Cost of living and the cost of durable goods

[HaleYes]

What keeps going up and up is daycare costs and insurance, both health and vehicle. We bought our 875 sq. ft house for 85k last March (fully remodeled, new appliances, etc) because it was cheaper to buy a house here than to rent. Go figure. Daycare costs us $178 a WEEK for both kids, and my wife's work changed their insurance plans from no copay to a $20 copay with no reduction in regular pay deductions.

Between paying daycare every week, utilities, mortgage and buying groceries, there is usually a little month left at the end of the money. Milk at $3.99 a gallon doesn't help either with 2 small kids in the house. Shoot, it almost seems worth it to stay home with the kids than to work! 100% of my paycheck goes to daycare.

We both took a decent pay cut to move down here so I could go back to school, hoping the cost of living would be less since Vincennes is a smaller town. It is less, but not by a whole lot. Oh well, only a year and a half of school left and then hopefully the state will be paying my salary/benefits and it will get better.

I hear ya brotha.
We pay $480/month for daycare.
Housing must be alot higher in Vtown. I didn't realize there was that much of a difference.

Set a budget and stick to it. Sticking to it is the hard part, we've not been doing very good with Xmas and all. Cut up all your plastic too.

Hale

 

[Rob Mayercik]

$250k for a house will buy you a shack next to the bus station in much of California.

New Jersey's much the same - with only $250K, you'd be hard-pressed to find a cardboard box under a bridge in some parts of the state, and even if you did there'd be quite a line ahead of you.

The cost of living is going up. I havent been around long enough to know what that truly means. But even my young little self remembers a time when one didnt have to pay $3 for a gallon of gas.

When I got my license in '92 I remember grumbling as the prices rose from $1 to $1.20/gal for regular unleaded.

 

[87manche]

We?

You mean mommy and daddy?

haha, and Hale drops the e-bitch slap!

 

[Gerr]

geeze I remember .70 a gal for gas and $300 a month mortgages on 3 bed 2 bath houses now my wife and I live 80 miles round trip from both of our jobs drive a POS ford truck every day but have a $575 a month mortgage payment, we looked in to selling and moving and there is just no way we can afford to even rent a small apartment for what we pay in mortgage and fuel. Plus it is nice to own one of the last in tact 10 acre lots in the area

 

[w_howey]

I was offered a job in the Seattle this fall.

The housing prices were absolutely unbelivable.......
Where we live now(go to Sean's and head another 40 minutes south), housing prices aren't bad. 85k for 2k sq ft. 3-4 bedrooms,1-2 baths. on a city lot.

To get a comparable house in the Seattle market would have cost my family upwards of $300k..... With higher prices for EVERYTHING, except my wife's stupid coffee. And emissions testing to boot.

And to Illiana..... We were paying $350 per week for two. Wonder why my wifey didn't go back to work full-time?

 

[IllianaXJ]

I hear ya brotha.
We pay $480/month for daycare.
Housing must be alot higher in Vtown. I didn't realize there was that much of a difference.

Hale

Yeah, daycare is a killer. I'd probably stay home with the kids if I didn't have class every day.

When we looked at moving down here, to find a rental that would allow our pets and was big enough for 4 people, it was going to be $750+. Our mortgage is $650 and it's our house. We had to make some compromises (no garage for me, and it's 875 sq.ft) but oh well, it's temporary.

We don't have any plastic, no car payments and just about every penny is accounted for. Thankfully we both work 2 miles from home and campus is 4 miles from home, so fuel costs stay down as long as we don't go to Indy that often.

 

[Ray H]

I guess what started off this thought was the idea of replacing my XJ. However, a quick reality check of New and Used car prices set me straight.
It is more cost effective to continue to fix the poor bastage, even with major repairs figured in, than it is to replace it.

The cheapest thing you can get in a Jeep lineup is a Patriot. At $16K starter price, I think it's a bit pricey for the little milage king. It goes up from there of course.
You almost need to take out a mortage on cars to afford them. Gee, I wonder why the big 3 are in trouble? You can't sell New if the old stuff doesn't die, and the replacement is too expensive. Boneyards must be making a mint !

Housing is the same way. I can't believe people manage to pay for $250K houses !
Considering that the average household income is $50K, the idea of owning a house or even renting an apartment in some places, is becoming obsene.

Is it just me, or is the cost of durable goods going out of sight, while the cost of passive goods, (phones, TV sets, Game consoles, computers and the like) are going into the drink.

...Ron

A few months ago I went shopping for a truck to replace the XJ. I drove a few, even made a low offer on one. The seller didnt except the offer and I was ok with that. I ended up keeping the XJ. It wasnt even because I couldnt afford a new truck, it was more the idea that I didnt feel the trucks were worth the money the sellers were asking.
Same thing with houses. We went house shopping a few months ago as well. We were looking for an investment property. Everything we looked at in the price range we were looking was junk. Im so glad we didnt find an investment property we liked now because the way the market is going, we wouldve lost our a$$e$.
We built our house about 11 years ago. Its a modest home but I dont think I could afford to buy or build it today.

 

[kdailey4315]

I was offered a job in the Seattle this fall.

The housing prices were absolutely unbelivable.......
Where we live now(go to Sean's and head another 40 minutes south), housing prices aren't bad. 85k for 2k sq ft. 3-4 bedrooms,1-2 baths. on a city lot.

To get a comparable house in the Seattle market would have cost my family upwards of $300k..... With higher prices for EVERYTHING, except my wife's stupid coffee. And emissions testing to boot.

And to Illiana..... We were paying $350 per week for two. Wonder why my wifey didn't go back to work full-time?

That same house you would pay 85K for would be 900K + here in the bay area.

 

[Russ Pottenger]

Anybody that bought jewelery for a Christmas gift had to be blown away like me as to the cost. Largely due to the cost of gold in my case.
Could not believe what I had to spend.

 

[88xjchief]

CT is the same way as CA. Some parts of the state you are lucky if you can find a house under $500000. Most houses are around $300k to $400k. I guess thats what you gotta pay to live in the richest state.

 

[8Mud]

Thats what me and the wife decided about 12 years ago. I quit my job, $63,000 a year, 12-14 hour days, 30 mile commute. Found a part time job (with benefits) and was there to meet the kids when they got home from school. The toys, electronics and such come a little farther apart. We don't always have the flavor of the moment, top of the line junk, but we get along and I actually know my kids.
My oldest was getting into drugs, stealing money from me and her mother. It actually added up to around $15,000, over an 18 month period after we took stock. We actually didn't notice, we had an excess of money and a shortage of time (though we did manage to spend it as fast as we made it). Straightened her out and made sure the same thing didn't happen to the other two kids. I used to only see my kids a couple of hours a day on a good day.
Funniest part of the whole process is, we actually come out ahead when I'm around to do the stuff we used to pay to have done. We have more savings now than we ever had before. I put the kids to work helping me with the chores and they have less time to generate problems. I'm proud of the results and actually glad we made the decision to live a little smaller and devote more time to raising the kids.

 

[FordGuy]

I live in San Clemente and it is a joke! For a 2000 sq home your going to pay 1 mil plus. Cant wait until my son is out of collage so I can move. will miss the ocean view though.

 

[MudDawg]

I'm one of the old farts that can truly say I have seen gas at .25 a gallon. Recently, I have considered a different vehicle that gets really good fuel mileage...and have found that at present prices, it is cheaper to run the 14mpg MJ (with all the toys) than to buy even a low mileage used vehicle. Sure I can get a 30-35mpg vehicle...but with payments and insurance in the 500.00 a month range, thats a lot of petrol...

As far as housing goes, I'm lucky...I struck a perpetual lease agreement 18 years ago....my lease payments are rediculously low by most standards.

But the cost of food and everything else has skyrocketed....add in the cost of medical insurance and other medical costs...(the years of living wild are beginning to catch up with me)and there is a lot less fun money left over.

The population here has exploded...the worst part is all the old clay, gravel and sand pits that were state and county owned where we used to go play...are all now topped over landfills.....and the remaining ones are now wildlife sanctuaries....or "sheriff training centers" with no public access.

 

[1985xjlaredo]

Housing is the same way. I can't believe people manage to pay for $250K houses !
Considering that the average household income is $50K, the idea of owning a house or even renting an apartment in some places, is becoming obscene.

Yea I paid 139,000 for my house, with no PMI and the mortgage is 1041.00 with escrow.
I see some young couples on TV shows buying homes for 600,000 - 700,000 bucks.
Figuring that I do OK to make the payment with 14.00 an hour, and these houses they buy are 6-7 times the amount of money mine cost, they must be making 80-90 dollars an hour for doing the same job?
Just doesn't make any sense

 

[JNickel101]

Fiance and I are looking at brand new houses in NM....about 190k for a 4BR, 2BA 2100sqft.....not too shabby....

Southern NM has managed to stay relatively low on the cost of living scale...but as the CA folks move to Phoenix and such, the Phoenicians (haha) move east and drive up the prices a little. a few years ago, houses were 150k....now they're getting close to 200k.

 

[HaleYes]

Fiance and I are looking at brand new houses in NM....about 190k for a 4BR, 2BA 2100sqft.....not too shabby....

Pretty close to the same here.

Here's one that's 1700sqft.
http://www.list-a-home.net/HockmanProperty.asp?PropertyID=6826

 

[welldone]

well i guess i don't have much to complain about. i'm retired at the age of 29 just bought a house near colorado springs, co. can't wait to get back up to colorado.

 

[IslanderOffRoad]

if i could find a house for 250k here, i'd buy it tomorrow.

 

[Lowrange2]

lol You guys got it bad in Cali.I found a 3 bedroom 1 bath 1300sq ft. It was definitly a fixxer upper when I bought it but I paid 4k for a house that was in good enough shape to live in when I bought it. It's not in a great place, and the neighbors yards are trashy as hell. So far I've put about 10k in it and Had it appraised at 48k. I plan to have it on the market by July.

When I got it there was shag carpet in the whole house with hardwoods under the carpet. There was panels over top of all the sheet rock. We pulled up all the carpet and panels, refinished the floors and painted the walls. Replaced all the appliances, windows, doors, and trim. We still have to painted the outside and landscaped the yard but thats for next summer.