After much wringing of hands and moaning over our $900 rent payment and crazy utility bills, J. and I decided to downsize.
We can afford our current place perfectly during the summer and passably during the winter, but we're looking for a place we could afford should one of us lose our jobs. Crazy economy, and all. We also wanted something with a slightly more efficient heating system (no more radiators!), a fenced yard, a garage, and a liberal pet policy that would let us have a dog.
Enter our solution: $665 a month. Slightly better neighborhood. 2 car garage. Forced air heat. 700 sq feet smaller. Still has 3 bedrooms. Lacks a shower upstairs, but has one downstairs. Needs some extra 3-prong plugs upstairs, but we've got them in the kitchen and upstairs in what will be J's office (I have no problem using converters. He shudders at the thought).
We'll still be paying out the ass for utilities during Dec/Jan/Feb, but the furnace is more efficient and total sq ft is smaller, and I've learned my lesson about the whole "put plastic sheeting over the windows" thing. I detest the white trash idea of "winterizing" my house with plastic sheeting. But then, I grew up in the PNW, where it doesn't generally get below 40 degrees for very long. Winterizing is still a foreign idea. We're def. doing it next year.
We've filled out all the paperwork, so we'll see how it turns out. Move date would be around March 15th.
4 comments so far. What are your thoughts?
hi Kameron
sorry to hear you are leaving that lovely old house you have been in for a while -- but kudos to you for the reality response...
recently I gave up renting a 3 bed house for 800 a month -- I realised I was paying 400 a month just to have guest rooms for the occasional stopovers from friends --
I moved to a house share -- 350 a month including all bills -- gives me more time to write! which is, as you reminded me in your recent guest blogs - what we really WANT to do...
so I packe dup the house, now live in a house share -- have a third of my previous living expenses -- and more time for writing -- yay!
of course it can be hard to do as so many people insist on seeing this as a backward step " but you had your own HOUSE" -- I just decided I would rather have my own life than my own house LOL
Cathy
Congrats and good luck. That will be a nice savings each month.
My husband and I are doing the winterizing thing, with plastic on the windows. It helps, along with blinds and curtains.
Kameron,
Those old Victorian houses ooze charm, but there's a limit to how much that charm costs. Sometimes you need to be practical. Being able to save for an emergency fund/cushion will undoubtedly take the sting out of moving.
I hope all goes well with the paperwork and you get the approval to move in soon.
Deb
Thanks, all!
CJ - yeah, I think we've gotten our ideas of "success" kinda skewed the last decade or two. It was all about how much crap you had instead of how financially solvent your actually were.
I'd like to stop measuring my success in "bigger, faster, better" and start measuring it in debt/income ratio. That seems like a much more solid and sound measurement in the long run.
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