Tag Archives: Shopaholic Savers Updates

Should I Buy a House Now or Later?

houseI have been thinking about buying a home more and more often recently. I really want to own my own home but I am very up in the air about it. Although I am a long way from making an actual purchase I am considering my options.

Pros to Buying a House Now-

– Home prices are extremely cheap right now in my neighborhood/neighborhoods where I would consider buying a home. I mean really cheap! You can buy a decent house in a decent neighborhood for less than $60,000. I even found a decent one for $23,000. That’s crazy and I know it won’t last for long.

– Our rent is several hundred dollars more a month than a mortgage would be and we would be paying towards owning something not just throwing away rent money. Since I moved out of my parents house at 18 if I spent $500 a month on rent I have probably paid about $35,000-$42,000 in rent alone which could have completely bought a house in today’s market.

– A mass transit train is opening around the corner and I think once it opens home prices will skyrocket, plus a rental property will be even more sought after when it is close to mass transit

– I want to own rental homes in the future, why not buy a home, live in it for a couple of years and then rent it out when we move?

– We are stuck in one place for school for the next couple of years anyways so moving somewhere far away isn’t a realistic possibility

– If we stay near this neighborhood we are very close to family, my job and my doctor

– It takes a while to establish yourself in a new place after a move, we have a great life here and we may not want to move and start over (again) right away

– I want to be able to do all the things you can’t really do when renting- paint my walls any color I want, plant a garden, even getting a dog isn’t practical in our rental home with white carpets

– It would be a good investment down the road

 

Cons to Buying a House Now-

– We currently commute about 30 mins to the university where we will both be in school and soon I will be teaching, this drive could get old quickly and right now we have the flexibility to decide to move closer if we wanted (But right now we want to stay here)

– Buying a home is a huge commitment; we would be making a commitment to stay there for at least a couple of years

– Owning a home can be expensive. It’s thousands of dollars to replace a roof, fix a septic system, or fix electrical problems.

– What if we need to move and can’t rent it out? (Honestly I’m not too worried about this one because we know so many people in this area who rent)

– We don’t look like we make a lot of money on paper right now so I don’t know how difficult it would be to get approved for a mortgage.

– I am not 100% familiar with the home buying process so this will require a lot of self education on my part

– In our price range we will probably be buying a house that has at least a few projects and we don’t have a lot of experience with DIY (although we could learn) so we would either need a lot of help from family or we would need to hire people to help us. I don’t want to live in a construction zone for a long period of time either.

What do you think? What has your experience been with home buying/renting? I will take all of the advice I can get on this subject!

Note- All you need is an e-mail address to comment on this site, no sign up is ever required

4-6-13 Shopaholic Savers Weekend Update

shopsavelogo

So on this blog while I do write about small snippets of my personal life I don’t usually write about it a great deal. However, life has been really exciting for me lately and I want to share.

For those of you who don’t know me you should know that I graduated from college with a double major B.A. in 2010 with a 4.0 GPA and zero debt. After working full time for a horrible company, I had a period of unemployment before going back to waiting tables. Currently, I am about to go back to school for my Master’s degree.

I just found out that I have received a Graduate Teaching Assistantship which will allow me to teach class sections while I am in school in order to have my tuition covered and earn a living stipend. I also received a Dean’s fellowship to help me cover my expenses while in school. In addition, I applied for and received a summer mentoring fellowship from the university which will pay me to conduct a research study this summer before I start classes and teaching in the fall. My BF, who I refer to as B on this website has already started going back to school for Computer Science.

Here is what my schedule looks like in the next few months-

Summer Semester

– Summer Mentoring Fellowship to Conduct Tipping Research Study

– Taking a Class to Prepare to teach at a University

– Taking another online class to prepare to use the online teaching programs

– Working as a server a few days a week

– Running my online eBay/ Amazon business from home

– Running and Maintaining this website and hiring someone to revamp it visually (stay tuned this will be soon!)

Fall Semester-

– Starting taking Full time classes in the M.A. program

– Teaching two sections of a class

– Working as a server, maybe two days a week

– Running my online eBay/ Amazon business from home (if I have time)

– Running and Maintaining this website

So all I have to worry about is my part time job, running a website, running an online business, going back to school and teaching classes in addition to running a household and spending time with family and friends. Sleep is optional right? I think I can say that my plate is FULL! And I couldn’t be more excited!

 

Some of My Recent Posts-

Over 60 Things We Usually Don’t Spend Money On and A Few Things We Do
3-28-13 Publix Shopping Trip
Search for Coupons Before You Shop
March Grocery and Household Item Budget
DIY Pet Water Bottle Holder
4-5-13 Recent Thrift Shop Finds

 

Some Great Posts I’ve Been Reading Recently On Other Sites-

Making a Financial Plan for the Future (Here’s Mine) @Single Mom’s Income– this is about rental properties, something that I’m very interested in

Eating Healthy On A Budget @ Purposely Frugal

How Rich People Think @ Budgets Are Sexy

We Quit Our Jobs With $26,000 To Travel the World @Making Sense of Cents

ShopaholicSavers.com Now Has An Instagram!

instagramWe now have our own Instagram! We will be posting more pictures and instant content through our Instagram page. This makes it a lot easier for me to share deals while I’m shopping. So follow us for even more in store deals, thrifting, yard sale finds, sales, frugal living and cute pet pics. Below is a preview of some of the stuff we currently have on our instagram site. We would love it if you would follow us.

instagramheader

2-3-12 Shopaholic Savers Update- Organic/Natural Deals and Healthy Food Deals

I think it’s safe to say that all of this started with my three New Year’s Resolutions. I wanted to be healthier, do even better financially and be even more green (eco-friendly)!

Let’s start with Be Healthier! Little did I know that in January I would stumble across a book called Toxic Free by Debra Lynn Dadd which very thoroughly exposes chemicals residing in our homes and products that we use every day. I was not completely ignorant of this because my mother was always very careful about chemicals she used in our home while I was growing up. These include Bleach, Tilex, Pest Control Sprays, etc. because that’s what they are- chemicals! I was also not as aware as I should have been of the chemicals in items like shampoo and deodorant. I have never used many in my home either but now I am especially conscious of it.

The other part of Being Healthier that I am trying to follow is eating healthier. Both reducing the chemicals in my house and eating healthier lead me to wanting to use more organic products when I am able to.

My next New Year’s Resolutions was to do even better financially. The question then becomes- How do I start replacing chemicals and foods in my house for more Organic, Healthier, Greener options and at the same time not spend a ton of money?

I have decided that I am not going to go through the house and throw away all of our cleaning products and stockpile that I may no longer want to use in my home. What I am going to do is slowly start replacing products when I find good deals and looking for better options. As I do, I am going to donate or sell the items that I will no longer be using.

This is what I have done so far-

– I realized that every woman’s deodorant in my house contains Aluminum. So I am now using baking soda instead. You simply apply a small amount when you are damp from the shower and it disappears just like deodorant would. So far it has worked great!

(My new compost bin)

– I started a compost to create soil. I am planning to start planting in a couple months when the weather gets warmer. Hopefully this will save money on fruits and veggies that won’t be grown with pesticides. My mother actually offered me this small plastic bin when I was looking for something to put my compost in so I didn’t have to pay for that either.

– I bought some Tom’s of Maine products that were a great deal at CVS this week. I was able to use gift cards so it was zero out of pocket. Click HERE to see that post.

– I was out of Tilex and instead of going out and buying more I created my own cleaner from equal parts baking soda and vinegar to green clean my shower. We have been very sick in my household for about a month which means that there was some mold and mildew growing that with some light scrubbing my homemade, green cleaner took care of. Click HERE for more green cleaner ideas. Most homemade cleaners are green and I was excited that many could be made from items I already had in my house for FREE and don’t have to cost a lot of money.

– I received a cast iron skillet for Christmas from my brother that I was excited about because now I have an alternative to Teflon. My boyfriend’s mother also recently gave me a stoneware cooking item that is also much healthier to use.

All of this being said, I am going to start doing more blog posts in two new categories. Natural/Organic Deals and Healthy Food Deals. So check back to see what I come up with!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...