Nick has been complaining that I have been slacking on my blog lately. We haven't been doing much outside of routine lately, and my mind has been filled with thoughts of a new house and saving money. Not my typical blogging subjects.
We have been looking for a house to buy for the last couple of months.
We would like to stay in Clovis Unified for the kids, but of course homes are more expensive here than in Fresno.
We found one that we both loved. It was a 1700 sq ft home on a 14,000 sq ft lot in a really cute neighborhood. This home was in Clovis Unified also. We bid on it, but unfortunately we were out bid by someone who offered 30,000 over the asking price. (Who does that?)
Since then we have seen lots of homes that are decent, but not meeting all criteria of our wish list.
Yesterday another one came on the market that is in the same neighborhood as the last one we bid on, but it is smaller, on a smaller lot, and on the corner of two slightly busy streets, across from an Elementary school and for the same price.
Nick wants to place an offer but I'm just not sure, though time is ticking as it will probably go quickly. I need to decide today and it is stressing me out! The house itself is is cute, the only drawback being the size of the would be girls room. (It's a bit small) The yard, though not as big as the other one, is big enough and I would have plenty of room for the garden that I have been missing since we sold our last house. It is just the location right there on the busy street that I don't like. If we buy this one I don't think we would fit in it for more than 5 years, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, as long as we can sell it when it is time to go.
Another issue in my mind lately is the goal I set for myself of saving 10,000 dollars this year. We are already pretty frugal people, at least compared to some we know, but I want to kick it up a notch and cut back even more. We don't really have any debt other than student loans (one of which will be paid off in May!) and hopefully soon a mortgage. It should be doable, I just need to watch my spending on clothes for the kids!
I started looking into using coupons, you know, like the people you see on Oprah who get a whole cart full of groceries for $2.76! But the more I looked into I realized that generally those coupons are for processed foods which I almost never buy. My cart is usually 3/4 full of produce, so I guess coupon clipping is not for me. Also we have a WinCo here and I've never seen a cheaper grocery store than that!
Ok, I'm finished unloading my thoughts on you now (In case anyone actually made it to the bottom of this lenghthy post!)
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Contemplating
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7 comments:
Good luck on your house decision! Most of the most stressful times in my life have involved our homes in some way :-). As for the couponing, we don't buy a lot of processed food either (except I'm a chip addict!), but you should check it out for things like diapers, shampoos, etc. I thought I was getting things as cheap as I could at Walmart with the coupons I would clip from the paper, but now I'm getting those things for pretty much free. It does take some time though to learn and I'm impressed you find time to blog at all with your 4 little ones :-)! Keep us posted on the house situation!
Bravo to you! Even having the goal of saving $10,000 for one year in this economy is a huge accomplishment. Wow!
Good luck with the house hunting. You are smart to buy now.
I am about to post on Feisty Feasters something I got at Winco for super cheap. Winco and Trader Joe's rule!
I can't believe you guys don't have CVS drugstores...they are on every corner here...and that is where a lot of the deals I've tried are from. Melissa also posts Walgreen's deals thoughs and they have a similar program where you earn money on certain purchases. Do you have Walgreen's? You could even email Melissa and ask her if she knows of any good bargain blogs based out of California. She has been at this a long time and I email her all the time with questions. To even have the goal to save $10,000 this year though means you're definitely doing something right already!
I agree that house shopping is stressful! And I can't believe how much those people out-bid you! Another one will come around though. And good luck with your money goal, we're also trying to save to remodel our new house that is in escrow.
Couponing REALLY saves alot of money. I saved $57.00 tonight at the grocery store. we eat all unprocessed foods and I cook a lot from scratch. If you need some help I am glad to help you get started. I have a blog that I post all the walgreens and rite aid and other deals on. it if niftythriftymamma.blogspot.com take a look at it and let me know if you need help. even if you save $10.00 a week that is $520 dollars a year, that is a pretty big chunk of money!
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