We’ve always known that we wanted to be homeowners. Ever since we both graduated from law school in 2013 and had our first jobs, we started saving for that big down payment. We weren’t sure when we would be ready, or where we would be living when we finally saved and were ready to purchase a home, but we knew that it was a priority to save. So we started making some sacrifices to watch our bank account grow.
Homebuying Journey: Saving
Even though we are both lawyers and were making pretty good salaries, we still made sacrifices to put away money each month:
- We didn’t eat out every night, refrained from buying coffee every day, and tried to pack lunches and cook to save money.
- On our international travels, we booked less expensive boutique hotels, rather than staying at the fanciest resorts listed in the Fodor’s travel guides.
- We stayed with friends and family when we traveled to save a bit of money.
- When we felt rent was getting too high (especially when we lived in DC) we moved to a different neighborhood where rent was less so we could save more!
- Made it a priority to keep ourselves free of credit card debt. We researched the best credit cards for our lifestyle, and found that travel and hotel cards would give us the ability to accumulate travel points for things we were already paying for – like groceries, bills, clothing, and kitty supplies. That way, we could still pursue our passion for travel without breaking the bank.
Homebuying Journey: Ready to Buy
After five years of saving, we were finally ready to purchase our first home in September of 2018! When we found the perfect home, it felt so good to get the keys and make this big purchase for our future. Although we said ‘bye bye’ to the money in our bank accounts, we know that our hard-earned savings are secure in the equity of our home, rather than being thrown away in rent each month.
We’re so happy that we saved and made sacrifices over the years in order to be able to bring our first child home to a stable and secure environment. If times get tough, I know that we have this condo in our asset portfolio to fall back on.
Even though we have our home now, our saving habits haven’t changed! We didn’t get the keys on closing day and immediately head to the Gucci store, haha. Saving for a home was a great exercise for us in forming a sustainable savings routine. We still prefer to travel using our credit card points, still pack our lunches, and have found that staying in smaller less expensive hotels suits our lifestyle. Although, I do buy Jake and Elwood the fanciest kitty food, but they’re princes and deserve it, haha. Now, we are saving for things like our baby’s education and retirement, rather than a down payment!
For more advice on home buying and saving, I highly recommend checking out Unison.com! Unison is doing some pretty innovative things in home finance; their home co-investing
programs are something to look into if you haven’t heard of it before!
Are you a homeowner? Are you currently saving? Enter to win $25,000 cash for a down payment on a home!
Thank you to Unison for sponsoring this homebuying journey post. As always, all opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that support Glass of Glam!
–Roxanne
On Mondays We Link Up
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What an amazing feat! Huge congrats on you dear!
Jessica | notjessfashion.com
Thank you, Jessica!
Congrats on your home! I’ve loved seeing how you style your house and your cute nursery for Sidney. Learning to set aside money is key in life.
http://www.ruthyannie.com
Thank you, Ruth! The nursery is one of my favorite rooms!
Congratulations on your home! It sounds like you guys worked really hard and made your priorities very clear with each other, this creating a team approach to achieving your goal. I feel so blessed to have our home and though it’s not fancy or the most up to date decore, we own most of it and it’s attainable for our wages.
Your baby girl is so lucky to have you guys.
Bosbodaciousblog.blogspot.ca
Thank you so much! I feel the same as you – so blessed and happy we were able to afford it!
your own home is so worth saying goodbye to the bank account. Great post and very helpful
You’re so right! Our savings are starting to creep up again after the big home purchase! Thanks so much, Linda.
Congratulations to you and Dan! Home buying is such an experience and the sacrifices is so worth it! We also make our coffee and food at home. We saved so much doing this and created a habit that lasted even after we bought our house as well. I hope you had a good weekend and happy Monday!
Maureen | http://www.littlemisscasual.com
Thank you, Maureen! It’s amazing how much we can save by switching a few things around.
Those are great tips and you’re so right. Once you buy the home it’s not the time to start to splurge. Owning a home is expensive in itself, but then we’ve got to save for retirement and kid’s colleges. It never ends, ha.
It’s so true. We are working on setting up Sidney’s college fund right now, so the savings are always in full effect!
Huge congratulations to you! And what a cool post!
Shelbee
http://www.shelbeeontheedge.com
Thank you Shelbee!
Thank you for the link up!
Hope that you have had a great weekend 🙂
Thanks, Mica!