Rolling Right Along
Thursday, February 9th, 2006Things are rolling right along, and it looks like we might actually be closing on the new house around the end of this month. The inspection has been done, the appraiser was at the house today, and I speak with my loan officer at least 10 times/day. “Hi Paul!”
I’m surprisingly calm, considering I’m taking out a gigantic mortgage, and considering that every time I open my eyes in the morning somebody else wants me to write them a check for something. Earnest money, inspections, appraisals, orgination fees, ouch, ouch, ouch, just stop it already.
I guess if we had been actively looking for a house when we stumbled upon this one, we might have been socking some money away for things like downpayments and all of these freaking fees. But no. Not the Berrys. We weren’t being prudent and socking anything away. And we have painfully come to grips with the fact that we need to start living on a serious budget. A budget that does not include random tickets to Hawaii and $40 lunches out in Atlanta whenever we feel like having a bit of sushi.
I signed us up for mEnvelopes.com, and I’ve been taking tutorials on setting up a realistic spending plan and budgeting using the oldie fashioned envelopes method. So far, I’ve been putting our daily transactions into envelopes, and I’m SHOCKED at how we throw money down the drain. And SHOCKED at how much money I spend buying presents for people. That’s it. The gift giving is officially over. No more gifts for you. And no more $5 mochas either. And that hurts. Mama needs her mochas.
I’ve been finding myself surfing the web for laundry room organizers and refridgerators instead of Lush bath bombs and push up bras. Becoming a homeowner sounds really exciting in theory, but do you know how many bath bombs I could buy if I didn’t need to buy a refridgerator??
