Home and Family

First-time homebuyer--frugal ideas?

PaxLibertas — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 05:34:33 GMT

Hi, I am a 27-year-old girl from western Massachusetts. I lived with my mom until age 23, at which point I moved in with a family I had become acquainted with. My former housemates were great and we got along very well, for the most part, for close to three years.

Unfortunately, my former housemates fell on very hard times financially and ended up having to move to a low-income housing situation, and couldn't take me too. I started renting a house with a couple of other girls close to my age.

Unfortunately, my current roommates and I really don't get along. They're nice girls personally but we have a lot of issues in living together and just can't co-exist well. I don't even feel comfortable in what's supposed to be my home.

I've maintained a steady job in the area for 3.5+ years and make okay money, but I know I can't afford the high rents in the area. I've come to the realization that I would like to purchase my own home, to give me more stability and not worry about jumping from roommates to roommates hoping something will come together.

I've looked into the "tiny house" movement and find it exciting and interesting, but I understand that there are zoning nightmares involved. I've been exploring many "alternative" or "frugal" housing arrangements, but I'm concerned about what is legal, reasonable, and of course frugal.

I'm wary of financial decisions because a couple years ago I traded in my old car for a newer one. The car (I still have it ) is okay and I can make the payments, but I ended up in an upside-down loan and I really regretted it. I wish I had done something much cheaper, like trying to pay cash for an older car or something.

This is my first owned home and my heart is set on VERY modest and VERY frugal (while still legal and not a rules-and-regs horror story). I'm not sure how to proceed.

My mother and her boyfriend are very supportive of me and helping me with the process. My mother is a homeowner and a former real estate broker, also, so she knows a lot about this process.

Some or many of you on the forums probably are homeowners and have reasonable advice, thoughts, anecdotes, etc. I want to invest in a home but not wind up in way too far over my head. Thanks for listening!

How Often Should You Wash Clothes?

AnotherBrandy — Mon, 13 May 2013 11:59:03 GMT

I watched a short video this morning on how to get clothes to last longer and save money. Watch this one and let me know what you think of the tips. Have you already been doing these things for years?

http://on.aol.com/video/how-to-make-clothes-last-longer-517767268?hp=1&playlist=127155&icid=maing-grid7%7Cmaing7%7Cdl12%7Csec3_lnk1%26pLid%3D308904

May declutter!

tracyinmn — Wed, 15 May 2013 03:43:22 GMT

Doing anything this month to declutter? I got rid of some good clothes by giving them to my sister for her daughter, and gave her some magazines.

Family trip plan

wanting — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 07:05:00 GMT

this spring, my family plan to have a trip, but we have no idea where we should go, do you have any good place to recommend?

my sister is going to get married

wanting — Tue, 14 May 2013 08:55:47 GMT

i think this is a good news to me, my sister is going to get married. Now, i really want to give her a gift , not very expensive, but it must be valuable.

Cards and Gifts for the College Graduate

Brandy — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 14:21:29 GMT

My cousin recently finished college and my mother wants to send her a card. We didn't really find anything.

Do people give cards and gifts to college graduates typically?

How to rent a house in a short time?

wanting — Tue, 14 May 2013 07:31:40 GMT

i need to rent a house now, my sister will come to my city, but, i'm now living with another girl. so, i want to rent a house near my company. But, the good house will not wait for anybody.

April make do, declutter challenge

LWolfT — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 21:27:28 GMT

So what decluttering projects are you working on?

I recently went through all my dish towels and weeded out the ones that were stained and tired looking. The worst ones have been turned into rags ... a few responded to a good soaking in dishwasher detergent and bleach.

Safe Oven Cleaner

Brandy — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 11:03:39 GMT

One of the chemical cleaners I dislike the most is oven cleaner. I use homemade solutions but there always comes a time when I find that I must use the commercial product.

What safe or homemade solutions have you found that works for cleaning the oven?

Insulating Sliding Glass Doors

Brandy — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 23:36:48 GMT

It's not too late to think about a solution for those glass doors that are letting cool air in.

Check out the tips from The Dollar Stretcher on insulating them.

Decorating With Lamps

donna england — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 12:19:10 GMT

I noticed the article on the Dollar Stretcher, 5 ways to make your lighting shine on a dime. This is right up my alley. I love pretty lamps! I seem to zero in on any lamps at a yard sale or thrift store. I wanted to add a couple of things I have used on my lamps.

I filled one of those lamps you can put things inside with pretty shells we have collected on vacations.

I found a few pieces of chandelier prisms from a flea market and joined them together and placed them around the top so that they hang down the sides.

I used a long strand of white beads to drape around a lamp in the bedroom.

My DMIL (who crochets a lot better than me ) made beautiful covers for her lampshades.

You could glue those flat glass marbles from the dollar store on to dress up the base. ( I glued them to a 2.00 bowling ball to make a gazing ball for my flower bed.

My best find----- A crystal lamp with a 69.00 price tag on the bottom for $7.

Donna

Prom spending

LWolfT — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 23:00:48 GMT

Boy, things have changed since I was in high school ... (back in the stone age, of course).

http://www.indystar.com/article/20130426/LIFE/304260021/OMG-Teens-spending-nearly-1-200-prom

link is fixed now....

do you have a good way to clean the range hood?

wanting — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 06:35:43 GMT

the range hood is very difficult to clean, do you have any good ideas about how to deal with it?

Home Improvement

BVanGuard — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:30:01 GMT

If you could do anything to improve your home, what would you do? For me personally, if I had the money, I would tear up my back patio and dig a hole down underneath it (its in the shape of a half circle) and connect the hole to my basement. Then I'd build a theater room under where the patio used to be and install top of the line movie theater chairs. I'd have a state of the art sound system installed in the walls and raise the second row of chairs. Then I'd soundproof the room and pour cement back over the top of it and replace the patio. That way I'd have a very cool theater room in my home. Of course I'd need a little bit of a home improvement loan to do that first. Anyway, what would you do?

cleaning basement carpet

Almany — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 21:47:52 GMT

Hello! I have short outdoor carpet in basement on concrete no padding. I have a shopvac and regular vacuum.I am wondering whether to buy a steam cleaner,or carpet shampooer or what? I need to clean carpet remove any mold mildew and bacteria plus musty smell. I have spread all my supply of baking soda on floor,I have 3 large boxes of arm & hammer baking soda powder laundry detergent,it is about 75% baking soda.Can I spread this around also? I would like to cover all of the basement carpet with this dry baking soda detergent and let it sit maybe 24 hours or so,and the use the shopvac to vacuum it up,and go from there. My question is whether the laundry detergent is safe to use for this purpose or if I should wait till I get more baking soda period? I appreciate your assistance very much about everything.I have never purchased a steam cleaner or carpet shampooer before.I have read comments though that go either way and some say dry clean carpet only,water never all comes up from steam cleaner nor shampoo machine either. Thanks alot for your expertise!

Old vs New Houses

Juana — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 23:22:05 GMT

I'm working on saving up for a down payment on my first house, and was thinking about what I want to look for, and I'm hoping some homeowners here can share your advice or experiences!

Right now I'm subletting in an apartment complex built in the last 15 years or so. It's beautiful, nice location, the buildings look nice from the outside, etc. But it's very poorly built- even with all my dollar stretching habits, the power bills this winter have been huge because it's so poorly insulated. I went to clean a scuff mark off of the wall and the paint came right off with just a sponge and no effort on my part, and little things like that. Plus, many of the newer houses in my area just look "cookie cutter"- tall doorways and multi level roofs, taking up most of the lot they are on with no trees or shade, and to me they just don't have much character. They are being built so fast, I can't imagine much attention was paid to quality! But please correct me if I'm wrong.

On the other hand, a good friend owns a home built in the 30s and it's in fantastic shape. Well insulated, built out of brick, big enough for a family but small enough that it's not too expensive to heat and air condition. Another friend owns a home built in the 60s and it did need some work, but the only real issue seems to be that the upstairs gets much colder than downstairs. So it seems to be like an older building is more reasonably priced to buy, and to maintain long term. I'm moving out of my current apartment this summer, and am purposefully looking at older complexes to test my theory!

So in my experience, an older house in good shape would be a better investment since it's likely to be built from better materials and with more attention to quality than just looking nice. How true do you think this is, and can anyone share experiences with an old or new house?

Download a really cute how to hang laundry poster from Hobby Farms

MarthaMFI2 — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 16:08:57 GMT

A really cute poster you can download for hanging laundry plus info on hanging laundry plus has a map of which states have the right to dry. Plus it is just a great site!

http://www.hobbyfarms.com/home-and-barn/line-dry-laundry.aspx?cm_mmc=Vanity-_-linedry-_-na-_-van

It's Allergy Season!!

AnotherBrandy — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 18:26:05 GMT

It's time to sniffle, sneeze and wheeze. What can you do about it?

Read here for some tips and share your own.

Bringing Spring Into Your Decor

AnotherBrandy — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 17:46:33 GMT

Those photos in the magazines always look so amazing and well put together. It looks hard to make a room come out that well and expensive tooThis article says it's very easy to add a touch of spring to your home.

Think Spring

I know we have all made some great finds that make home décor cheap so how do you liven it up for spring on a budget?

March into Spring 2013! post your personal challenges and efforts.

MarthaMFI — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 16:31:14 GMT

Well everyone knows that my constant battle with clutter is ongoing lol so working on that plus using up food. So decluttering in different areas of the house, working on making dinner more plus organzing for spring and summer.

Since I had problems with the site didn't update the old challenge.

This month so far...

Threw away some freezer burned smokies..not happy because they were only a couple of months old so shouldn't be freezer burned but different brand that I normally buy. no more. a beef roast from 2011.. looked perfect but thought it wasn't safe too eat. plus some fish from a store that I discovered I don't trust.

old fruit and veggies in the compost and old bread etc goes to the crows. used up the frozen homemade chicken soup with dd being sick (freeze in small batches) and defrosted some chicken and made more for the freezer. don't put noodles in it until I heat it up.

have a box going for the food bank. have some books for moms group leader (works one day as a teacher a week) for her classroom plus some tea for the group that dh got that we won't use. went though a bag of vhs tapes and gave a bunch to the inlaws for sil to pick up since she still uses vhs in her kindergarten class. had a bunch of richard scarry tapes. love richard scarry. ds discovered his star wars tapes. ugh so proves I should declutter with out kids! have more tapes to declutter too. my dining room is a mess of books.

Kids clothes..went to the half price value village sale and got dd some skorts and shorts plus 9 childrens place sale. skorts for $5. so she is covered for now. discovered from value village childrens place items that they are shrinking sizes so 12 fits dd (10) now but she is growing alot the last few months so got size 14. they have adjustable waists. she has the family bum and small waist.

basement..having the cable guy there helps declutter! noticed that because of a few things we have bought in the last couple of months we have 5-6 big boxes that need to go. dump run time too.

schoolwise.. between friends and searching have discovered some free things to do at nature houses, museums and libraries. signed them up for a one day art course. plus since ds is having trouble with pests. getting some private lessons so he can be more forceful. he is a mellow boy and though he tells kids no they don't listen because they are problem kids. one kid is a problem at cadets (religious scouts). ds won some candy for the best soap carving and then the kid was saying he had money in his pocket and was trying to take it. so he was telling him no and running away from him. he tends to put up with the idiots more then he should so I want him to learn to nip it in the bud. all these kids caught the no bully stuff so much that they don't stand up for themselves. little boys and girls haven't changed. esp boys lol. when I was a girl I had no problem dealing with other little boys. I notice that problem is widespread. I had a llittle girl I know say what you would hit a boy at my age and I said yes if he was hitting me and wouldn't stop. she was shocked. then she said you would hit someone as an adult and I said yes if someone started hitting me and wouldn't stop I would defend myself. why would I put up with it. she has kids bullying her so hopefully that teaches her that it is ok to stand up for herself. they go into this when girls are 10-12 years old here but I think it needs to be earlier.

well that was off topic but it one of my to do things since we are running into more kids in different groups since we are homeschooling. in reg school the kids knew me in the class.

need to finish organizing for guides cookie selling in april too. no printer since that is broken at the moment so need to figure that out too!

so post your challenges and efforts!

Kitchen Decorating

donna england — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 01:11:25 GMT

I've been pretty busy with some painting projects over the last few days. I was ready for some change from the blah white walls of my kitchen and living room areas, so I am doing my kitchen and laundry area in a soft yellow, and the dinning area and living room will be a taupeish beige color called water chestnut.

I also decided to repaint the ceilings first. (yuck), I now have new highlights in my hair! Anyway, while I was doing that, my DH suggested painting the tops of my kitchen cabinets white and putting a strand of small led lights up there. (we bought some for cheap after christmas). Wow, it looks great!I It gives a little glow to make my glass cakeplate, some old blue canning jars, etc just sparkle. Of course this only works if you have the cabinets that don't go all the way to the ceiling.

Donna

Keeping a swimming pool

Pat — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:35:32 GMT

A question from a reader:

Several years ago, we bought a house with an inground swimming pool surrounded by a very large back yard. We barely use the pool, but to keep it from turning into a cesspool, we are spending around a thousand dollars a year on water treatment. We’d like to make the pool disappear. Is there anybody out there with any experience with unwanted inground pools?

Can you help?

Save on Cleaning

Brandy — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 19:08:16 GMT

You can spend less on spring cleaning this year...

Buy cleaners on sale
Use coupons
Make your own cleaners
Let the stores keep the paper towel and disposable wipes; use cloth that you can wash and reuse

How many other ways can we save on cleaning?

Being a housewife is right or not?

vivid — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 13:13:07 GMT

Last mouth, one of my friends quitted her job as a saleswoman because of some reasons and staying at home do some cooking and washing till now. She feels this lifestyle is so boring and without challenge,because her ideal life is with some adventures. So she decides to find a new job, but her husband against her. He wants my friend stay at home and do what she is doing now. Being a housewife is not her choice totally. If you were facing this situation, what's your choice?

How Much Are You Saving By Hanging Laundry?

AnotherBrandy — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:34:40 GMT

When we don't run an appliance, it saves us money but how much money are you saving by hanging your clothes to dry?

Do you know?