For newcomers.....how did you overcome the lower wages of TN? (home, buying)

[Shenandoah]

We belong to Costco and usually stock up about once every 3 months, and spend about $150, but that also includes some non food items. So, I'd say the grocery items are about $100. We get some meat items there, but get most of our beef at a local butchers. You pay more, but get better quality. Again, the trip to the butchers is about once every 3 months, and we spend about $150 there. Our weekly grocery store trip for bread, fruit and fresh veggies averages about $50. There's only my husband and I, tho. But, he's got a HUGE appetite.
He'll usually take a sandwich, and an apple or grapes for his lunch. I'll take the same. Alot of times, I'll skip dinner, because of lunch, and will just have a glass of milk at dinnertime. While hubby will have either leftovers from weekend dinner, or some chicken nuggets, 2 steak-hamburgers and french fries or a couple of monster 1/4 lb hotdogs from Costco. We live near a discount grocery store (Save-A-Lot) where you bag your own items, and I'll pick up frozen veggies and frozen fish there, along with some canned goods. We stay pretty well stocked up on canned soups, boxed baking goods, pasta, as well as paper goods, plastic wrap, baggies, aluminum foil from shopping at Costco.

It may save you $$ Hiknapster, if you join Sams Club. Even now, with only the 2 of us, I still cook in large quantity, then divide it up into one meal sizes, seal it up, and freeze it. I've got 20 quart stock pots for soup, multiple giant casserole dishes and baking pans. I'll make huge casseroles and lasagnas, pasta dishes, even breakfast egg casseroles with sausage, onions, green peppers and potatoes all stirred up with egg in a casserole dish. I'll divide them up into one meal sizes, use the handy dandy vacuum sealer, and freeze them. When we get those giant size packages of hotdogs, hamburgers, chicken, etc, I'll do the same and divide them up into one meal portions for Lou and I, vacuum seal it, and freeze them.

I know you'll be able to cut your grocery bill, Hiknapster, and be able to save up for that home in no time! Check out the Dave Ramsey website too. There's great tips on there on saving. If you have credit cards, cut them up, get rid of them, and pay them off, little by little. The DR website really is very helpful on getting out of debt, and living the debt free lifestyle.

blessings, Shen

[hiknapster]

Everyone keeps mentioning Sam's Club. It's funny, because I actually bought a membership through my work, back in December. Then I read "The Walmart Effect" and feel that it is unpatriotic to shop there.

Well, I did pay the money, so I guess I better go check it out. We've never even walked into the building, let alone have our pictures taken for the ID cards.

I have zero credit cards, zero car payments; I just pay for my rent and utilities. Oh, and that HUGE grocery bill.

In fact, I bought a car last October and another last week, and I paid cash.

That's part of the reason that I don't have a house, I have ZERO credit!

Thank you guys, for trying to brainstorm with me. I appreciate it!

[daniellefort]

Originally Posted by hiknapster

Everyone keeps mentioning Sam's Club. It's funny, because I actually bought a membership through my work, back in December. Then I read "The Walmart Effect" and feel that it is unpatriotic to shop there.

Well, I did pay the money, so I guess I better go check it out. We've never even walked into the building, let alone have our pictures taken for the ID cards.

I have zero credit cards, zero car payments; I just pay for my rent and utilities. Oh, and that HUGE grocery bill.

In fact, I bought a car last October and another last week, and I paid cash.

That's part of the reason that I don't have a house, I have ZERO credit!

Thank you guys, for trying to brainstorm with me. I appreciate it!

Whats more important to you though "The Walmart Effect" or your personal happiness saving to own a home. You can find bargins at other places than Sam's or Walmart i'm sure if you feel that strong about it. I can't imagine your income being $60,000 and having no bills other than rent and utilities and still having to rent. Renting is like throwing your money away. Put it towards a mortgage so you at least have something your able to get back if you need to sell. We're all just trying to help you see things from our perspective of what you've told us. For starters, you ought to just get some credit cards open. Department stores have them as well. Tell them you only want a low credit of $500 or so and use it sparingly or just put it away and not use it. At least having something open will show your responsible with what credit you do have. My brother in law was in the same situation where he had no credit to get a cell phone contract and that's what he did was just open up some accounts to build up some credit. If you don't have any debt or bad points on your credit, the banks will see that and be more than happy to set up a mortgage i'm sure. I just read how upset you are that you can't afford your own home but honestly I just don't see any reason why you can't unless there's more we just don't know which isn't our business anyways but just from my perspective of what you've said i can't make sense of it. If we can't survive in TN on $60,000 when we move there debt free as well, boy i guess we're in for a big suprise.

[Shenandoah]

Originally Posted by hiknapster

I have zero credit cards, zero car payments; I just pay for my rent and utilities. Oh, and that HUGE grocery bill.

In fact, I bought a car last October and another last week, and I paid cash.

That's part of the reason that I don't have a house, I have ZERO credit!

Thank you guys, for trying to brainstorm with me. I appreciate it!

Good job!! If you were able to do that, then you'll be able to buy a home, even with bad credit. Check out the Dave Ramsey website, and work on repairing your credit rating - I've had to do that myself, after going thru a bankruptcy with my ex husband, plus going thru my po' single days, and having an ex bf reneg on his promise to help me make payments on a car that I couldn't afford without his help (I had to give it up). Keep chipping away at it, build your credit up again very carefully, save up your cash, and with the 'creative financing' that's out there, you'll be able to buy a home.

I'm rootin' for ya!

blessings, Shen

[hiknapster]

Once again, thanks guys.

We do have bad credit, due to medical bills. And the good salary is a recent development, but it is all fixable.

I will visit the Dave Ramsey site. I hear him on the radio, sometimes, here in Knoxville, and he sounds great.

And you two are great, also!

Barring any major disaster, we should be able to save for a house.

[EagleI]

Thanks to a friend who heard Dave Ramsey on a roadtrip through Ohio, we've had a local FPU (Financial Peace University) club here that I've belonged to for 4 years. Our grocery bills average $400/month for two people, including household & drugstore stuff. It was double that before I learned to budget.

[mbmouse]

I think EagleI hit the nail on the head, BUDGET! That is a major key to anyones financial success. And I don't mean road to being a millionaire, someone who makes 25k a year can gain financial success. I believe all the "regulars" on this board know what my career is. Because of that, I see this kind of thing every day. Those who have high credit scores budget. Living within your means verses living past your means is key too. Groceries and gas are the two things I see that folks forget to budget or don't realize how much is actually being spend in a time frame on it. We are saying "month" but most months when talking about budgets is not 30 days, it is the period between bills due dates.
If you pay out your bills first (those due for that pay period), allot a true figure for gas, pay yourself 10%, the rest is for groceries. Yes, sometimes you may have to go for the store brand, and buy ground beef verses the T-Bone that pay period, but the next pay period you may have less bills to pay and more available for the T-bone.
The best way to get out of a pay check to pay check rut is to get sparse for a few months. spend absolutely as little as possible, east pasta, hamburger and PB and J for a while if needed, and save every penny possible to save enough to equally one months worth of bills that have defined due dates. IE: car payments, mortgage payments, credit card bills etc. Then pay all your bills twice a month. For example, pay any bills that are due from the 1st to the 15th on the 26th of the month before and on the 15th, pay everything else due to the first of the following month. Or if you get a large extra amount of income, Tax return, bonus from work, gift etc. Don't plunk it all down on a large credit card bill, or buy that new piece of furniture you have been wanting, save one months bills out. This will put anyone in a better place for budgeting. You will find yourself having more money to put into savings or to by that T-bone, guilt free, or to comfortably pay down credit cards etc. in no time.
As for our low grocery bill for 5 and we eat VERY WELL! ( I have gained 25 pounds since I started doing this! LOL!) I too was like Hiknapster, except it was an ex husband that drained me dry and after giving him the business and I took the house in the big D, I only had a part time job, no child support coming in, a mortgage payment, all the bills and two kids to feed. Yes, there were many weeks when we ate only hot dogs and Romain noddles, but I never missed a payment.
Now, (all these years later) things are different, we have a two income household and 5 people to feed. For a while my first thought was to over stock that pantry! I never wanted to worry about if there was enough food and snacks for the kids. I soon realized that was like taking our bill money and putting it in a coffee can in the pantry and worrying about how I was going to pay the bills and get gas. So now, we budget and only buy what we eat in a month, with a few exceptions like spices baking needs and such.
Everyone here has thrown away the box of stale crackers that sat behind the goodies in the pantry for 4 months right? I bet you could think of 20 other items you had to check when you cleaned out the fridge or pantry and thought "gee, I forgot we had those". Those items could have been the extra $15 you paid to your credit card last month. Now it is in the trash.
ok, getting to long...I will step off my soap box and move on to next post for how I feed everyone here so well on $500 a month heheheheheheh

[sliverbox]

Me and my wife are kind of cheap to an extreme. I moved out here to CA and was making 8 bucks an hour....which in CA dollars is about $4 TN. But I still managed to save. I then got up to a whopping $13 an hour and saved 10k in a year. I now make a lot more than this, but even so, I still live frugally. Many of these are small things. Nothing spectacular, but over the years it has allowed me to save up at least 50% of my annual income, which is going towards our future house which we plan on buying with cash with some leftover.

First of all, the little nickel and dime stuff eats you alive: Starbucks, vending machines, car washes, fast food joints, and Applebees are big money suckers. Think about it: A coffee at Starbucks is $4. If you did that every day, then you would be spending close to $20 a week, $100 a month... on coffee. Same with fast food and such. There's a million little nickel and dime things out there and most of us simply don't think of them as costing much. They don't, but when you do a lot of these, it adds up.

Secondly, taking care of what you own is important. They say the two biggest expenses a person has in life is: The house and the car. Add kids in there too if you have them. But kids aside, the average American keeps their car 5 years. Nonsense. Engineering on cars has gotten so good these days that they should last AT LEAST 200,000 miles. My truck, which is 12 years old has over 200,000 on it and it even smells new. I also learned how to work on it by getting a shop manual. People say they can't work on their own cars. Yes you can. You just need a little patience. So far, I've replaced the water pump, alternator, hoses, belts, dist, fan clutch, and a starter. The costs to do so was my time and the cost of the parts, which you can elect to buy either rebuilt, or new. That alone has probably saved me $3,000. Don't buy crappy cars either. If the car you're wanting gets all black in consumer reports, there might be a reason to stay away. This goes for anything else you buy. Take care of your things and you won't have to buy them near as often.

Thirdly, stay away from things like: " No money down!" "Don't pay anything until August, 2009!" or- "get 20k credit instantly with a new credit card!" remember- all companies that make claims like these KNOW that those who will bite probably have financial issues. So you'll get the product or service and actually pay MORE later. I myself have never and probably never will have a credit card. My old fashioned attitude is that if you don't have the money to buy it, then you probably shouldn't. Of course this probably doesn't work for houses and cars, but if I can buy my house and future car up front, I will. The key to saving is to live debt free.... if you can do it.

Anyhow, I could go on an on. But one simple thing I do when looking at something to buy, or a service to get, I always ask myself if I REALLY need it or want it for that matter. if you see it being something that you'll use every day, then it might be a good idea. If it has the potential to be financially beneficial- even better. Most often, if you give it a day or two, you'll find that you actually don't need that thing anyway.

Live simple, live frugal, and hopefully live well.

[hiknapster]

Originally Posted by sliverbox

But kids aside, the average American keeps their car 5 years. Nonsense. Engineering on cars has gotten so good these days that they should last AT LEAST 200,000 miles. My truck, which is 12 years old has over 200,000 on it and it even smells new. I also learned how to work on it by getting a shop manual. People say they can't work on their own cars. Yes you can. You just need a little patience. So far, I've replaced the water pump, alternator, hoses, belts, dist, fan clutch, and a starter. The costs to do so was my time and the cost of the parts, which you can elect to buy either rebuilt, or new. That alone has probably saved me $3,000. Don't buy crappy cars either. If the car you're wanting gets all black in consumer reports, there might be a reason to stay away. This goes for anything else you buy. Take care of your things and you won't have to buy them near as often.

Now wait a minute. Don't go promoting people fixing their own cars! My husband's an auto mechanic and so is Danielle's! You'll be taking food out of our kid's mouths!

By the way, I am KIDDING!

[daniellefort]

That's ok HIK.... Do you know how many cars my husbands has to re-fix what somebody tried fixing on their own. It's not something everybody can do. Before you know it, those people are having to spend a ton of money to re-fix what they tried to do themselves. Oh and on newer car models, they no longer print manuals. they are all now on the internet and for most of them you have to have special access to get to them at least for Cadillacs and Toyotas. but one thing for sure is that cars are made to last well up to 200,000 miles or even more. It's very common to see now.