I wanted to come on the blog to talk about how we got to the point of building our dream home. A lot of discipline on our part has gotten us here; a budget and sacrifices. We only have one steady income from my husband. I am a stay at home mom with a degree in nursing that I work occasionally, and then I do my small business GetDressedMidwest. I feel like the influencer world can sometimes seem like everyone has money but you. I look at purchases they are making and homes they live in and think that will never be us. Now I do not know where they are at financially, but I know my family is comfortable but not rolling in cash. In fact, we just got approved for our construction loan and it was the most frustrating thing trying to prove our worth. That is what made me want to slow down on this home build series and explain how we are able to build this home, simply for inspiration or ideas.
Coming out of college Rob agreed to live with his parents so they would cover his college tuition. I had student loans that my parents had chose not to co sign or help with. They had four kids and also worked their butts off to be where they were financially. I moved home after graduation and for six months I worked as a night shift nurse and a nanny. I came home to sleep after working through the night, woke up in time to go pick kids up from school, cared for them until their folks were home , and then it was either back to work as a nurse or go home for the night (I worked three 12 hour shifts a week). It was a LONG six months, but I paid off ALL my student loans in that time. As soon as those six months were over I resigned as a nanny and focused on nursing.
Win #1 No student loans: Look for forgiveness programs or student loan assistance from your employer. One of my loans was a Perkins loan which was forgiven as long as I worked full time for 5 years in my profession. My brother-in-law got his masters paid for by his company. The same brother-in-law is also driving 2000 rides for Uber which gives him a free college education though Arizona State.
With no student loans under my name I decided to purchase a home. I found a home that needed a little TLC and arranged to have some friends live with me. Together their payments covered my mortgage. This allowed me to pay towards the principle on the loan and build a savings. Rob continued to live with his parents for 3 years after he graduated college which allowed him to build a savings.
In total our home had four bedrooms (mine included) and each room other than my own has had two renters at some point in time. Rob moved in with me when we got engaged and the last roommate moved out after our wedding. The home I bought after college is still the home we live in right now, ten years later.
Win #2 Making money from the things we needed: I rented rooms in our home; other ideas are to Airbnb a part of your house (you can literally list one bedroom as a place to stay). My mom has a huge garage that she doesn’t use so she rents it to a car mechanic or maybe he is a race car driver, I can’t remember. My sister and brother in law rent their vehicle out to folks through Turo.
Because we knew this was not going to be our forever home we didn’t want to put too much money into furnishing it. Part of the excitement with our new build is we will be able to look at an actual furniture store and not facebook marketplace. From where I sit typing this blog I can see into our dining room and living room. The only things we bought new are the 2 living room chairs, the TV, and the Large mirror that hangs above the couch. Everything else was from facebook market place, garage sales, or a hand-me-downs. That is an improvement from where we were. At one point I think the only new piece was the TV.
Sacrifice #1 Being unfortunately patient and cheap: We wanted to move out of our house much sooner than now. We almost purchased land in 2018 but got nervous that we would live too much paycheck to paycheck. Then we almost purchased another home in 2019 but were expecting our first baby and did not know what our plans would be like with a baby so we waited.
That is how our financial future together kicked off. Cheap furniture and no loans (well the mortgage). We owned our vehicles and never financed anything. We held strong to our budget so we could keep paying mortgage principle, invest, plan for retirement, and travel.
During this time Rob did what the Baby Boomer Generation hates but doesn’t understand. He job hopped. He would be at one company and recruiters would reach out to him on LinkedIn offering higher salaries. He would interview and if he was offered the job he would meet with his present boss about a promotion or give a two week notice. What people don’t always know about Rob is he is driven and determined. When he found opportunities to move into different positions he would listen to podcasts on the subject, purchase books, and go to education seminars. He went from a sales rep to risk management (quite different careers) all because he reeducated himself.
Side note for all you nurses out there: A very large handful of nurses I went to school with or worked with have all changed their nursing specialties but stayed within the same health care system. Each new start for them was just a lateral move or maybe even a pay cut if they left hospital nursing.
I have been a nurse seven years longer than my youngest sister. I got the typical starting wage of a nurse in 2013. The company would give me a 2% market raise each year. With inflation, seven years later when my youngest sister started off her nursing career the starting wage for a nurse increased significantly. My 2% raises landed me right at the new nurse salary my sister got. My sister who had worked as a nurse for one day was making the same money as me who had worked as a nurse for seven years. With a good push from Rob, I went to my boss and HR about a pay increase. They said no, so I left that healthcare system.
Win #3 An extremely determined husband who forced himself to have the difficult conversations with upper management and pushed me to do the same.
We had our careers but the budget didn’t always leave us a lot of “Fun” money. Some solutions to that was giving plasma, Rob worked a Saturday job at a nutrition shop for awhile so he could get a discount on supplements and have more cash in his pocket. I learned how to do photography and my sister introduced me to LiketoKnow.it. Once I became a stay at home mom, I offered intermittent child care for some of my friends and coworkers.
Win #4 Finding additional income: My brother has farm fresh eggs from his chickens for sale. They need minimal care from him and do not cost him much. They either eat food scraps or are cage free and feed off the land. My cousin bakes buns and cinnamon rolls a couple times a month and sells them. My sister made designs on her Cameo (or you could use a Cricut) that people can cut and she sells them on her Etsy shop.
When our baby came along in 2020 I quit my nursing so I could stay home with her. This cut out the cost of daycare but we lost some income. I chose to still keep my nursing license active by working “As Needed” at the hospital. There are some extra benefits if you work PRN as long as you have a solution for the loss of insurance from the company. Being PRN allows me to work shorter shift when Rob is home to watch our daughter, or if my mom wants a Grandbaby Day I’ll work a shift. I breastfed which saved us some money there. We chose to do cloth diapers. I never did the math but according to research it saves about $2000 in diaper costs per child (of course pending when they potty train). We had all hand-me-down clothes for our little girl or were given clothes as gifts. The only time I bought her a new outfit was for photoshoots, which, because I did photography, we took ourselves.
Sacrifice #2: Had to walk past cute baby clothes 😉.
Another piece of advice I want to share, but it takes time, is calling those companies that supply your internet, phone bill, cable, or what ever else you find in your monthly bills. Usually you can talk them down in price or they will have some kind of promotion suddenly available when you tell them you will have to leave their service. Just this year I was able to call and cut our security system bill in half and we switched internet companies knocking our monthly bill down by $30.
More advice would be checking in on all the things you are subscribed to. Do you use all those TV streaming services? I had audible and loved it, but I was behind in reading all the books I had downloaded. I cancelled my monthly subscription and for the last two months I have been listening to the books I had in my audible library. I’m still enjoying audible books but not paying the monthly fee at this time.
All these little wins and sacrifices, but don’t get me wrong we were not perfect on the budget every month. Now that our daughter is older we have some extra expenses for her school and activities. We have our lazy days were we eat out more than normal and it costs us, and after all is said we still had to prove to the bankers that we know what we are doing and have the means to live a comfy life in a new home.
While we waited for the construction loan, we were able to clean out and fix up some more spaces in our current home. The basements, all the bathrooms, and the garage are ready to go.
I do have a Shop Our Home page here on the blog if you see something you like. However, our home has been decorated for years so some items may no longer be available. I have been able to link items we did not buy new after finding them online where the previous owner most likely purchased from.
