As most of you know, we are in the very beginning stages of buying a house and possibly moving to Colorado. However, that’s not planned to happen for at least 1.5 years from now.
Some of you have asked why we’re waiting to buy a house and why we’re not moving right away.
Well, we still have to save for our down payment.
We would like to put around $100,000 on our next home (GAH that is scary to even think about), and that means we really need to buckle down and start saving since we still need to save for retirement as well.
We need to save money so that we can go to Colorado a decent amount and find our dream home. I don’t want to buy a home or live in a brand new town that I haven’t researched or visited at least a few times.
We’ll also have some big expenses come up and we need to start paying for and saving for those too. I’m assuming that selling our current home will be a disaster, and we will either break even or owe a few thousand dollars. we’ve had some odd disasters happen at our home and we need to replace some things (for example: our garage door needs to be replaced after our truck flung into reverse, all by itself when no one was in it, and slammed into our garage).
So, because of all of the above, we need to save a decent amount of money over the next two years. However, we are not freaking out. We know that we have some time to save and that we have fairly low budgets already.
There are many ways we are currently saving money. These include: lowering our food budget, switching to a more fuel efficient car (we are saving hundreds each month now!), finding frugal entertainment, cutting our cable bill, switching to a cheaper cell phone plan (read here to find out how you can save $2,000 a year on your cell phone), and more. Most of these are lifestyle changes and we have been extremely happy with the changes we’ve made since they’ve allowed us to enjoy life more and save money as well.
Here are some of your responses to my question “What would you NOT cut from your budget (i.e. what do you value) in order to reach a current savings goal?”
@SenseofCents Travel saving. That’s a non-negotiable for me.
— Marissa (@Thirtysixmonths) October 9, 2014
@SenseofCents The monthly fee for my gym membership!
— Theresa (@Foothills2Fog) October 9, 2014
@SenseofCents Pet related expenses. Hawkeye never gets cheap food or knockoff flea meds, and she goes to the vet and groomer regularly! — Stephanie (@NotEntrlyPrfct) October 9, 2014
@SenseofCents good food, travel, home comforts and our cats 🙂 we’d never cut these out, ever! — Nicola (@thefrgalcottage) October 9, 2014
@SenseofCents Therapy! At first maybe but it’s been really helpful 🙂 — Athena (@accordingathena) October 9, 2014
@SenseofCents eating decently. I would rather pay a bit more for groceries to get food I enjoy rather than a bunch of cheap junk! — Chelsea (@chelseaoliviaxo) October 9, 2014
@SenseofCents annual pass to my local comedy club. $150 for 2 people. Great laughs, cheap date and we get out of the house! — Kate (@goodnightdebt) October 9, 2014
@SenseofCents I would never cut internet. I think it’s so vital to life today. It’s become a need not a want — Allison (@LSLWBLOG) October 9, 2014
Even though we are saving money in many different ways, there are certain things we will not cut out of our budget unless we absolutely need to. The “old” Michelle would have probably freaked out and cut everything in sight (except for number 2 below, of course) just because I used to let money control my life.
1. I won’t downsize my home.
I won’t sell our current home right at this moment (and move into a cheaper place) in order to save money more quickly. Our home is relatively cheap and to me it’s not worth it to move into a cheaper place in order to save a tiny bit of money
Also, moving twice seems like a nightmare. we moved many times before we moved into our current home so I will do anything to limit the amount of times I have to move all the stuff into my future home.
2. I won’t get rid of my dogs.
Some people don’t understand why dogs are so awesome, and that is fine. However, I am an insane dog person. I remember when someone once asked me why I spend money to have dogs. It’s because I LOVE them.
I will not get rid of my dogs to put more money towards my down payment.
3. I won’t stop traveling.
We love to travel, so I don’t see us completely eliminating vacations from our lives in order to save for a home down payment. Our trips are usually fairly cheap, and I just signed up for a new credit card in order to gain some fast rewards points again. I will be talking about this soon.
4. I won’t jeopardize my health.
We recently received a letter stating that our health insurance will be going up a little over 64% each MONTH. Even though this is happening, it does not mean that I’m just going to completely eliminate health insurance from my life.
I’m also still going to go to any and all annual preventative appointments I have as well.
5. I won’t drain my emergency fund.
We have a large emergency fund, and we could put it towards our house down payment fund. It would definitely help us reach our goal more quickly, but this isn’t something I want to do.
My emergency fund is there to help me in case something bad happens. Also, you just never know if something bad will happen with the future move, so keeping my emergency fund intact is very important to us.
6. I won’t stop having fun.
We have relatively cheap fun. We go for bike rides, walk on trails, go hiking, and more. However, even though it is a cheap hobby and all we really have to do is pay for the gas to get places, I won’t cut that out of my budget.
Too many people think that you can’t have fun when you are on a budget. That is just not true!
7. I won’t get rid of internet.
Nope, nope, nope. This is something I could never get rid of. Keep in mind that in order to work, I need internet. Yes, I could go to the library and get it for free, but I’ll pay my very minimal internet costs so that I can work in my home.
What are you currently saving for? Are you cutting everything out of your lives in order to save for it? Why or why not?
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I love that you find ways to save for something that will make you happy in the future without cutting out the things that make you happy now. 🙂
Thank you Brittany!
I’m really not cutting down everything I can to save money, but there’s a TON we are saving for. Besides a second car (mine has seen better days) we also are constantly saving for home improvements. This would be a lot easier without student loans, but it’s something that we’ve factored into our budget. My wife is in grad school, too, so while we are taking loans for that we realize that we’ll eventually have a higher monthly student loan payment. I’m 100% focused on increasing income right now, though, so that’s why I’m not really cutting any costs.
Yes, I’m all about increasing income as well! It makes life easier instead of cutting everything possible out.
Thanks Kassandra!
In an effort to meet our budget better every month, my wife and I have not been going to the mall nearly as much as we would have in the years past. It should come as no surprise that a lot of things around the house that need fixed are getting fixed way, way faster now that we’re around more often!
Yeah, we hardly ever go to the mall. It’s such a money and time suck!
I don’t think any of those are unreasonable! It’s really important to make a list of what you’re not willing to compromise on when you establish a goal for saving or paying off debt. I’ve cut almost everything I can out of our budget, so the things that remain are truly important. I would never give up our cats, having a little fun by going out to eat once in a while, or decrease our gas budget to the point of becoming hermits.
Sounds like we are very similar! Do you mind if I ask what you are currently saving for?
In our case, it’s more or less about making room in our budget to keep up with saving along with paying off our student loans. Since I transitioned to freelancing, I’m not making what I used to at my day job, so we’re mostly living off of savings and my boyfriend’s income. Hopefully that will change in a few months!
I hope that changes! I think you two will be fine 🙂
We’re saving for a down payment ourselves, albeit not in an extra determined fashion, and there are a lot of things we’ve not yet cut out because we also need at least 200K so slow and steady makes more sense than trying to burn ourselves out to save.
We will, but because of the new arrival rather than for the down payment at this point. But we’re doing more and more cooking at home (we were getting much better at this anyway), rather than eating out and really searching out bargains/sales/etc to get the house in order for the baby. I guess it’s NOT economical to not have a baby shower but we’re so far away from family and friends we’re economizing for them, saving them time, money and travel. 🙂
We’ll travel a little less, but we won’t cut back on actual veterinary care for Seamus or healthcare for ourselves. Nor will we forego home comforts like taking on a roommate for now; it’s always felt like it’d make sense but I really don’t want to give up the luxury of having our own space when our living quarters are currently so small. It does feel rather luxurious to be able to pick and choose what not to cut back on 😉
Yes, it does feel luxurious to pick and choose what to cut back on. I debated for awhile whether or not I would publish this post. I was very afraid that I would come across the wrong way.
Funny, it didn’t really occur to me that it’d come across that way! You work plenty hard AND earn a decent amount so it’d be weird to see you go completely austere when the need isn’t dire.
Thank you so much! Glad to hear 🙂
It’s easy to suggest where someone can cut expenses, but some sacrifices aren’t worth making. There’s a lot to be said for quality of life and living for today. There are things I want in the future, but nothing that I want so badly that I’d give up my cat or stop all travel. Tomorrow is never guaranteed.
Yes, exactly. Tomorrow is never guaranteed, so if I can afford something I enjoy, I am going to do it.
One thing that I won’t give up is travel. I love going to different places and talking about life with strangers. Traveling also allows me to get out my comfort zone and experience new things.
Yes, travel is something I will always want to do. With credit card rewards, it’s also very easy to travel for cheap.
never give up cable and travel
🙂 Thanks Olla.
I guess I have not been following up since I had no idea you were moving to Colorado. Congrats!! Will you have a lot of money left over when you sell your current house? I would never scrimp on a few things including my gym membership since I use it a lot and it helps my health.
We most likely will not have a lot leftover from our current home. We have maintenance and repairs we need to do, sadly.
Oh my goodness! If someone ever implied that I should give up my dog, I’m not sure what I would do! Probably ask them if they would give up their kids (if they had kids)! I’ve been cutting back on my budget to save in my E-fund and for travel. I’ve cut back on Starbucks, going out drinking with friends, and shopping. I was never a big spender in those categories anyway, but cutting back on the few dollars I would spend as definitely added up! Plus, I’ve grown my side hustles! 🙂
Yes! It’s such an odd thing to ask someone. I love my dogs so much!
Good job Dan!
Housing in Colorado varies from what we’ve seen. We’re not really sure where we want to live in the state. We are probably looking to spend around $400K on our home.
Downpayments are a challenge for anybody Michelle..
I agree. What are you currently saving for?
I don’t have a high income and many many many expenses(single income). I’d love to set some a big renos-for an 80 yr old house) and travel and retirement.
Sounds great Michelle! I hope you are able to do all of that 🙂
I totally agree with the items on your list except for #3. We have given up travelling for some time. We have not changed the way we eat and continue to buy good food but we never eat out; I cook all the meals and both my daughter and I take our lunches from home – this has been a big saving.
Good job Paula! Thank you for sharing.