Happy Monday everyone! The weekend went by way too quickly and of course I’m not happy about it. I still have so much to do and don’t feel like I accomplished much.
This weekend we did a lot. We looked around on Sunday to try and think of possible areas that we want to buy in, and we found a couple that we like. We pretty much know what kind of house we want (we are pretty open, but love older styled and southern style homes).
We’re still unsure about how much we want to spend, and I guess it all just depends on how much we are able to save. It also depends on whether we want to go all Young House Love and renovate the house ourselves and make it perfect for us, or just buy something that someone else liked. I’m still not sure what I want to do! Oh yeah and we don’t know if we want a house that’s in an HOA or a home with a lot of land.
I have a feeling that buying this next house will be a long process, and much longer than when we bought our first house at the age of 20. Anyone else feel like this the second time around? It’s just that nothing seems perfect and what we’re exactly looking for!
I guess I should probably make a post soon that details everything that we want or need, and then I can makes references to that whenever I need to. What do you think are “needs” with the house that you buy? Let me know because there could easily be something that I’m overlooking. We want to live in our next house for awhile and don’t want to forget anything.
I’m still looking for possible guest posters as well. Since I am kind of close to paying off my student loans, I’m thinking about starting a debt payoff guest post series. Anyone interested? Topics can be about what you’re doing to pay off debt quickly, how you’re paying them off, whether you think your debt is good/bad, etc! A post that is somewhat related to the topic of debt is great.
I’ve also been constantly updating my blog post from the other day on How To Start A Blog. There are now added tips and instructions so that you guys don’t get too confused when starting your blog. I also have several other posts about blogs in the works, including how to transfer your blog from Blogger to WordPress.
Also, don’t forget to check out my sister’s blog, FITnancials. I’m helping run it, while she is the writer. This blog has been going pretty well and I’m still excited about it. My sister is a new writer but seems to be doing well. She’s still learning about the whole blogging thing but is starting to get the hang of it. She recently got a Page Rank of 2 from the recent update as well!
Spending:
I don’t think we bought anything in the past week, at least nothing that I can think of.
Extra Income (does not include salary from our jobs):
The $1,635 was for the first 10 days of February. This does not include the $325 from my sister, payments that I’m expecting or any affiliate income. If you add up just the $1,635, rent payment and some additional affiliate income which will come by check (I don’t want to count the expected payments until I actually receive them), then I have made $2,420 for the first 10 days of February.
I do feel like like I’m on a slow start for February so far, but I don’t think I’m doing bad. Hopefully I can start reeling in these payments that I’ve been waiting for!
I’m still working on my affiliate income as it’s one of my main blog goals for 2013. For now, will you tell me if you do affiliate income and what I should know? Any tips, opinions, etc. would be awesome.
Food:
No meal plan for this week, but we have been doing really good with eating at home as much as we can. We also ate out a couple of times last week, but we had a coupon for every time. Buy one get one free dinners at all of our favorite restaurants? We’ll take it! Thankfully it was W’s birthday last week so we got tons of free coupons.
Wedding
Nothing new with the wedding right now. We finally have decided on photographers. I love who we chose and I’m super excited! Now we just have to get everything else on track, which there is a lot. I don’t feel too rushed though, and I’m not really worried.
Being healthy:
The treadmill came in last week and we put it together. Took around 2 hours for us to put it together but it was well worth it. We thought about paying the company to put it together but we decided that it was not worth the extra $250 to pay the company to do this.
One thing that we didn’t really think about when we bought our home gym was making sure the ceiling was high enough. Yes we measured the height, but didn’t measure how much room we would actually NEED. So even though the home gym fit, we can’t actually do pull ups on it because the ceiling is so close (but come on, I most likely would never do a pull up anyways).
So this also means that if a giant wanted to run on my treadmill, they would be out of luck because there head would most likely hit the ceiling. Luckily I am only 5’4″ and have around one more foot before I hit the ceiling when I’m running.
I’ve only ran on it twice so far, but I have been swamped with things to do so I will blame it on that. My goal is to run on it 5 days this week and most likely at least 5 miles each time. Wish me luck!
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We have a lot to think about for our second home. We want a ranch style home and they are very hard to come by in our area. After the style, it is all about the neighborhood for us.
We have a ranch style home right now, but I think we want a 2 or 3 story now. And we agree, first it's style, then it's neighborhood for us.
I love that style of houses and the lake proximity is really cool! prices look very cheap where you are, you sure will be able to get a fantastic house!
My recent post Little house in Guatemala, week 14-15
Thanks! And yes I hope we will be able to find something.
Congrats on purchasing a second home so soon! I got my first couple years ago and will probably be a while, if ever, before I get a second. For my first I remember having a list of requirements but because inventory was so low here it I had to let some wishes go.
I know we won't be able to find our perfect home, but I do hope we find something close.
Forget the second house and buy a sailboat! Come on Michelle, you know you want to! Seriously though, you're crushing it with your extra income and blog. Keep up the good work!
My recent post You Can't Have Offshore Sailboat Cake and Eat it Too
Haha yes I know we can't decide what to do!
I know what you mean! We have a finished basement now, and I don't think I could ever move into a house that didn't have one.
Emailed ya 🙂
Good to know! Thanks! Sometimes I forget that I'm no longer a track runner haha
I'm sorry Beth. Sounds like you haven't had the easiest couple of years. I would say keep applying for jobs and doing your hardest to land one. Are you using cover letters, preparing for interviews and everything else? I'm assuming you are so this is tough.
Buying a new house is exciting and overwhelming at the same time. When we were looking for our second house, we must have looked at 75 or more! None of them matched exactly what we want.
What I would suggest is finding the home that meets most of your wants/needs while making sure it has the potential in the future, after a little work on your part, to make it into exactly what you want. If you are going to have children in the future, look for a place with a yard big enough to add on to the house if you need to. That is what we lacked in our first house. And, though we loved our first house, we had to move to acquire additional space.
Good luck!
My recent post Dear Neighbor
We will most likely look at tons of houses too. Haha 75 is a lot but I'm sure we'll be around that number. And thanks for the suggestion, will definitely keep that in mind.
My recent post $2,420 in Extra Income, Life, Wedding Updates
Do you plan on sharing a breakdown of your online income? You lump affiliate income, virtual assisting, and others into this category, right? The numbers you are putting out every week are pretty inspiring. I hope to do the same myself.
My recent post The Story So Far
I don't know if I'll ever publicly on my blog separate it, but if you are interested, you can always email me and I will give you the breakdown 🙂
My recent post $2,420 in Extra Income, Life, Wedding Updates
So far, everything (spending and working out) goes according to plan. But I just got word that two of my friends are getting married later in the year, so I may get stuck shelling out money for a trip. They're good friends, so I should probably attend. But I need to start tightening the screws on my spending so that I can still make my savings goals.
We need to start tightening our spending as well! There are so many things that we need to save for.
My recent post $2,420 in Extra Income, Life, Wedding Updates
Nothing wrong with that. We're still unsure if we want a huge house or something just a tad bigger than what we have now.
My recent post $2,420 in Extra Income, Life, Wedding Updates
Thanks!
My recent post $2,420 in Extra Income, Life, Wedding Updates
A slow start at $2400, I love you are making so much money that seems slow. We built a house in 2004, and the garage seemed huge because we'd never had one. It gets full fast, so I would say have a bigger garage than you think you need.
We only have a 1 car garage now, and we know that we would want at least a 2 to 3. 1 is just too small!
My recent post $2,420 in Extra Income, Life, Wedding Updates
Maybe it's me but I can't stand HOA's and prefer land. That's the main reason that I live in a rural farming community. The nive thing about where I live is that it's only 30 minutes away from downtown Raleigh and 40 minutes away from the Research Triangle Park. So even though we live in a rural area we can easily commute to work or hit Raleigh up for a nice restaurants.
I prefer land as well but W says he doesn't want to mow it all the time. I will have to fight him on that! 🙂
My recent post How to Live on One Income