Foximus - frugal living tips

Well, it’s that time. I am now in debt over $200,000.00 and I am going to go pick up the key. The house is now mine. I will make sure to take lots of pictures, and I should be up and running on saturday night, or possibly sunday. Have a good weekend!

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I knew it was too good to be true. We almost got through the whole thing without any trouble. Then my lawyer called this morning.

You see I was waiting for something bad to happen and it was causing me a ton of stress and anxiety. Once the papers were all signed and money had changed hands I thought we were free and clear.

Well I was wrong. It seems that the previous owners were great at paying bills. So great that they paid too far ahead on the property taxes for the year. So now I owe them that money before I can get the key.

Now while this does not sound all that bad, I had already made arrangements through the bank to pay my taxes for me. So I do not have the extra $600 sitting around. I just gave them more than $18000 two days ago!

Anyway, I do get paid tomorrow so I can cover it. We just might have to buy the first months groceries on credit cards now

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It’s getting really exciting now. I get to pick my key up tomorrow!

I think everything is finally done except for the actual moving part. I made sure to keep really organized throughout this whole process. I can seem very overwhelming at times, but I’m sure anyone can do it as long as you don’t leave everything to the last minute.

Tomorrow I go pick up the key and then we are off to clean the house before we move in on Saturday. The house is in good condition so it should not take long.

There is one small problem though. When we first saw the house, it was in the middle of winter. We got tons of snow this winter so I could not really see the front or backyard all that well. I got the chance to see it last week. The front lawn is fantastic, not even a weed to speak of. The backyard is not as great.

Now when I saw not as great, I mean a total disaster. It is truly horrible and it is actually quite annoying as I was planning on using it this summer but now it needs tons of work before I could let any of the kids play back there. Out of control weeds. Gigantic bushes that have not been trimmed in years. Cinder blocks in random spots sunk right into the ground. Even more weeds. Giant holes and pits where bricks used to be. Old bikes and other metal junk thrown into the bushes.

I will try and remember to take some pictures as words simply don’t do it justice. Not that it’s going to stop me from making it a nice backyard, I just have to speed up and fix it first now.

There is a lot we want to do, but I will take pictures and save that for another post. I will also be posting the the entire process we went through, and all the associated costs so that you can get a good idea of what is involved with getting a mortgage and buying a first house.

One more thing, since it was our first house, we did not have to pay land transfer tax. Technically we did, but since the just rebate it right away back to our lawyer, they paid it for us! That was a nice surprise.

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Hi All,

I know it’s been awhile but I have been busy. Anyway, I just wanted to write about mortgage insurance. When we went to apply for a mortgage, the person at the bank included mortgage insurance with it. I did not think anything of it at the time, other than it was just another added cost which annoyed me as they just keep popping up.

Why can’t people just tell you what it’s going to cost up front? I am very tired with added on ’service fees’ and they like which make your total cost go up %25. Anyway, back on topic.

Instead of just nodding my head and accepting it, I decided to see if there were other options. The mortgage insurance price offered was $70 a month but that is still money that is leaving my pocket. I called the same people that I have my car (and now house) insurance through.

They explained the options to me and I decided to cancel mortgage insurance and go with Life insurance instead of mortgage insurance and I will tell you why. With mortgage insurance, if you die it pays off the remainder of the insurance and mortgage. Doesn’t matter how much is left on it, even if it’s just a few thousand dollars. With life insurance, if I die my other half gets 400K no matter if it’s tomorrow or 15 years from now when our mortgage is almost gone.

So we will be spending about the same amount of money, but the payout is double with life insurance and it does not go down at all.

Anyway, the insurance agent came over last night and we finalized everything and I am now insured. So is she, just not for as much. Not sure why I am insured for more, but it’s nice to know that money is there should I ever kick the bucket.

Now in the next little while I have to do some research into critical illness insurance as that is what people are recommending. Any thoughts on that one?

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