I Hate Sausages…. and Mortgages
As recent first home buyers we have officially launched ourselves into the vortex of our first mortgage.
Before I continue, I must disclose that yes; I am a Generation Y kid. And I am very grateful that we now own a home and so lucky to have had the generous support of close family members and friends to get us here. Without them, we would still be paying exorbitant rent in our favourite suburb, shopping the latest fashion, sipping cocktails, picking at cheese platters from the mid-afternoon and stumbling home in the wee hours…. every weekend. Bliss.
It all started with the scramble for saving up the deposit – it was just the start apparently and I had many emotional debates with my fiancé and family about whether they were being serious about me having to to eat sausages and beans for breakfast lunch and dinner for the rest of my life. I hate sausages.
While we spent every weekend over 7 months racing other hopeful buyers to open homes we did the necessary things to save as much dosh as we could such as: moving in and bludging from obliging parents, walking to save on petrol, paid off and destroyed the credit cards, avoided shopping malls, no doctor, no dentist, no hairdresser, no beauty therapist, no gym memberships, limited anything we actually liked eating and switched from our desired food brands to the no frills variety.
Albeit so satisfying to know that you now own your home, I also wanted to cry. The realisation that life had to change permanently or at least until we’ve built up enough equity and reduce the mortgage substantially – scared me.
But on the positive, we now have a beautiful space to live in, to stay warm and dry…. and eat our beans on toast.
8 months in – the budget still exists. But I’ve worked out a way to get back the things I WANT vs. the things I NEED by still allowing them, just less often.
It’s a well-known term “Want vs. Need”. It’s a question the brave ones among us ask and the spontaneous, happy ones choose to ignore.
How much of your life is driven by Want vs. Need….
Maybe it’s something worth pondering?
