House too big: No. 2 adults, 2 kids, 1 dog, 3 cats in a 3 bedroom bungalow. Can’t say it’s too big. Sometimes too small, though. My parents raised 7 kids in a 3 bedroom 2-storey. 4 girls in one room (2 beds), 3 boys in the other (2 beds). I can even remember sleeping in the crib because they couldn’t afford to buy another double at the time. No cash … no bed.

Formal Budget: Just started trying to stick to one, so it’s too soon to comment on how that’s working. But at least we’re trying!

Once again, I will visit the Slice and Check out all the episodes that I have missed!

Cheers!

For Guelph, I think the rent for our 1 bedroom apartment is fair. We could probably get something cheaper, but we would have to sacrifice convenient location, excellent landlords, and our percieved security. With my boyfriend and I, and our 2 cats, it is cozy, but we have no plans to move yet.

I am new to the budget concept. What I currently work with is a master list of all the stuff we are making payments on each month, plus current balances on debts, all interest levels, and a column to check off whether the payment has been made. I write it out each month, with total payments made and total debts as well. It’s so nice to have it all on one page, and we’ve missed no payments since I started it. It also helps us for when our hours get cut, then I can just go to our list and say that all we have to cover is ‘x’ amount, so there is a bit less stress.

What a surprise when one week later they showed off their newly leased vehicle, and told us about the time share they had just signed up for!

Asking for advice, having a plan, having a desire to get out of debt are obviously not enough for some people.

I have a mortgage on a home was just the right size at the time, a 1200 foot bunglaow with an unfinished basement, but I’m now thinking of selling this summer as my only child will graduate from high school this year, and I’d like to get a smaller place, for myself and my pets, with a room for said child and family to sleep when they come to visit.

As far as my budget goes, nothing formal, but I got a copy of Debt-Free Forever for Christmas, and I plan on finishing it tonight, then going over it one chapter at a time until I get everything set in place.

I drive a compact station wagon — it’s not that I wouldn’t dare to drive on the Autobahn with something smaller, but I often need to transport people or equipment, and I want a car large enough to sleep in comfortably. I buy cars 3 or 4 years old (when they cost 50% of new), cash on the table and drive them until the year the repair cost becomes higher than the current value of the car, which is about 6 to 8 years. I am in awe of the age and mileage that many posters here get from their cars! I might make the cars live longer if I rented a garage, but that would have to make the car last twice as long to be worth it. Also, I do not like to fall too far behind current energy efficiency or emission regulations.
I keep up religiously with car maintenance and repairs, because I have once been in a car when the brakes failed, and that’s not an experienece I’d like to repeat. Yearly cost of owning the car, petrol not included, is about 2K Euro.

I also have a motorbike, now 10 years old and with expensive repairs coming up. I might downgrade to a smaller model or a scooter, as I drive only alone, short distances, and with light luggage. Yearly cost of the current one will be about 1K Euro, if it fails this year.

Rent is a funny thing. I could do with somewhat smaller than what I have now (which is about 820 sq ft), but the place I’m in rents for about 60% of its market value and will stay rent controlled for 10 more years. I’m keeping an eye open for opportunities to buy, but as I do not want something tiny, out in the boondocks, or with pre-war plumbing, I don’t think I’ll ever be well-off enough for that.

Formal budget: Oh yes. I’d be in so much trouble if I didn’t. I don’t have good intuitive concepts of want and need. I’d wear sneakers in the snow because I’m too stingy to buy boots, and then spend a month’s income to go to Venice for the Carnivale. I follow a yearly budget that tells me how much I *have* to spend on clothes to stay respectable (and warm), and how much I’m *allowed* to spend on fun stuff.

Thank you. You’re right, I need to save some money up first before starting to do extra debt repayments. We are currently set up to do the suggested Gail %. She does say that any extra money we find should go to the debt but emergency funds are crucial. We are now on track for being done within three years but I am so focused right now that I would love to knock it off asap. I think I will wait a little longer and I will open an ING account to hid the extra ….out of sight-out of mind! The good things are both my husband and I will get bonuses this spring to help get rid of our debt (all together about $42,000) but I will be going on mat. leave soon. I will be saving on daycare for our son though, so I think it will even out.

As for the house issue, all I can say is that I am so glad we bought a house that is in a good neighbourhood but that we can afford to pay with only one salary if we have no consumer debt. Bad things happen to good people and when we got hit by a drunk last year we were semi prepared financially.

Keep saving up that emergency fund people in comes in handy when you need it and you can sleep well at night!

The car is 2 years old, but considering we moved to England 4 years ago and went without for 2 years, then paid cash, it’s entirely justified, at least to us! The last car we had for 8 years and only sold because we left Canada. I love our car, love driving, but it rarely gets used now we are in a proper city with everything in walking distance. The average time between trips is literally 5-6 days. It’d probably be a lot cheaper to use the car-share network, but it’s my husband’s car and he values the freedom it gives us.

We rent, but it’s definitely not more home than we need! We moved to Edinburgh from Cambridge in the fall and chose a small 1 bedroom basement flat in a central area to start with. The basic lease here is 6 months, so it’s fairly flexible if we need to upgrade either space or quality. Going from a large 2 bedroom flat required getting rid of a lot of stuff, but luckily the default here is to rent flats furnished, so we didn’t have to deal with moving too much stuff. I have to admit, I miss nothing that we got rid off and am now eyeing various items for their re-sale value!

Last spring I discovered Gail and became an instant convert. We have always tracked spending, but never planned very well or had a formal budget. It’s all changed now, boy! The reason we moved to Edinburgh was for my new job after finishing my degree, but it doesn’t start till February, and my husband’s contract with his old company ended the month before I finished the degree. With Gail’s solid advice behind us, we saved up all our extra cash so we could move cities right away. We were able to comfortably manage the income-less period while my husband looked for a new job. He worked his butt off applying for jobs and it’s paid off in spades – he started this week. Now my only problem is filling the days until my own job starts! Our big priority once we are both working is to build that emergency fund back up again for the next time we take a big plunge into something new.

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I currently drive a 98 corolla that i was given by my parents. Dependable little car, and don’t plan on updating unless i need to. But I am starting my own “car payment” account so that every month i will auto deposit some money like i did have a payment. That way when i’m ready i will have a decent sized deposit ready for it, and will be used to having that money come out of my account.

I also bought a house this year when everything was in the dumps. I was pre-approved for a much larger mortgage but bought a cheaper fixer uper. I live on my own so i don’t have that second income from a partner to help out.

I use a fairly formal budget for my house account and keep track of everything on a spread sheet i’ve set up. I’ve been able to up the payments slightly on my mortgage and have knocked years off already. Also will be putting my tax return on it to drop it even further. When i first started the interest(although at a low rate) took 67% of my payments. through my already done increases and my future changes that will happen in the next 6 months i’ll only be paying 45% of my payment to interest and will have knock many years off my mortgage. I bought a book called mortgages for dummies and it does an awesome job of explaining many details of the mortgage game before i jumped off the deep end.