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I only save about $500/month, and managed to buy a house. Housing is cheap here though. I used most of my savings as a downpayment though.

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yous guys who have made life commitments ie buy houses etc: how do?

i've been saving practically all money i make from my day job and my photo business but i still only save like $250/week after my bills are paid. i feel like i'm going nowhere fast. =\\\\

 

I know this is easier said than done and seems like obvious advice, but at least one of two things needs to happen. You need to spend less money and/or make more money.

 

In addition: the way I make sure I save enough money each month is I take the amount I want to save out of my checking account and into my savings as soon as I get paid because I don't consider my savings as "spending money." This method has worked a lot better for me than previously when I would just kinda move money over to my savings account when I felt like I had a little extra.

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I only save about $500/month, and managed to buy a house. Housing is cheap here though. I used most of my savings as a downpayment though.

NJ sucks =[ everything is so expensive

 

I know this is easier said than done and seems like obvious advice, but at least one of two things needs to happen. You need to spend less money and/or make more money.

 

In addition: the way I make sure I save enough money each month is I take the amount I want to save out of my checking account and into my savings as soon as I get paid because I don't consider my savings as "spending money." This method has worked a lot better for me than previously when I would just kinda move money over to my savings account when I felt like I had a little extra.

That's what I do as well. I keep $200 in my checking to last me 2 weeks for my prescriptions, medical copays, gas, etc. $1200/mo goes to bills (which is INSANE HELP ME), then the remainder gets moved into my savings account.  Anything I make doing photo gigs goes into savings, too.

 

Thankfully I'm moving into my grandma's apartment in February for $0/mo since she is moving into assisted living. Then my $1200/mo of bills goes into savings since I won't have to spend it anymore. If she gets placed sooner, we'll break our lease and move there before then. I really hope it happens sooner.

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yous guys who have made life commitments ie buy houses etc: how do?

i've been saving practically all money i make from my day job and my photo business but i still only save like $250/week after my bills are paid. i feel like i'm going nowhere fast. =\\\\

We're looking to buy soon and the housing market here is nuts, so I feel your pain. If we lived back east where we did before we'd be able to afford twice the house for about 1/3 the money here :/

I think the secret is to just cut out nonessentials as much as you can. Cook dinner at home instead of eating out, stay in and do free stuff, things like that. And work your butt off. And buy a fixer if you guys are handy. As long as the electrical and "bones" of the house are good, cosmetic fixes aren't too tough to do on your own for the most part.

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We're looking to buy soon and the housing market here is nuts, so I feel your pain. If we lived back east where we did before we'd be able to afford twice the house for about 1/3 the money here :/

I think the secret is to just cut out nonessentials as much as you can. Cook dinner at home instead of eating out, stay in and do free stuff, things like that. And work your butt off. And buy a fixer if you guys are handy. As long as the electrical and "bones" of the house are good, cosmetic fixes aren't too tough to do on your own for the most part.

I can only imagine what its like out by you. If there's one place thats even more crazy than Jersey, it's out west lol.

 

Luckily my boyfriend is an architect and deals with codes all day long haha. So I'm pretty confident once we have the money we'll be in something good based on his knowledge of structures and stuff. My dream is to buy land and have him design the house for us.

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Ooh, ooh! And "pay yourself first" is a thing I've heard/do. I put my savings away first thing each check and force myself to live on what's left. That's the easiest way to budget really.

 

I've been doing that lately too. It's easy with one paycheck, but my 2nd one in the month is always hard since it's when my mortgage payment is.

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I've been doing that lately too. It's easy with one paycheck, but my 2nd one in the month is always hard since it's when my mortgage payment is.

Yeah...I've been kind of bad about it lately. They raised my credit limit the other day so I had to celebrate? I donno. Bad reason to spend money is bad reason.

If we were buying a house back in Pittsburgh or Rochester we'd be able to pay half or more of the house straight cash. Here what we've saved is most of a 20% down payment on an "ok" place. It's just a bummer.

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The only high utility here is Water/Sewer. It's usually an ~84% EPA fee tacked on due to our old shitty mayor never fixed the sewer systems when they told him too 20 years ago. My bill last month was $50, and $38 of it were fees. Everything else is pretty cheap. It's just a boring place to live.

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I've been doing that lately too. It's easy with one paycheck, but my 2nd one in the month is always hard since it's when my mortgage payment is.

I added all of my bills up and split it between each pay. So I put $600 into the joint account I have with my bf every check. That way I don't over spend during one pay period and have to struggle through the next.

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yous guys who have made life commitments ie buy houses etc: how do?

i've been saving practically all money i make from my day job and my photo business but i still only save like $250/week after my bills are paid. i feel like i'm going nowhere fast. =\\\\

We just assumed the previous home owner's identities. Teehee.

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I added all of my bills up and split it between each pay. So I put $600 into the joint account I have with my bf every check. That way I don't over spend during one pay period and have to struggle through the next.

 

I toss all be $180 per check into my savings, but latley I've been tempted and dip back into the savings. $180 is a lot for 1 person in 2 weeks, yet I some how still over spend on dumb shit.

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there should be a nice break for first time home owners. maybe 5%?

lenders like to see 20% but it's not a must with others.

I'd like to get 20% just because otherwise the payment on a $200k house (the lowest we can really find for 1,500 sq ft. In the area that isn't a complete shit heap) is just too high. We're actually very close, and could probably swing it. My boss was saying the bank just gave them like 12k toward their house with their mortgage because they were first timers.
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Damn, $200k is alot. My house is 1200 sq ft. and was $63k. It was a foreclosure though, but houses in my neighborhood are usually around $100k, or a bit less in this market. Should be a good flip here soon.

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Damn, $200k is alot. My house is 1200 sq ft. and was $63k. It was a foreclosure though, but houses in my neighborhood are usually around $100k, or a bit less in this market. Should be a good flip here soon.

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Back in Pittsburgh a 2,000 sq ft house can be had in some neighborhoods for ~$70k. Our mortgage would be like...nothing even if we did a 15 year.

$200k is pretty damn inexpensive in portland for a house unfortunately. :/

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It's give and take. Cheap houses in a place you probably don't want to live. Akron is dead, just like most of the Rust Belt/this part of the midwest. Our population chart is funny on wiki, we have lost over 100K since the rubber factories left. (and yet I sit here in the head quarters of one working as an underpaid contractor).

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