If I want my dog to have a few hundred acres like this to run in one day, I'm going to have to start saving!

It’s funny how things in life work out. If I didn’t have a dog, I would probably be living in a studio apartment in a nice part of town paying $900/month in rent right now. Instead, when I moved into the city, I needed a place with a yard and roommates that would be willing to let my dog out for me when I’m working late.

So instead of $900/month in rent, I’m paying only $325. I share a house with two really conscientious roommates who have dogs for my dog to play with. I get more social interaction than I would living on my home, plus two people with more time than I have for cleaning the house.

As far as renting goes, I don’t think that I could find a better situation. It’s far from perfect - the house itself has some major heating and cooling issues - but I think it’s unlikely I’d find another place that would work as well for me. However, now is a great time to buy, and in this city it would be easy to buy a house even with only a year of work under my belt.

But is it a good idea? I don’t think that home prices will go down, but I think that compared to my rent now, I definitely will lose money on renting. Am I going to stay in the city for a long enough time to make buying worth it? Who knows!!

I am happy staying where I am for another year maybe, but if I’m in the city for the five to ten years needed to make a house worth it, then now is the time to buy! Not only are houses cheap, but my income is still low enough to qualify for some down payment assistance programs from the city.

The cons are pretty big though - a higher monthly payment, inflexibility if I need to move for work. The scary commitment of a mortgage. The responsibility for maintaining a house, and screening tenants.

The pros are also less tangible than the cons - more control over who I live with, being able to settle in more permanently (decorate, start a garden, etc.)

This week, my rational brain is winning out, and I understand that spending the next few years renting at this low rate will allow me the freedom to move wherever I want, and buy a much nicer house with the money I’ve saved up. But next week, the irrational desire to own my own home may take over!

So, I’m setting a goal to reach $6,000 in cash savings by December. $2,000 of that is for a trip to Spain, so the real savings will only be $4,000. I already have some cash saved towards an emergency fund, but I’m not including that in the $4,000. I am also not lowering my monthly payments to my student loan, or the amount I put towards investment accounts each month (cutting both of those to the minimum would make this way too easy!) I make enough money and have low enough bills that I should have met my emergency fund goal by now. I haven’t.

If I decide after a few months that buying a house is the way to go, then the more cash I have saved, the better. If I decide to keep renting, having the extra cash certainly won’t do me any harm.

I need to start practicing some more frugal habits - this became apparent to me when I looked at some items like my grocery spending in June. There are people out there with whole families eating healthier than I do for less than I have been spending. Cutting my grocery budget and cooking healthy meals at home instead of eating out is a big part of my plan to save more cash.

I have added a couple of goal meters to my sidebar to measure how much I’m putting away in my trip-to-spain fund, how much of the $4,000 in cash I save every month, and how far along I am in paying off my student loans.

Photo by BobMarley753 on Flickr