Weekly Randoms 12/17

BurlapandLace

@doxiemoxie212 ~ Yes. I didn’t grow up wealthy at all - grew up in appartments and then a 2 bedroom mobile home. So sister and I shared a room and we definitely didn’t have a playroom. 
I was so glad we were able to find a house in our budget with a space that works perfectly for the playroom. We definitely aren’t in the best area of town, and we had to compromise and get a fixer upper and do SO much work ourselves to find a house with a floor plan that would work for us. And I feel so blessed that we are making it work. I am SO OCD and I can feel imagine not having a place to put all his crap (MIL buys way too much ish for him). When he was born, we lived in a 300 square foot trailer and it was SO tight. So I’m glad that to have more space now. 

Hoping you guys guys can make the movement out here and get more space too!! 

kmurdock925

+1 to the playroom.  I had one growing up and while DD doesn't have one now she does have a contained toy space in the family room.  I can keep an eye on her while I'm in the kitchen....as long as we pick up the toys are generally contained...but during play hours the fam room does look like a train hit it.  Our extra bedroom now is currently an "office" ie: book shelf and desk with my sewing machine and random odds and ends.  Once the girls are old enough where I can trust them on a separate floor of the house as me I may turn that room into a combo play room/craft room or find a space in the basement (finished) to be an appropriate play space.  The basement is currently the man cave...theater area/projector, table, pool table, shuffle board table but we're literally down there like 5 times a year...

MoonOverGoldsboro

I don't imagine we'll ever have space for a playroom (I like small houses and we don't really want to spend more money to get a bigger house in our neighborhood, anyway), but we do have sort of a play "nook" in the front of our living room (which is our only main living space) with a toy chest and such. The bedrooms are all upstairs, so it doesn't really make sense to me to have all the toys up there, away from where we all usually congregate. Ultimately, though, the idea that all or most people can have space for a play room is pretty crazy to me. I think the best a lot of people can do is some kind of combined space (like we do out of necessity). I sure never had a playroom growing up.

ffw0617

@doxiemoxie212 I always wondered how that felt. That was a deal breaker for me when we were house hunting. We wanted to build and some subdivisions in our area have houses $200,000- $2 million. No thank you. And in all communities the largest nicest houses are either in the front or very back of the community. Why would I want to drive pass a $2 million mansion on my way home everyday after a long day of working for my $200,000 house. I love our neighborhood, its not the nicest, but its diverse, everyone is working class, my neighbors are teachers, nurses, police officers and small business owners. Everyone is enjoying their comfortable life, no competition. 

catlady1215

@amys614 yup, that's me. I get severe anxiety if i know I'm around someone who has been sick recently. and I still have the fear of vomiting. luckily I haven't done it with either pregnancy. and as for just being sick, I did it once 2 years ago.. and the last time before that was in 7th grade (I don't count drinking pukes.. those don't bother me lol). knocking on some wood! and DS has only done it once and dh was home. I have a bad feeling this is our year for him getting something rough lol.


as for our 'playroom'. it's actually this sunroom in the front of our house.. right off the living room. its not done up pinterest fancy or anything. basically walls lined with toys. we don't want toys in his bedroom, so this works. I used to want to put my desk in there. but I love having all his toys out of my living room lol. we'll eventually have to move and I really want to figure out a way to have a toy room on the first floor again. so handy!
growing up, we had a small house. our dinning room basically turned in to a toy room cause we ate in the living room.

LaceyBee522

@doxiemoxie212 I'm laugh/crying at your desire to get out of  here as I troll the Upper East Side Mothers group on Facebook looking desperately for a 2 bed/2 bath we can afford in Manhattan. 

icecubeinthedesert

@doxiemoxie212, I also dream about having a robotic vacuum to deal with all the dog hair, but alas, I have an incontinent dog. Have you read the horror story reviews about those things running over dog poop and smearing it all over? I'm 100% sure that would be a regular occurrence in our household.

doxiemoxie212

@LaceyBee522 lolz I mean, people do it. DH grew up with three brothers in Manhattan, and until he was 10 they lived in a 2 bedroom apt, but hell no for me. Like, even if we could afford the minimum $1.5 million it would take to buy a 2 or 3 bedroom with 2 bathrooms in the city, on top of that the maintenance and taxes would be at least $3-4k/month (DH is opposed to renting, so...). Nope nope nope. And property taxes in the tristate area are also bananas, sooooo CALIFORNIA PLS LET US JOIN YOU! lol lol not that the bay area is better from an affordability standpoint, but maybe we could get a postage stamp sized yard! 

doxiemoxie212

@icecubeinthedesert lol lol lol yes 

doxiemoxie212

@ffw0617 I grew up in the bay area, so I would say my friends' mansions were probably a minimum of $3 million? But probably closer generally to $5 million. I was very seriously embarrassed about where I lived growing up. The first time I watched HGTV, I was like, there are houses for less than $500k????? absurd. 

katelynrae86

@krashke Nice job to your hubby! I'm jealous of your new vacuum

and +1 to the cheerio messes (I swear they multiple in the crevices of the car seat...haha). My DS is a food thrower, too @jsl82. Thank goodness for a dog who helps me clean up most messes.

@kmurdock925 sorry to hear about the tummy bug. That's the worst...poor baby and poor parents for having to clean up throw up and diarrhea Cold and flu season is the pits. My LO is getting over something, too. Just a little cold bug but it was his first time with a fever so that was a little scary.

And I'm pretty sure my whole house is slowly becoming the "playroom." I've got toys stashed everywhere. Maybe in a few years, I'll have a presentable house again 
 

catlady1215

@doxiemoxie212 you'd probably shit yourself if you knew what we paid for our house lol. but cost of living is much lower here so obviously, it semi equals out.

doxiemoxie212

What percent of your combined total monthly income after taxes do you guys estimate you spend on housing (mortgage/rent, property taxes, HOA fees, homeowners/renters insurance, etc)? This is just a general question to everyone because I'm very curious.

I think most people I know spend close to 50% in NYC or SF, unless they choose to live as a couple in a studio apt or something. We pay more like 25% currently, but if we move to CA I estimate it will be more like 40%. 

krash_

@doxiemoxie212 we're at 30% and I'd say that's pretty average for around here. 

kmurdock925

Ha- adding to the robot vacuum convo...a friend gave us theirs that they got for a wedding gift and hated so they didn't use it...I keep blankets on the couch to keep dog hair at bay...well while the vacuum was running while we were at work the vacuum sucked up the blanket, which im imagining sent the dog(s) into hysterics and we came home to a destroyed couch.  Thank God we bought the warranty on the furniture and they replaced that piece...I have a pic somewhere.  If I can find it I'll add it

catlady1215

DH's pay varies a lot, so I tried to figure it out with an average. we're about 12%. Both of our incomes have gone up a lot since we got this house 8 years ago.

doxiemoxie212

@catlady1215

sunshineandwhiskey

@doxiemoxie212 I would say we’re around 17% which makes me sad to think where the rest of our money goes 

doxiemoxie212

@sunshineandwhiskey you also get my Carrie Bradshaw gif.

stephcat421

@doxiemoxie212 22% over here. I'm in thE same boat as @sunshineandwhiskey.... Where does the rest go?!

RatParade

@doxiemoxie212 we're about 16-17%.  I live just south of Sacramento in a reasonable area, and we bought out house as a short sale so really lucked out.  SF would be a lot different lol

ffw0617

@doxiemoxie212 I'd never done the math until just now. DH is self employed so his income varies slightly. But we are at a whopping 9% of our annual income goes to mortgage, property taxes, homeowner's insurance, and community fees.

Where does the rest of our money go? DH doesn't use credit (I use credit he does not) so he saves a ton so he's able to buy everything in cash.

doxiemoxie212

@ffw0617 you're leaving money on the table if you don't use credit cards! Pay them off every month, but get those reward points, girl! 

ffw0617

@doxiemoxie212 I use credit cards, and know the benefits of credit. The only reason we have a house is because of my credit. But it works (the majority of the time, we've had a few disagreements here & there) because DH likes nice things but he's also willing to save for them. But it sucked when it came to big joint purchases like our wedding, waiting and waiting to book things until we had all the money because he refused to let me put stuff on my credit card.

Austenista

I never felt like we needed a play room per se, but when we moved into our new house I decided to use the space that was designated for a dining room as a playroom. We have an eat in kitchen so I didn’t feel like we needed both. I like the idea of the kids being downstairs playing rather than up in their rooms anyway. 

We are homeschooling so it will also be a convenient location for school work in the future. So beds will be for sleeping and playing will either be downstairs off the family room or outside. I’m just getting started setting it up for him, but I’m excited for what the space can be. 

doxiemoxie212

@ffw0617 one of my biggest regrets is that I didn't pay for more of our wedding with credit cards. It wasn't technically my money (DH's parents just gave us a check for a large sum of money), so I just put it in a new joint account and paid in cash, but man oh man, the points I could've gotten! Ugh. I still kick myself. 

katelynrae86

   ugh, you guys are making me depressed. I just did the math and our mortgage payment is about 37% of our monthly take home.
    Granted, we knew we'd be living a little more thriftily (pretty sure I just made that word up) when I quit my job to stay home with the kiddos.

BurlapandLace

@doxiemoxie212 ~ 47% (Single income family). And that’s with having moved out of the central coast/Bay Area and to the outskirts of Sacramento. 

Hey @RatParade ! Sounds like you might be close-ish to me 

krash_

YOU GUISE...why didn't anyone tell me Aug was BLOWING UP!?! I've been sitting here bored all day! I didn't even have a chance to call bingo before it was closed!

I'm looking at you @doxiemoxie212 @amys614 and @MLS6212!

BurlapandLace

*cue everyone leaving to go look at august* 

RatParade

@burlapandlace howdy neighbor!

ffw0617

@doxiemoxie212 that's awesome that your husband's family paid for your wedding. I always said I wanted to be able to at least offer to contribution a large portion of the wedding costs for my future children. Our parents helped in certain areas (my dad covered the cakes & mini moon, his dad covered the bar, and his mom covered the videographer the rest was us) and the areas that someone else covered were the easiest happiest decisions. It was like, I like it/him/her its in their budget, lets book. No huge debate about if its available cheaper or where to cut corners. I would day dream about planning a wedding where all the decisions were that easy. 

doxiemoxie212

@ffw0617 it def wasn’t easy making decisions. I had to take so many people into consideration because I felt beholden, but no one would tell me what they wanted. And I’d pinch and squeeze to fit everything into the budget we had, and if FIL found out about something he didn’t like, he’d throw more money at it which I didn’t know was an option/never would have asked for so it ended up with everyone acting like I struggled for no reason to make everything work. 

In retrospect I wish we’d just taken the money and gone on an epic honeymoon. FIL gave us that option when he gave us they money; said he didn’t care if we actually used it for the wedding. We should’ve done it lol. I did not enjoy being the center of attention like that, all said and done. 

Man, I would’ve spent like a month in Santorini...

May14th2011

Our mortgage is 35% of our income, but we're a single income family right now. We budget really frugally though to keep things even. I spend $200/month for groceries for 4 people. 
I want a playroom so bad! Our current house is 2 story, with no possible playroom downstairs so toys are all over my living room. I'd love to shut a door on the mess, lol. I told DH our next house is going to have a playroom. 
Sorry I've been MIA! We're on vacation visiting family and it's been crazy. 

megara5

I'd say our housing cost is about 10% of our income. 

On playrooms, we had one for littles #1-3. Then it became #4's bedroom. 

ffw0617

@doxiemoxie212 I'm the biggest no wedding person now. I'm that person that tells everyone to elope. I did not enjoy it at all. It wasn't a possibility for us bc DH wanted a big wedding. I'm looking at my finances today (I say "my" because DH is self employed he has access to an entire business of income whereas mine is limited by a salary much less than what he brings in) and I could have used that money in so many other ways. In the portion we paid I could have paid our mortgage for an entire year while I was on maternity leave.

amys614

@krashke


Lol I too went because I was bored today in the morning. Sorry you missed your bingo. I'll do better next time.

@doxiemoxie212 I am at 29% in the Chicago suburbs. I know where the rest of mine goes. Student loan payment that's incredibly close to my mortgage payment. Thanks Sallie Mae. 4 more years until I'm done being her B. 

doxiemoxie212

@amys614 yes I am also on the obscene student loan bandwagon. I have... 4 more years too! Except for my gov ones which I think go until I die. Most of mine are thankfully at 2% interest but the principle is so high that it’s still cray cray. #regrets lol

dinodna3

We are 20-30% depending on DHs annual bonus. We were fortunate to move out of south Florida before DD was born, I never would have been able to stay home if we still lived there. 

Random question: Do you and your SO give separate gifts or just one as a couple? DH seems to think he needs to buy my parents separate gifts. It been 10 years, bud, one gift is good. 

catlady1215

@dinodna3 one gift. I've never seen it done otherwise in either of our families either.