Starting from zero, what would you do to save up $10k in a year?

[6packofun]

It is SO slow going trying to save up for a down payment on a house.  Our goal is to be able to put $10k down.  We will never get 20% of the home price together for a down payment so we are trying for something doable.  I HAVE to get out of this rental house.  I just can't take it anymore and finding rentals is too difficult for a family our size with no young adults moving out any time in the near future that I can see, unfortunately.  (But I'm willing to get a smaller house with a bedroom less just to look to the future AND motivate them to move on! lol)

So how would you try to rack up 10 grand?  I'm not working and it would have to be very part-time, but I'm definitely willing. Our family situation is tough (not bad, just complex with lots of young adults who are also paying bills and can't seem to save for their own cars, etc. that would make them more independent!) but I'm going to have to be the one to make a change and light a fire under everyone else.

[rdj2027]

It is hard to say without having more information.  At the most basic level, you can reduce expenses, increase income, ideally both but you know that already :-)  We saved money by paying off debt, keeping expenses minimal and taking every gig we could for a few years. We bartered a lot.  We are doing well now but it took a lot of work, several years and not doing/having things everybody else thought essential.  Not having major medical expenses was our greatest luck.

[scholastica]

What are you using to budget? That would be the first place I would look. Understand your spending and then look for what you can give up for a year to get there. It’s hard to save for a house in this rental market. Crazy hard. Good luck to you.

[Garga]

$10,000 is a lot of money.

In my little town, you get paid $7.50 an hour to start at McDonald's.  

If you want to earn $10,000 a year at $7.50 an hour, you'd have to work 1334 hours.  If you managed to get two weeks off in that year, you'd have to work 27 hours a week.  And that's as if you'd bring home the $7.50.  But taxes and such would be taken out, so you're looking at a minimum wage job for 30 hours or more a week. 

Maybe you could cut back on spending enough to add up to $10,000, but I know I sure don't waste $10,000 a year on stuff.  I spend $5 a week at the movies and $6 every other week at Sonic, for a total of $32 a month on myself.  That's $384 that I spend on myself as pure luxuries per year that I could cut back.  Other than that, I buy almost nothing for myself.  Certainly not $10,000 worth of stuff.  At Christmas, we spend $1200 for everyone in our family.  We save up all year to have that $1200.  So, if I cut out my $384 and the entire Christmas budget (which also includes presents for 2 nephews, 1 aunt, and 4 grandparents), we wouldn't be anywhere near $10,000.  And let's say that my dh and two sons also had $400 per year on luxuries.  That's still only $2800 for all of us per year, including the Christmas budget.

$10,000 is more than we spent on either car, so even if we sold a car, it wouldn't come close to covering that.

Ok--I'm not giving you any ideas, but I am posting this just to remind us all that $10,000 is a TON of money to save in a year.  Maybe the OP is someone who is a wild spender and her family brings in $300,000 a year, so $10,000 is a drop in the bucket.  Maybe she could just not buy a few cars next year and save the money that way.  :)   But in my world, $10,000 is very, very hard to come by and simply changing a few spending habits won't come anywhere near getting that kind of money.

If I seriously needed that money, I'd get a job somewhere, because I'm not sure how else to get that kind of money.

 

ETA:  If I needed the $10,000, I would do as others have said and take a hard, hard look at our spending.  I would go ahead and cut what I could, to try to get up to $2000 from saving alone.  But then I'd also get a part time job to make up the difference.  I have been out of the work force for almost 16 years and have no degree, so it would have to be minimum wage for me, most likely, but if I could find something that paid more, that would be great.

ETA:  Hang on, just because I like to be honest.  I just realized that I do go out to eat with various friends roughly once a month. I only pay for my own meal, but that's another thing I'd have to cut out or cut back.  I'd probably eat at home before going out and just order a side dish and water instead of a full meal at the restaurant.

[Annie G]

Are the young adults contributing to your household financially? It’s nice to be able to let them live free while they work and save money but you need the money and it’s good preparation for them to get used to paying their own way.  If several are sharing a car, it’s fairly easy to determine how much it costs to maintain the car...insurance, gas, oil change a few times a year. Add up costs and divide by the kids using the car. In our house, dd still has to pay her ‘share’ even though she doesn’t drive because SOMEONE is driving her. She’s still benefitting, so she pays. 

Are your food expenses high? Sometimes with people working different schedules it’s easy to fall into a routine of using convenience foods or eating out. If you’re spending a lot to feed them, it might help to post a meal plan and if anyone wants to eat they are welcome, but if they aren’t eating what you cook they have to buy their own. In our house, our two adult kids are expected to tell us whether they don’t plan to have dinner with us. All of our work schedules are posted so I already know who is working through dinner, but it really helps grocery costs.  Tonight it’ll just me be and dh so we’re having pinto beans and cornbread. Cheap, easy meal.  When all four of us are here I cook a more substantial meal we all enjoy. Keeps my costs down and less wasted food. 

A part time job might help you reach the goal faster but it also might add stress and increase expenses for gas, food, etc. So it depends on how intrusive a part time job would be.

We track expenses and have challenges to see how much we can cut. then we toss that saving right into our savings account.

Also, if you haven’t done it recently, shop around for better prices on renters and car insurance.  If you have cable or cell phones, is there any opportunity to save there?

 

Good luck- you have good goals and I hope you are encouraged and don’t become frustrated if you can’t reach your goal in one year. 

[SamanthaCarter]

The only way we could hope to do that would be to put the kids in free school so that I could work. 

[Garga]

Here are two articles that I glanced at a few weeks ago and set aside to study later.  They have tips on how to bring in little bits of money here and there.  I see from your sig that you have a lot of 20-something’s living with you.  I wonder if you could read through these articles and set a couple of the 20yos working on a few of these things.  I’m not sure I’d have the energy to do all the stuff in these articles all by myself, but maybe if you spread the work around with the other adults in the house, you could collectively save/earn a portion of the $10k that way?  Every little bit counts, right?

 

https://www.thepennyhoarder.com/make-money/50-make-extra-money/?aff_id=4&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=50-make-extra-money&utm_content=112courtneybroadautofbimage&utm_Term=Getty636236854_hustle_2&aff_sub3=50-make-extra-money_112CourtneyBroadAutoFBImage_Getty636236854_hustle_2_social_facebook

https://www.thewaystowealth.com/save-money/how-to-live-frugally/

[Junie]

If I were in this situation, I think I would sit down with the young adults and help them figure out a budget.  And if they don't follow it, then they must turn their paycheck over to you while they are living in your house.  Maybe something like this: 10 percent tithe (if you tithe), 20 percent toward housing, 50 percent toward debt, 10 percent toward saving, 10 percent toward spending.  Once the debt is paid off they can put 60 percent in saving.

[scholastica]

After reading more closely, what is the plan, if any for the young adults to move out and become independent? Do they have specific goals towards which they are working or are they just sort of drifting through life right now? I expect young adults living at home to be working towards independence. It's really hard these days to get started in life, even with a college degree, so I expect young adults to live at home for a time while they are getting on their feet. However, they have to be contributing to the household, financially and otherwise, in order to do so. They also have to be working a plan to move out in the future. Whether that's paying off loans and saving up,attending school of some sort in preparation for a career, or working a full-time job while saving. There has to be an end goal and a vague notion of a date when the arrangement will end. I hope you can figure this out. It sounds like it's tough on everyone.

[Liz CA]

On the topic of cutting expenses, here is an example but many families have already cut most of these:

Cable/Satellite

Cell phones: Switch to something like Republic Wireless or similar - no contracts and low monthly fees

No eating out if you eat out now - take lunches to work even if you have to invest in a good bottle and cooling pack

Possible jobs:

Evening / Night jobs, pizza delivery, anything you can do online depending on qualifications

Other:

Don't know what your area's average house prices are but right now it seems to be on the upswing everywhere. Have you checked with a credit union? Ours just send out flyers for 97% home loans and you contribute 3% for the down payment. You may have to pay closing costs as well - don't know. Would this work for you if you have good, monthly income but just not enough savings at the moment?

[Erica in OR]

Consider other sources too. A chunk of our down payment when we bought our first house was for cashing out a whole life insurance policy. We had decided to move to term insurance only (a la Dave Ramsey) and after getting those policies in place, we had the cash value of the whole life ones we got rid of, plus then a lower life insurance cost per month to pay.

Erica in OR

[HomeAgain]

I'd suggest to start carrying cash and a notebook.

Incidentals, groceries, and anything else you could manage would be cash envelopes.  The notebook would be to itemize every.single.thing you bought, because, for me, having to write that I wasted $1.25 on a drink at the grocery store would make me cringe enough that I'd remember to put my water bottle back in the car with me next trip.  Every penny left in the envelopes would be put in a jar, and everything in the checking account at the end of each pay period would go into savings.

LOL, we're kinda doing that right now.  It works enough for us to keep our eye on the prize. :)

[kiwik]

I work 35 hours a week and get some government assistance (NZ). $200 a week is about 1/4 of my income.  The only way I could do it is if we stapped using any heating, basically stopped eating and cancelled all insurance.  I can't cancel the internet or reduce petrol because I need then for work.  The minimum wage is around $16 in NZ but most places are expensive to live and mine particularly.  $10,000 is a lot of money.

[Shellydon]

My youngest is 9, so I would work.  I have a degree in a rehab field, so I would work weekends or evenings, or alternately pick up 10-15 patients a week in a home health program.  Depending on gas prices, it would take 3-4 months to save up $10K.

[plansrme]

Your youngest is 11, and you have 5 olders living at home?  If the four YAs are not willing to chip in a minimum of $150/month for rent, I would make them pay it in kind with babysitting or teaching or yard work or whatever, freeing you up for a part-time job.  $10K/year is $900/month, which is about $200/week.  Even waaaay back in the day, I could clear $100 a night waiting tables at a cheap'ish Tex-Mex place.  If you can't reduce expenses by $900/month, the only other option is to increase income, and an extra job is a pretty straightforward way to make that happen. 

[Ausmumof3]

you need around $200 per week.  If you to work to get it you're going to want more than that to cover the extra expenses of working.  (Work clothes, travel to and from work costs, not having as much time for money saving measures).

are your at home adult children paying board?  They should be.  It doesn't have to be huge but enough to realise life isn't a free ride and help you get a start on saving.

How are you at typing?  Transcription typing from home doesn't pay too badly here and there's a lower cost for work.  All you need is internet and a computer.

otherwise it's going to depend on your situation.  If you buy new clothes you could switch to op shop.  You can ring around and try to get the best deal on insurance, phone, internet etc.  most people have already done that though.  

You can cut grocery costs to the bare essentials.  This may motivate the adults to contribute more!  The downside to doing that is it can make takeout that much more appealing.  Make your own cleaning products.

[6packofun]

Great ideas!  I am a pencil and paper kind of budget-er so we're working on reducing expenditures and so far have about $250 a month.  We had 2 cars in the household die in a month so we all pitched in for those and the adult kids' savings are down because of it.  We stopped charging rent for a while during that episode but will have to start up again.  They are good about paying it, though, no problem there.

Some good ideas here for me, thank you!  I think the hardest part is that dh isn't willing to part with certain things that I consider luxuries.  A year of bare bones entertainment would be FINE with me to get us FREE, you know?  Just trying to compromise here.  It helps to break it down to that $200/week.  I'll pitch that to everyone and see where we can get! 

[JustEm]

My pet sitting brings in roughly $5000 a year and it is incredibly part time.  It takes some time to build up a good clientele but it is possible and pretty easy. I would also sell items in the house to start that savings account.  We also decided to go to a one car family.  Now we don't have kids who drive so it is pretty easy.  Dh gets the car for work and I work around that or drop him off. Cutting cable and eating out as much as we did was huge.

[Pippen]

YA's in college here don't contribute rent and we cover some of their expenses like cell phone, car/health insurance, etc. As soon as they graduate (or leave school) they will be put on notice that their expenditures will fully become THEIR expenditures as of such-and-such date. If YA's aren't moving in the direction of becoming independent on their own, they need help and a plan, and in come cases some tough love. 

[Rachel]

What types of skills could you offer to others that may pay more than a part time job? Earlier in our marriage when money was a lot tighter, my husband had changed oil, did various car repairs, installed a dishwasher for someone else, and helped with maintainence at our church. I sewed curtains (and a few other random things) and dresses and took care of children for friends. 

For cutting back expenses, we did the obvious like not having cable or internet at home, we didn’t eat out. We cut way back on transportation expenses including riding bikes where we could.

Saving any big chunks of money you may have coming in like a tax refund (and then adjusting withholdings to get a bigger paycheck/smaller refund) are helpful too.  

Oh, and if they haven’t already, all income earners should ask for a raise. They should be prepared to justify why they deserve a raise of course.

 

[Garga]

3 hours ago, hjffkj said:

My pet sitting brings in roughly $5000 a year and it is incredibly part time.  It takes some time to build up a good clientele but it is possible and pretty easy. I would also sell items in the house to start that savings account.  We also decided to go to a one car family.  Now we don't have kids who drive so it is pretty easy.  Dh gets the car for work and I work around that or drop him off. Cutting cable and eating out as much as we did was huge.

 

Pet sitting.  I like this idea for myself.  Hmmm.  How did you go about starting this up?  Did you join a group?  A website?  Post ads in the local grocery stores?

[kiwik]

3 hours ago, StellaM said:

Get a job, or another job.

Move in with family; save the $ that would have gone on rent. 

 

For most people I know that is not an option.  

[Frances]

I’d get a job. When we wanted to save considerably more than that in a year and our son was the age of your youngest, I got a full-time job with great benefits. We saved every penny I made and had a nice cushion when my husband went to professional school the next year, plus great health insurance for our family while he was in school. I was still able to homeschool because we both had some flexibility in our work. With so many young adults in your household, it seems like you would have lots of people to help get everything done while you were working. And my job did not really add any extra expenses, as I walked to work and took my lunch and didn’t really need much in the way of different clothes. And anything I did, I bought at Goodwill.

[JustEm]

4 hours ago, Garga said:

 

Pet sitting.  I like this idea for myself.  Hmmm.  How did you go about starting this up?  Did you join a group?  A website?  Post ads in the local grocery stores?

It started as word of mouth and posting ads on the local University's classified page. Then it expanded to my own website and Facebook business page. I also left business cards on local community bulletin boards and inside businesses, always asking permission to do so of course.

It is a great job because it can be as part time or full time as I want depending on my family's needs.

 

[JustEm]

Another thing I did was reevaluate our grocery spending because that is generally our most expensive thing after house payment. With planning and smarter shopping I trimmed the bill by $50/wk, which really adds up fast.

[J-rap]

When all of our children were home and if this was our goal, things that would have helped:

1- Getting part-time jobs. (One for me -- as the stay-at-home parent, and one for my dh, which would have been an extra job he'd add on top of his full-time one);

2- Cut back on groceries.  We shopped fairly frugally, but did cut out most meat, all snack-foods like chips, pop, etc., and ate a lot of beans and rice for years when our children were young.  Thankfully they loved beans and rice!

3- Cut back on things that many people consider essential:  air-conditioning, cable TV, cell phones, expensive children's activities, eating out, new clothes, new sports equipment, new eye-glasses, vacations, new furniture, newspaper subscriptions, eating out, etc.  That was a little easier for us to do because we lived in a small town and a lot of that wasn't even available.  :)  

[Guest]

There are lots of great ideas in this thread and, of course, part of the answer lies in how you live now and what expectations the young adults have/how they consume and contribute. But, not to be Debbie Downer, but I also want to point out that earning your $10k for a down payment is not the last you will have to think about having a large cash cushion. Owning a house is full of expenses that can be shocking, which, as a renter, you haven’t needed to worry about. So, I would say if your aim is to come up with $10k this year to buy a house, your next, immediate goal needs to be come up with an additional $10k for surprises. 

Sorry. Part time job or some type of side gig is the only way that would work for me. 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, J-rap said:

When all of our children were home and if this was our goal, things that would have helped:

1- Getting part-time jobs. (One for me -- as the stay-at-home parent, and one for my dh, which would have been an extra job he'd add on top of his full-time one);

2- Cut back on groceries.  We shopped fairly frugally, but did cut out most meat, all snack-foods like chips, pop, etc., and ate a lot of beans and rice for years when our children were young.  Thankfully they loved beans and rice!

3- Cut back on things that many people consider essential:  air-conditioning, cable TV, cell phones, expensive children's activities, eating out, new clothes, new sports equipment, new eye-glasses, vacations, new furniture, newspaper subscriptions, eating out, etc.  That was a little easier for us to do because we lived in a small town and a lot of that wasn't even available.  :)  

I agree with everything you have posted here, but I have one question: new eye-glasses? What is the frugal solution to replacing eyeglasses? 

[SparklyUnicorn]

If you qualify income wise you might look into programs that help with a down payment.  FHA also allows for a lower down payment.

Just tossing some additional ideas out there. 

[Junie]

1 hour ago, Quill said:

I agree with everything you have posted here, but I have one question: new eye-glasses? What is the frugal solution to replacing eyeglasses? 

Not replacing them if the prescription hasn't changed much.

Another way to save money is to re-use the old frames and only get replacement lenses.

[Annie G]

1 hour ago, Quill said:

I agree with everything you have posted here, but I have one question: new eye-glasses? What is the frugal solution to replacing eyeglasses? 

Our insurance chips in for new glasses every year but we don’t do that. However, I know plenty of people who buy new ones every year because they are tired of their old ones. So much like keeping your cell phone until it’s a dinosaur and actually needs replacing, not buying new glasses every year is a frugal move. 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Annie G said:

Our insurance chips in for new glasses every year but we don’t do that. However, I know plenty of people who buy new ones every year because they are tired of their old ones. So much like keeping your cell phone until it’s a dinosaur and actually needs replacing, not buying new glasses every year is a frugal move. 

I see. Yeah, I don’t ever replace mine just for a new look. It’s only because my vision changes. I need to go in now and I keep debating whether to go to the more expensive, but more thorough eye doctor private business or go to the cheap chain store eye doctor. (I haven’t had an exam for about three years, and at my age, I think they thorough exam is important. But it will cost more.) 

[almondbutterandjelly]

I don't know how your paychecks work, but here, my husband gets 26 paychecks a year, but we budget for 2 paychecks to cover one month of expenditures.  That's 24 paychecks.  So we basically get an extra paycheck twice a year (usually one in summer and one near Christmas).  If you can re-structure your budget, it's not a huge difference each month, but those extra paychecks are nice and you could save them up.

[gardenmom5]

we've had to seriously cut back during times of unemployment.

 

cut out non-essentials.  you'd be surprised what is a "non-essential".

I'd also look at "frugal" tip sites.   the tightwad gazette is out of print, but stuff is available online.  she had some great suggestions.

[Chris in VA]

Check if you are paying too much interest on credit debt. See if you can get a 0% interest card to transfer a balance to, and then pay it down. If you can eliminate it, you can then save the $ you were paying to the credit card. 

Try shopping at another grocery store to cut costs. I shopped at Aldi for the first time last year--now I buy most basics there, and save around $50 a month from what we were spending. Some things I still get name brand at the Food Lion, but we try to go cheap on snacks (if we have any--usually cheap pretzels and cheap nuts), and milk is $2 cheaper a gallon there, as is almond and coconut milk. 

See if you can work an overnight pet sitting job twice a week. You get to sleep (it's not "awake overnight") and you can pull in $50-$65 a night privately and more if you are in charge overnight at a large pet hotel. I made $96 a night doing so--I quit because of safety concerns at that particular company, but the job consisted of sleeping in a private suite with 2-5 dogs whose owners wanted them in a more home-like environment instead of in the main part of the pet hotel. I got roughly 7 hours of good sleep. 

Good luck! That's an admirable goal. 

 

[Katy]

I agree that you need more than $10k to buy a house, you'll need to have cash in savings even if you buy a home warranty plan. But working on a financial goal is always a good idea.

Food is often the biggest optional expenditures for most families, so start with a cheap meal plan.  Oatmeal for breakfast on weekdays; Rice, beans, and 1.5 servings of veggies for lunch; similarly cheap options for dinner; two servings of fruit per day (a banana and bagged apples or oranges are usually cheapest). Weigh the servings so you know you're meeting your calorie needs - cheap food doesn't work if you get so hungry you binge on fast food 4 times a week.  On weekends "splurge" a bit with things that take longer to cook but aren't much more expensive- pancakes, biscuits, or french toast for breakfast, homemade soup and homemade bread for lunch, something special like homemade pizza or roast chicken for dinner. Add things like homemade soup, potatoes, and cabbage sides to every meal you have time to - dishes made with them are cheap and nutritious.  Avoid meat and dairy, they're expensive.

Other than food, stop spending money for all non-essentials.  Don't buy new anything. Go on a non-essential spending freeze.

Look into every bill you have and see if there's a way to make it cheaper.

Have everyone in your home that can get a job get a job.  If they can take the time to get the skills to get a better job, have them do it (entry level programming, bookkeeping, even customer service jobs don't typically require much training but often pay more than minimum wage).

Read old entries on personal finance blogs like Mr Money Mustache and Frugalwoods for inspiration.  Both families skimped to save for goals but are quite wealthy now.  It could be that your kids don't need to buy a car to leave, they might just need a better bike and a bus pass.

[2squared]

This is out-of-the-box, but could you help launch the young adults to their own rental somewhere. Maybe subsidize a little of the rent for a few months or contribute the deposit while whomever is left moves to a smaller rental house/apartment?  You could get a 2 or 3 bedroom if only the youngest three move with you.

Seems like the older three could move into a cheap one or two bedroom apartment (someone could sleep on the couch/pull-out sofa in a 1BR). This would help them move toward independence and give you more rental options.

[ScoutTN]

So different for each family.

Not sure we coud actually do it.

We would have to eliminate all outside classes except one (dd's math that I cannot teach and will not sacrifce) and all extracurriculars except church, drop our pool membership, zoo membership, summer camp, and vacation (which we only get every other year or every third as it is) and slash Christmas to almost nothing.  We already cook from scratch, grocery shop mostly at Aldi, get most clothes from thrift and consignment sales, almost never eat out, do not have cable, drive old cars that we paid cash for, avoid Target like the plague, keep gifts few, practical and small, and generally live frugally.  My mom pays for our cell phone service. We don't have anything valuable to sell.  I already work part time and am also applying for a tutoring job for the summer. 

 

 

 

 

[threebyme]

Since everyone has suggested various things and things I would, I would also suggest shop around for car insurance.  Not sure if it was suggested, See if anyone can give you a good savings.

[6packofun]

15 hours ago, Quill said:

There are lots of great ideas in this thread and, of course, part of the answer lies in how you live now and what expectations the young adults have/how they consume and contribute. But, not to be Debbie Downer, but I also want to point out that earning your $10k for a down payment is not the last you will have to think about having a large cash cushion. Owning a house is full of expenses that can be shocking, which, as a renter, you haven’t needed to worry about. So, I would say if your aim is to come up with $10k this year to buy a house, your next, immediate goal needs to be come up with an additional $10k for surprises. 

Sorry. Part time job or some type of side gig is the only way that would work for me. 

Not a downer at all!  It's one of the things I'm nervous about when we become homeowners at long last.  We were lucky to have a cushion recently--unfortunately, it went to purchasing a reliable car for dh to commute with and so our savings went down to basically 0. But we're now in a place where it won't take too long to get at least $1k in savings for a non-housing cushion.  Not a lot, but after 25 years of NO savings, EVER, it's pretty nice to us.  LOL 

[6packofun]

I hope no one is feeling badly about what you'd have to do to save this much even in a hypothetical situation.  I didn't mean to make anyone feel the crunch of their budgets more than they already do.  I have NO idea if we can even do this.  It's just a goal and one that I am totally OK with doing in two years if we have to.  (My dh works 2 jobs AND a 3rd very occasionally and we don't make 6 figures by any means!)  But I really, really want to be done with renting.

[mommyoffive]

5 hours ago, Chris in VA said:

Check if you are paying too much interest on credit debt. See if you can get a 0% interest card to transfer a balance to, and then pay it down. If you can eliminate it, you can then save the $ you were paying to the credit card. 

Try shopping at another grocery store to cut costs. I shopped at Aldi for the first time last year--now I buy most basics there, and save around $50 a month from what we were spending. Some things I still get name brand at the Food Lion, but we try to go cheap on snacks (if we have any--usually cheap pretzels and cheap nuts), and milk is $2 cheaper a gallon there, as is almond and coconut milk. 

See if you can work an overnight pet sitting job twice a week. You get to sleep (it's not "awake overnight") and you can pull in $50-$65 a night privately and more if you are in charge overnight at a large pet hotel. I made $96 a night doing so--I quit because of safety concerns at that particular company, but the job consisted of sleeping in a private suite with 2-5 dogs whose owners wanted them in a more home-like environment instead of in the main part of the pet hotel. I got roughly 7 hours of good sleep. 

Good luck! That's an admirable goal. 

 

 

That sounds like the best job.  I want it. 

[umsami]

Anybody over 18 and living at home should pay at least $25/week in rent.  From your signature that would get you $400/month=$4800 in a year.  If they are out of college/working at a more career type job, then I would up that.  They can still save for their cars.    You're almost half way there with that alone.

Now start writing down every single cent you spend...both you and your husband.   Do this for a month.  Figure out where your money is actually going.  From there, you look at where you can cut.  

Add in a part-time job if you can.  

[SereneHome]

I have to get to bed so didn't read the thread yet, but have you considered rent-to-buy option?  I am not sure how your RE market is, but I know people who went that route bc they didn't have enough for down payment

[SereneHome]

So, I read most of the thread, and I would highly encourage you NOT to buy a house with that little savings unless you are prepared to continue with bare bones budget or extra jobs, etc

Even if the house itself is perfect and won't need any repairs/maintenance, there are so so so many "little" things that you might not anticipate.

[bolt.]

I would...

- Set up a down payment savings account.

- Charge each young adult $200 to $300 per month for rent / room and board. Have them set up this up as an automatic payment into the  down payment savings account.

- Set up an automatic transfer from the account where paycheques get deposited to the down payment savings account of $200 to $300 per month. This should be some off each paycheque, implemented the day after payday.

- Adjust the budget to account for the missing money. Stop spending when you run out of money each pay period (as long as this is not a serious hardship).