Opinions on buying a house (to wait or not) - Page 2

[Shakti77]

I think you are well prepared. Go for it! 

[Nicole730]

Originally Posted by beebalmmama 

I think with that amount for a down payment I would feel very comfortable buying at the lower range you mentioned.

I agree.

[Arduinna]

Since you are are in the South I thought I'd mention that depending on where you are and the exact location of the house you might need flood insurance or hurricane insurance too.

[velochic]

Originally Posted by beansmama 

This, to me, seems a little...overdone. I mean, if this kind of budget is what your family needs, more power to you - but not everyone budgets down to the penny, and a lot of us still manage to do more than fine ;). Some of us have more general categories like "misc" and get clothing, gifts, etc from that. I don't think that means you aren't ready to purchase a house. We don't have magazine, club subscriptions, or charitable giving in our budget either - because we don't do those things (when we do give to charity, it's typically spur of the moment or bum-giving).

I doubt the grocery budget would go up due to cost of daycare. Maybe typically, it would. But look at what she posted - $95/mo for daycare. In my expirience, that is not a normal daycare bill. Maybe for a day, not a MONTH. Seems like her kid isnt' going to be in daycare that often, which means they likely wont be there for meals.  

She actually does list car insurance on her budget (it's $50/mo). Mortgage insurance is typically rolled into your home payment. Closing costs are nowhere NEAR as high as you've estimated them - I mean, you say her mortgage will be about $80k if she buys a house on the low end - yet she has $30k for a downpayment, and let's subtract $3k for closing costs (which she might be able to split with the seller), Her lower-end mortgage would be more like $68,000...

Anyway, there's my rebuttle! LOL ;P

One thing that I've always said on these boards is that you SHOULD budget down to the penny.  I've said that every penny should have a purpose.  It has served us well, so I'm coming from experience.  Dh and I are in our 40's and 50's and are doing very well because of following some simple principles about finances.  If you don't agree, fine, but I stand by EXACTLY what I said in my post.  If you leave things out, then you get burned.  Especially when you are buying a home... and especially as a single mother where there is not another adult that can "chip in" if something happens.

The point is to THINK about these things.  Plan for them even if they don't apply now.  They may or may not ever affect you, but if you just ignore it, that's when it will come back and bite you in the butt.

As for closing costs - I wasn't basing it on the LOWEST number, but a reasonable number in the lower end... about $105K.  After closing costs, yep, she'd have about an 80K mortgage.

I'm sorry you think it's "OVERDONE"... that's why there are so many people that are struggling with their finances.  They didn't "overdo" it enough.  Besides... does it really hurt to talk about it?  Better to have more info than not enough.
 

[beansmama]

Originally Posted by velochic 

One thing that I've always said on these boards is that you SHOULD budget down to the penny.  I've said that every penny should have a purpose.  It has served us well, so I'm coming from experience.  Dh and I are in our 40's and 50's and are doing very well because of following some simple principles about finances.  If you don't agree, fine, but I stand by EXACTLY what I said in my post.  If you leave things out, then you get burned.  Especially when you are buying a home... and especially as a single mother where there is not another adult that can "chip in" if something happens.

The point is to THINK about these things.  Plan for them even if they don't apply now.  They may or may not ever affect you, but if you just ignore it, that's when it will come back and bite you in the butt.

As for closing costs - I wasn't basing it on the LOWEST number, but a reasonable number in the lower end... about $105K.  After closing costs, yep, she'd have about an 80K mortgage.

I'm sorry you think it's "OVERDONE"... that's why there are so many people that are struggling with their finances.  They didn't "overdo" it enough.  Besides... does it really hurt to talk about it?  Better to have more info than not enough.
 

And I still stand by exactly what I said. There is more than one way to do things and it doesn't make one person right or wrong. While it may work for you to label every single misc. purchase, it works for my family to simply have a misc. category. And an emergency fund. And a sinking fund. And a gift fund. Not a magazine category, or a clothing category, or a vacation category. Different strokes for different folks ;) 

[velochic]

Sure, there are different ways of budgeting.  What I wanted to point out is that no matter how you categorize it, you have to account for the money that is going OUT... otherwise your budget is useless.  The categorizing isn't important... it's the spending of the money that's important.  And if there's not enough to pay the mortgage, then owning a home becomes a moot point.  Different strokes and all, but debits and credits work the same way for everybody... you have X coming in and X going out.  You can name your categories what you want... however, if you spend the money, it should be accounted for.  There are far too many people saying, "I look at my budget and it all works out on paper, but I can't figure out what's going on!"  Then when they really evaluate their budget they realize they have hundreds and thousands that are never accounted for.  It's because they never account for the little things.  It all adds up.