Lots more Sneaky Ways to save the pennies

givememoney

Spendless wrote: »

I doubt it is. The poster lives in the U.S.A

In that case none of this applies.

milasavesmoney

Actually I can afford to maintain my entire house, but why should I heat or cool all of it, when we only live in less than half of it? That would just be wasteful. This home has been paid off for over 15 years. We don't need the money or the hassle OR the expense of paying realtor fees, title and taxes, moving company expenses or bank fees.
What part of that scenero would is upsetting to the younger generation?
We have a large veggie garden that we have put a lot of time and labor into. Why would we walk away from that? We have lived here a long time, know all our neighbors and feel safe here.
Our home is a product of long years of saving and sweat equity. I'm very satisfied to live here.
I think you jumped in too soon VfM4meplse. I would rather keep these threads helpful by not attacking others.
Yes, we live in the US, (And I'm not sure what a council house is??) but I love this site and have found it to be quite useful.


Thank you Spendless, I will be putting my plugins on power strips. Your post was very helpful!!

wondercollie

A council house is 'social housing' in North America. It's owned by the city/town council and rented out.

Think of military married quarters. Usually allocated on need and by size of family

Google is your friend for more info.

milasavesmoney

A council house is 'social housing' in North America. It's owned by the city/town council and rented out.

Think of military married quarters. Usually allocated on need and by size of family

Google is your friend for more info.


Thanks wondercollie for the explanation. I was so concentrated on writing my post I didn't think of Google.:o.
Great reminder.

Caterina

I live in the UK and am in the same position as milasavesmoney, kids grown up and left home, now DH and I rattle in it. We considered downshifting, but we have invested so much in this home, renovated a lot of it, done up the gardens, why would we want to pay a lot of money in stamp duty, leave our community and up sticks just because it is now bigger than our needs?

The kids still come to visit and stay overnight and the other spare room on the ground floor is kept for my DM when she visits once or twice a year as she could not do the stairs.

We have considered shutting the radiators in the unused rooms but are worried that we might get damp in them if we don't heat the, regularly, is this the case I wonder, does anyone know?

In any case, vfm4mplse I think the above posters are right, you would have a valid point if it had been a council property, but it does not apply to privately owned homes.

Spendless

My Mum said the same as you Caterina when me and my sister left home. My parents still live in the 3 bed bungalow they brought us up in. It's proved invaluable for providing enough room when grandkids have slept, my sister had boy/girl twins, so it gave them a room each when they got older. Currently it has become useful for storing the personal contents of my Grandmother's flat whist that property sells to pay her care home fees. Recently my kids asked why 'Nanny and Grandad had a 3 bed property' as their peers Grandparents who have made a move to a bungalow for their old age have all got 2 bed ones. We explained that it was because they had lived there for 35+ years.

milasavesmoney

I think another thing to consider is that one's house is considered an asset investment. The money we have tied up in our home has risen more in market value (% return) than the stock markets or bonds would have. Of course that is dependent on the area one lives in, but in our case this is true.

I'm also concerned with the idea of 'you can't take it with you'. My OH and I both had parents from the Great Depression. Our parents worked hard and both were able to leave us an inheritance by being frugal. We will also be able to leave one to our children with the same principles used by our parents.. We have six children so we won't be able to leave all that much, once it's divided six ways, but money building within families is a solid financial strategy.l

wondercollie

Same here. Our place is too big and we have one son still living here.

But, the boys want us to keep it because eventually one will buy it. New builds have much smaller plots of land and are just not hilt to the sane standard.

When we bought we knew the site of the lot in square footage. Lately, a few hoses with the same size lot have gone in the market and the sizing has changed. One nearby with a smaller lot was listed as .3 acres! Our land area is larger being rectangular.

Lots this size in a Canadian city aren't available anymore. In our subdivision we are one of maybe 50 houses. Our dream is to buy one of the houses on either side of us, so that each son will have the same house. Just a dream

[Deleted User]

My late OH and I downsized in 1995 as we were spending so much time going up and down the motorway to visit our DDs and DGC . We had lived in a 4 bedroomed detached property for well on 22 years and decided that we would retire early and enjoy our grandchildren.

My OH had 8 years of enjoyment that perhaps we wouldn't have had if we had stayed in London.He saw various grandchildren being born and brought up (apart from the last one who arrived after we had lost him in 2003).I now live in a small three bedroomed terraced house that we bought, and its more than adequate for my needs. Its cheap to heat and run and keep clean. Both of my DDs live within 10 minutes of my house and all of my seven grandchildren know Grannie's always around with a biscuit or a cuddle when needed, and not 30 miles up the road.

I remember when I was 12 and my Dad eventually sold the house he had bought just after WW2.My Mum had hated the place for years as it had 13 rooms and was a nightmare to keep warm in winter.The only good thing she liked was a huge garden But when my Dad decided it was too expensive for repairs and running cost we moved to a far smaller house with all mod cons and 3 bedrooms even though I was the only child left at home by that time.

In this country its a bit different, as we do often not have the space of Canada or the U.S.I can see things from both sides.At first when we moved here I wasn't very keen as I was so used to a larger place,but with hindsight it was the best thing that we did ,especially as I am now widowed and live alone .

I am lucky that my neighbours are nice and its a small community so everyone knows everyone else.We all look out for each other too which is good.I can't see me every moving again now and I am quite settled here now

gran3

What a shame that milasavesmoney has had to defend herself for choosing to live how she does. She and her OH have made this decision and that's up to them. There may be a lot of other factors which have fed into their decision and that's their business. I didn't think the tone of this thread was to judge but to respect, support and learn from others.