Got divorced a few years ago and for some reason was hell bent on keeping my giant "family" home despite the fact that it was just for my preschool-aged son and I. Recently decided to downsize and moved into town from the country. Thought I'd show you how much it saved me. Even more so than I had planned for. Savings outlined below.
Mortgage/RE Taxes/Insurance: $350/month
Utilities: $150/month
Gas (now walk or bike to work): $50/month
Car Insurance: $50/year (now drive substantially fewer miles, they dropped my rates)
Trash Collection: $5/month
Lawn care: $100/month (now small lot, can cut myself)
Child care: $300/month (from old home in country, son had to be in the after care program, now he can take the school bus to my office because he switched districts and the finish time for the new district is later...it works out perfectly. Note that this cost would have been shared between my ex and I.)
Estimated maintenance savings: $40/month
Water Bill: -$20/month (used to have a well)
Cable (I sprung for it because of savings elsewhere): -$65/month
Totals: a savings of $714/month. Saved time cleaning smaller space, lose time doing yard work. Probably a wash there. Also should be getting in better shape from walking around town!
When I started this journey, my main focus was lowering my mortgage and getting lower utility costs. I stupidly hadn't even contemplated the lower insurance rates, saved child care costs, and gas money. It's (obviously) made a huge difference in our financial life.
Also. If I were to give my younger self advice re: housing, I would definitely say, "don't buy the house for five kids until you actually have the five kids...even if you can afford it."
Finally, before anyone asks, I will be splitting that $714 in savings between adding to my 401k contribution, my son's 529 account, and a wire (before my paycheck even gets to me!) to my savings account. I haven't decided in what ratio yet. I am also thinking about splurging for a once a month cleaning lady. Estimated cost of $100.
Thanks to my PF community for teaching me to be savvy and make up for lost time after my big house blunder!
ETA: sorry, my total was off. Fixed it!
Submitted July 17, 2017 at 02:49PM by SharpLikeACactus http://ift.tt/2u2uO9L
