no....we bought our home and remodeled it and all that...it use to be a mobile home but now you can not tell that it is a m.h at all...it has been totally remodeled and built around and looks like a home...it was paid straight out and paid for everything straight out when we built on.

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CHOOSE TODAY WHOM YOU WILL SERVE!!!

Not really... when I am working. Right now, kind of. So things will be tight around here until I go back to making my $800.00 a month.

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“For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.”

We actually lucked into our house. People lost it to the bank and we put a bid in on it before it was even listed so we didn't have to pay any extra fees. It was a fixer-upper so we got it cheap enough we could do that. We redid most of the downstairs and added on our kids room. DH saved a lot of money before we got married and put a huge downpayment on it and in five years we paid it off. We saved all the money before adding on the room - we did get a nice break on that because DH's brother and his partner built it cheap for us.

But, I can see how people can become house poor because the price of new houses nowadays is crazy. I recommend buying a fixer-upper, it worked for us!

No. We were very specific about what we wanted to pay each month for our mortgage and stuck to it. We were approved for a significant amount more than we spent, but didn't let that sway our opinion of how much we wanted to pay. We also went with a modest sized house, three bedrooms, diningroom and living area are one big room, two full bathrooms, decent sized kitchen with lots of counter space and cabinets (dh and I both LOVE to cook), a small office, and an upstairs attic/bonus room/4th bedroom. We have plenty of space to grow into and can still save for retirement and live comfortably with our mortgage payment.

We were very careful NOT to be house poor.

I do feel somewhat house poor. I know that I live in a more expensive house than many of my friends that make more money than I - therefore they have extra money to go do more fun stuff than I do. In my circumstance though as a now single woman, I really wanted to stay in my house that we bought when I was married. I could have downsized to a smaller house - and still could if times got too tight - but I like my house and want to remain here.

My frugality is what allows me to live here though because with just my income it doesn't look on paper like I should be able to afford my home. I still save for retirement, DS college, and have some fun but don't live quite as well off as I'd like to since a lot of $$ goes into my house.

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Better to give your kids the values you have
than the valuables you can't afford.

No, we live in a beautiful, 1600 sq. ft home, in a great urban area. We were approved for more than double the amount we paid for this house but we could not imagine paying a bigger mortgage payment than we have.

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DS-16
DD-13
DD-5
DS-3

We have a large home. On one hand, I love having all the room. I have a huge kitchen which I love. When we entertain, we always have plenty of room. Clutter wise it is easier to maintain than a smaller home because everything is spread out - it looks tidy even with a little clutter (I'm a clutter freak, though, so I don't have much of it).

That said, I feel the financial burden isn't as hard as the physical one for me. It is a lot of house to maintain. When we bought this house, we knew our tax payments would go up, because for the first year our taxes just covered the land the house was on, not the house. When the taxes finally 'caught up' with us, not only was the amount more, but the mortgate company decided that they wanted to play 'catch up' our mortgage payment increased Another $400 a month. That is why $ is pretty tight now. In a few months, we will be caught up and that extra $400 will be back in our accounts.

Just about the time our mortgage payment increased the woman that helped clean our house (Dh agreed that if we bought this house I would get cleaning help at least several times a year. I knew this house would be hard to maintain). We could afford to have her come twice a month, and do alternate floors when she came. This was not a free ride for me, I was right along with her, doing the floor opposite of the one she was doing. Ironically, money wasn't the reason we had her stop coming, she was having serious health issues and had to quit her business.

I have to say that dh has been good when I tell him we're having a 'cleaning marathon'. It usually takes us a Saturday morning to do a deep cleaning to one floor. We do this maybe once a month. I do all the maintenance in between. I have to say, I'm tired.

However, I am a clean/neat freak and I know I make my life miserable :D If I could relax in a mess, I'd be fine. But I can't. And with a large house, you are constantly running around so much more too. When we moved in I couldn't get over how long it took me from the kitchen to our master bedroom at the opposite side of the house and up two flights. So since I'm a neat freak, if I forget to put away something upstairs, two minutes later I'm running up again. So If I could relax my standards life Would be easier for me. But I can't see that happening any time soon.

Having everything in it's place is my way of 'control'. Being a SAHM is hard sometimes. Before marriage, I had my own place, my own credit, my own checkbook, I made my own money, had my own Name. When I got married, it was hard for me for everything to be Ours and even my name changed. Sure I love it, and wouldn't trade it for anything. And it seems crazy, but there are so many things I can't control about being a SAHM and having our environment orderly makes me feel in control, and this is why I do it. Gosh, sorry this is so long!

[quote=Stormy]We have a large home. On one hand, I love having all the room. I have a huge kitchen which I love. When we entertain, we always have plenty of room. Clutter wise it is easier to maintain than a smaller home because everything is spread out - it looks tidy even with a little clutter (I'm a clutter freak, though, so I don't have much of it).

That said, I feel the financial burden isn't as hard as the physical one for me. It is a lot of house to maintain. I have to say, I'm tired.

However, I am a clean/neat freak and I know I make my life miserable :D If I could relax in a mess, I'd be fine. But I can't. And with a large house, you are constantly running around so much more too. When we moved in I couldn't get over how long it took me from the kitchen to our master bedroom at the opposite side of the house and up two flights. So since I'm a neat freak, if I forget to put away something upstairs, two minutes later I'm running up again. So If I could relax my standards life Would be easier for me. But I can't see that happening any time soon.

*****

Ok, Stormy, I could have written that!

I've posted in the past about our being "house poor" etc... yeah we're probably house poor. We bought a big house and now we're cleaning it, and cleaning it and cleaning it some more. Everything is more than we anticipated. BUT I have to admit we are stretched so thin (and therefore "house poor") because dh saves a lot of his paycheck each month. If we were just living on his entire check, without saving, we'd be fine. It's the amount he saves that puts us to the "house poor" category. So, does that mean we are voluntarily house poor? We won't have a house this big again. And what Stormy said about the amount of time it takes to get from one end of the house to the other is so TRUE! We couldn't get over it when we first moved in. And no one can ever hear the other person talking... and if the kids are upstairs I can never hear them or find them. We get lost in the house... crazy.

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"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." ~ Dr. Seuss

Hi all,
Newbie here! Just wanted to chime in on this topic. We are not house poor and we planned it that way. When we bought our home, I was a SAHM. We were very strict in what we wanted to pay each month for a mortgage and stuck to that! Luckily, we found a home that we just love and was within (although at the top) of our budget. Our home is 1800 sq ft, which may be considered small for some peoples' standards, but there are just the 3 of us and it is plenty for us. I returned to work recently and our income basically doubled. Although we could now afford more (a larger home), we haven't even considered upgrading.

When I find myself daydreaming about something bigger and better (which is easy because there is newer subdivision with big, big, big houses behind me), I just remember that it will cost more not just with the mortgage but also with utilities, taxes, maintenance, furniture (more rooms or bigger spaces), etc. After I start thinking about that, it usually reminds that we have more than we even need now!!!