buying experience has been a very enlightening one. Ryan and I have spent hours at the calculator crunching numbers and working out percentages, figuring out what we can afford and what we can’t.

Through this process, we have realized just how crazy expensive getting a home is… at least a functional home that is in a safe neighborhood. We feel really blessed with a great job, a decent income and good money-saving/staying-out-of debt skills, but buying a home will really stretch us.

Maybe I am just nervous. Today Ryan is visiting with the bank. I am nervous that we won’t get approved for a loan. I am nervous that we will.

If we get this house, we will be very tight for at least two years. House Poor I believe is the term. Since Ryan and I have always lived below our means, living at our means is terrifying.

But now is the time to buy… right? Interest rates and house prices are at their lowest. Even if we save for another year, the higher prices might not compensate for the extra down payment.

So my question is, how do people do it? How do people afford to get houses and still have extra to go to movies and wear cute clothes and go on dates?

How do people who have more modest incomes even make it to the end of the month?

6 comments:

Alesa said...

Credit, and they don't.
To bad there aren't more smart people out there like you and Ryan, (not to mention ones with amazingly cute kids)

karen said...

budget and budget. thats how we felt too. we actually don't have internet. we use my husband's work laptop (it's free). we plan on getting rid of our cable after our contract is up (we barely watch tv ), etc. you guys are so good and things will work out :) you'll be surprised.

Katie said...

I know how you feel Biff! I guess we have to learn to sacrifice some things in order to obtain others. I want a tour of this house!

Anonymous said...

Being super cheap helps also. We don't buy certain things at the grocery store unless they hit a price I like. ie. we go without cheese a lot!!!!

...Laura... said...

People don't do it. Or at least most people who appear to be doing it aren't really. That's why our country is in this credit/realestate crisis right now. Not enough people are living like you- below their means. That's so awesome that you guys are so good about that. I'm envious. We've racked up quite a bit of credit card debt in the last few years... but then again a good portion of that was buying a money pit house. So be careful about that!!!

Good luck on getting your loan. Banks are being super tight and picky right now, so if you get one, you know you're in the right step to "making it" and it will pay off! :)

Shannon said...

I am totally in the same boat. If only all house prices were as low as they are in Texas.