In another life, I will become an architect. I absolutely adore researching residential house plans, both exterior and interior. There’s so much history associated with the how and why of design. For instance, early saltbox style farm homes were mostly vertical in design from the exterior, with chopped up small rooms in the interior. My guess is that with the common-place large families of the past, each person needed their own space within the house leading to smaller rooms. This floor plan would also be easier and less expensive to heat in the winter, you wouldn’t have to heat the whole house, only one small room that the family could crowd into.

Over time with a decrease in family size, the floor plans began opening up. There wasn’t a need for so many rooms because there weren’t as many people living in the house. All of a sudden the same square footage seemed much more usable because there were fewer people utilizing the same amount of space.

Another factor influencing home design was region. The northeast is known for it’s row-style homes and cape cod architecture. Victorian also had a strong influence on architecture on the eastern seaboard.  Many of their homes include large, screened porches to keep the gnats out. With all the humidity, it’s no wonder the screens are so popular.

The mid-west homes have evolved from saltbox style farm homes to one-level ranch style. This movement, I’m sure, was due to the influence of Frank Lloyd Wright. His idea of incorporating the outside with the inside had a huge impact on homes built in the 1950’s west of the Mississippi. I especially love the homes of some of the more modern architects of his time, like Joseph Eichler and Gilbert Leong. These homes were built with the same concept, lots of windows and light, an open floor plan, and a great utilization of a central space.

Here are a few sites that have some great floor plans, no matter what style you prefer:

• Cool House Plans: They have a lot to choose from, including some small backyard projects. They also offer narrow lot floor plans.
• The House Designers: Wonderful tiny house plans to choose from. I really like the Maple Street Plan. It’s adorable! Oh, and the Rosabella. It’s a beautiful Mediterranean house plan.
• Cusato Cottages: These are the Katrina Kit homes offered by Lowes. However, I’ve never seen this site before, and it actually goes more into detail with the plans.
• Clayton Homes: They offer a lot of different manufactured plans, but I really love their i House. It reminds me of the modern architecture of the 1950’s. I’m a SoCal girl, what can I say.
• The Bungalow Company: I also love craftsman homes! See, I should really be an architect. I can’t even decide which is my favorite!

I’ve noticed that some of these sites don’t list build prices. This always leads me to believe that they may be more expensive than the sites that do list square footage price or kit home price. However, they are a great place to start looking at least! (Or dreaming in my case.)

Today Mrs. Accountability from Out of Debt Again and I are exchanging question and answer posts. Mrs. Accountability shares some personal finance choices.

After you read her answers here, go over to her site and read my answers. And while you’re at her site, take a look around and subscribe to her blog!

How many pairs of shoes do you own?

Up until one month ago I could only wear one type of shoe. A certain very comfortable, cushion-y but unfortunately very ugly men’s casual wear shoe. However, in December I embarked on a way of eating which eliminates specific foods and I am so pleased that my feet have stopped hurting! This means I can now wear my brown wedge heeled Aerosoles and my black low heeled Aerosoles, and my favorite black Route 98 sandals. So I guess that makes four pairs for me. Little House and I aren’t much for shoes, are we?

Do you use coupons?

I really don’t use coupons very often, unless I am going to Joann’s and sometimes I still end up buying nothing at all. I used to use coupons faithfully about a decade ago.

If you had $1000 to spend right now, and you could not put it toward debt or save it, you HAD to spend it, what would you buy yourself?

I would invest in a new computer. The one I have now is several years old. I recently dusted it (what a mess!) and I think one of the fans is going out on this one, so I am having my son check it for me so that I can extend its life since I don’t any money to spend on a computer right now.

How many checking accounts do you have?

Two business checking accounts (for Mr. A’s businesses), one personal checking at a credit union, and two personal checking accounts at a big name bank. The personal checking at the credit union and the second personal checking account at the big name bank don’t get used very often.

Name one of your financial goals for 2010 (that you want to complete by the end of the year).

Continue to pay down on our debt. As has been the trend, Mr. A’s businesses have been slow the past couple of months. The first couple weeks of January were also slow but in the third week it finally started picking up with several calls from repeat customers. I am very happy that we have not gone any further into debt, even with the slowdown.

Any thoughts on the state of our (United States of America’s) economy?

I try not to pay too much attention myself but I am happy that Mr. A has an interest. That way at least one of us is aware of what’s going on. I personally find it scary to see what is happening, not to mention I feel guilty that my own family is in debt, and it is frustrating to see that our country is going deeper and deeper into debt and there seems to be no way to help ourselves out of the spiral we are in.

Do you drink Starbucks or regular coffee? Or do you not drink coffee at all?

I am not a coffee drinker. I used to drink coffee very occasionally as a pick me up, but I have not had any coffee since December.

Thank you, Mrs. Accountability! Now go on over to Mrs. Accountability’s, read my answers to the same questions and take a look around!

Just the other day, Get Rich Slowly wrote a terrific post about renting versus buying property. I’ve been meaning to write my own post about this, especially since purchasing property has been on my mind now for over a year. It is also one of my goals I hope to accomplish by the end of this year or the middle of next year. However, I’m still not ready to take the plunge for a few reasons:

• Down payment: I don’t have the down payment saved up. I’d like to have at least 10% saved, which would be about $30,000 on a $300,000 home. I am really far from this goal.
• House prices: Decent homes in good neighborhoods are still selling for around $300,000. We live in a suburb of Los Angeles, so our prices are a little inflated compared to the rest of the nation.
• Fluctuating income: My husband owns his own business and it’s currently a little slow (normal for January). I work as a substitute teacher so I’m not ever guaranteed work. This will also make it a little difficult to qualify for a traditional 30-year mortgage at a decent APR.
• Indecisiveness: Lately, there are a few things about LA that are really getting on my husband’s nerves. He’s been complaining about everything: from the traffic to the grocery store clientele, to our neighbors. I’m not so sure he’ll be happy in LA in a couple of years if the city doesn’t begin to offer better services, smoother roads, or less traffic! Also, there is little hope for me obtaining a teaching job within the next couple of years with the school district I work for. They are one of the largest districts, and can’t find the money to continue paying it’s teachers. I live smack-dab in the middle of that district.

This brings me to rethink our idea of purchasing property. I know that we will eventually be property owners, I just don’t know if it’s going to be as soon as I had hoped. I have been really struggling with this new train of thought. That is until I read J.D.’s post. Basically it boiled down to what it really means to own property and is it a good investment?

Deep down I know that owning property is a good thing. If by the time of retirement, the home we purchase is either paid off or is worth more than we purchased  it for, it could be used to help us retire or move. It could function as an added security later in life. However, if we move only 5 years after we purchased our property and the market hasn’t improved, we would be breaking even if we’re lucky. In that event, we would be better off renting.

I found a great, free calculator from Yahoo.com that puts renting and owning in perspective. (I tried the NY Times link on GRS, but you have to be a subscriber to use it). Here is what the calculator figured out based on my numbers:

Rent vs. Buy Calculator

You’ll notice that based on these figures, it would be better if I continued to rent. The only thing this really doesn’t calculate is the profit earned by selling the property. I’m not quite sure how that works, but I would think that if you purchased a property for $300,000 and decided to sell 20 years later, the property would be worth more than what you paid for it. This is in sharp contrast to renting for the same period of time, there’s no profit in that scenario at all.

Again, I do intend to be a property owner myself in the near future. At least now I don’t feel as rushed or guilty if I don’t own my own little house in the valley by mid-next year.

What are your thoughts? Does this calculator factor in everything? Or is it missing the resale value somehow?

Looking to save money on groceries, I’ve been clipping coupons and purchasing items on sale. Last night, I ran to the grocery store to catch up on my weekly shopping. My local grocery store is currently under construction, so many of their items are deeply discounted to encourage shoppers to remain loyal during their rearranging of aisles. I purchased a total of 60 grocery items for an average of $1.15 per item, and it wasn’t just packets of Kool-Aid!

I started out with coupons totaling $17.00 in savings;  I  had a pile of Gatorade coupons, a dollar off Jennie-O ground turkey coupon, and a dollar off any cereal coupon. I also had a $10 off grocery store coupon if I spent more than $25.00 (more incentives to keep shopping during their construction phase). Because I made a point to only purchase items that were on sale, many of the items I purchased were reduced in price by 30% or more. My grocery list is always pretty consistent:

• cereal
• oranges
• Gatorade
• bread
• Jennie-O ground turkey
• Easy Mac
• applesauce
• Pepperidge Farms Goldfish crackers
• beer
• canned spaghetti-o’s and ravioli
• chili
• pudding cups
• diet soda

Okay, so I’m not a model for healthy eating, but these items aren’t too bad if you don’t count the carbs! During checkout, I noticed my bill shrinking dollar by dollar. Reviewing my receipt showed I saved a total of $62.00, that’s almost the amount I ended up spending. My grocery items cover a week of breakfast, lunches, and a few dinners using the ground turkey.

My coupon organizer has also been helpful during shopping. As I check off my grocery list, I quickly look through my categories to see if  I have a coupon for a similar item. If I do, I move it to the front of the pouch so I don’t forget to give it to the cashier during the checkout process. This has helped me use those soon to expire coupons. I find I’m not throwing away expired coupons as often. If I can continue saving money on groceries, I will find more money for savings! Now if only I could save money on my utilities I’d be golden.

This may seem like a strange topic..When to Give Advice, especially considering I just finished a credit eBook that gives advice on improving credit scores. However, because I have learned many things about how credit works along the way to my own financial freedom, I’ve been asked to give advice to a friend or two recently.

Just yesterday, an older woman who I’ve helped over the years, asked me what she should do about her credit card debt. Now granted, this particular case is unusual and interesting, so my answer wasn’t complete because there are so many variables affecting her life of debt. Some background on this woman to put things in perspective:  She is nearing 65 years of age and has accumulated $120,000 of credit card debt over the years. Her excuses for this behavior are plenty: her mom died (10 years ago), her husband left her (12 years ago), her dad died (4 years ago). Her excuses go on and on. Her income is generated from her family’s businesses and her ex-husband’s social security and residual income, it comes out to about $80,000 annually. On top of this income, she also has investment accounts that her parent’s left her. Basically, she hasn’t really had to earn much of her income over the past 25 years, it just sort of accumulated from relatives. Her grasp on finances has dwindled due to this and other factors.

She asked my advice about calling and asking a credit card company to increase her credit limit or reduce her APR. The reason being was that Chase reduced her credit limits on two of her cards. She has stellar payment history, but her credit to debt ratio is well over 30%. I explained this to her, as it was one of reasons listed on the Chase letter she had received. She didn’t understand why they were looking at her overall debt including all of her credit cards. Once I explained that they see her as a risk because she is using much more than her 30%, she sort of understood, but felt it was unfair. My advice to her was to call Chase and ask them to either reinstate her original credit limit or reduce her APR. My thought on this was that it doesn’t hurt to ask, the worst they can say is no. Obviously the better option is to reduce the APR.

She then asked if she should pay more towards that card, thinking it might act as an incentive to change their minds. My advice to her was that she needed to figure out what the goal was: Was she thinking she wanted to pay off the card quicker? Her answer was no. Was she thinking of paying a large portion of debt off this year due to some additional income coming her way? Her answer was she wasn’t sure. I then explained to her that if she receives this additional income she is expecting, she might want to put a large portion of it towards her debt. However, by the end of the conversation it was clear she just wanted to reinstate her original credit limit of the card.

After I hung up with her, my husband who had overheard the entire conversation chimed in that she really needs to speak to a financial consultant. She did that two years ago, but didn’t like their answers: 1) Pay off the entire debt and save up to $20,000 a year on finance charges, or 2) file for bankruptcy. But I realized what the underlying problem is that’s causing her to be indecisive: She doesn’t realize that by paying off her debt, she will be saving the money she spends on finance charges.

There are some great calculators out there, like CreditKarma’s Debt Repayment calculator. I think my next strategy with her will be to show her how long it will take her to pay off her debt with the online calculator. Maybe then she’ll realize the sooner she pays it off, the better!

What are your thoughts? Obviously, this is an unusual scenario. She makes plenty of money, but just can’t seem to see the big picture. How would my credit eBook helped someone like this 25 years ago?

Okay, so I finished my credit eBook and am now looking for constructive criticism. My pamphlet is based on personal experience as well as sound advice that I have learned over the past few years. I’m trying to decide if I should offer my eBook for free, offer it for a nominal fee, or throw it in the recycle bin! All comments are welcome. Just remember that I am a sensitive human being.

P.S. I am temporarily hosting it on the adobe site for now. Once I receive feedback and figure out how I want to offer it, I will have a downloadable link from my site to my eBook.

I’m writing an eBook to follow up, and combine, an article I wrote on WiseBread.com and my credit score post. I will most likely have it up within the next couple of days (I’m ahead of schedule!) and will be open to constructive criticism. Please check back this weekend, or early next week and download it. My goal is to eventually offer it for a minimum price. However, I will want to make sure it’s as helpful as possible, and pertinent.

Stay tuned….

As I rack my brain for alternatives to purchasing a house, I seem to lean towards prefab homes and kits. Every time I swing by the Home Depot, positioned just outside their front door, are a variety of Tuff Sheds. I walk inside the empty shed and it seems spacious and roomy. Granted, the shed doors are wide open and there’s not a lick of furniture, or anything else for that matter, inside. But for $3,995 it’s a bargain!

Having such a curiosity about kit homes, I wonder if there’s any way to put a couple of Tuff Sheds together and call it home, or at least a temporary home. As I begin to seriously consider this option, I decide to check out their website. Not only do they make sheds, they also build garages. Ding! An idea strikes. Having browsed many a home plan, I know that it’s possible to build an apartment above a garage. Surfing through their photos, I find just the picture I hoped to see: a two-car garage with a loft/apartment.

A Tuff Shed Two-Car w/Apartment Garage

With an apartment above the garage, not only could our car fit, but we could also use the other half of the garage as storage. My thinking is this:

• Buy affordable land. I’m not sure where this land will be, there’s really nothing in my area, but this is key to making my plan work. (Perhaps this is a faulty plan?!)
• Build a temporary shelter on the cheap. This is where the garage with apartment comes in.
• Park the car and storage in the garage. Since we’d be on our own land, we might as well keep as much stuff as possible in our garage instead of paying for storage. A two-car garage with apartment would do the trick.
• Live in the apartment. Most above garage apartments are large enough for two people. We primarily use our bedroom and living room the most. I think we could hack it in a small-ish apartment.
• Build a house. As we save money living above our garage, we could save for our dream house.

My plan began to sound possible once we received a quote from Tuff Shed. For $28,000 they could build us a two-car garage with apartment. Not bad! The biggest hurdle, besides the land purchase, is the preparation of the land. However, the garage doesn’t need that large of a foundation. And looking at the photo (above) that I found on their website, a flat pad will do.

Now, if I could just find some land!

My husband and I have recently talked about purchasing a safe. Not that we have valuable jewelry, gold, or wads of cash lying around, but to protect important documents in case of a fire or natural disaster. We’ve also realized that it would be important in case of a robbery, especially if we have all of our renter’s insurance paperwork inside the safe. We’ve looked at a few models, but just haven’t gotten around to making a decision yet.

With that said, a few months back we were visiting my husband’s sister and her family. They had just purchased a huge safe to hold some of their father’s (my father-in-law’s) guns. For various reasons he didn’t want them in his house anymore and gave them to my sister-in-law to hold on to. (This sounds weird, I know, but these are guns that have been handed down, and we can’t just sell them.) Being that they have young children in the house, a safe seemed the best option for housing the artillery.

The moment my husband saw their safe near their front door, glaringly obvious, he made a point that a safe is usually something that’s hidden. My sister-in-law kind of pooh-poohed that idea since it was such a large item and it had been difficult to move. They also thought it was a nice looking safe and liked the idea of showing it off to guests.

Well, kids are really quite bright, and sometimes mischievous. My soon to be nine-year-old niece saw her mother place her birthday gift inside the safe. I have no idea why she place her daughter’s gifts in the same place where they keep the guns (don’t worry, there was no gun accident!), but she did. A week ago, my smarty-pants niece texted my father-in-law asking for the combination to the safe, from her father’s phone! Luckily, my father-in-law had no idea what the combination of the safe was, and he apologized to my brother-in-law, or at least that’s who he thought was asking. Later, my brother-in-law was surfing through his text messages and realized that someone had been asking for the combo to the safe. Lo and behold, he realized that it had been my niece (his daughter) trying to figure out how to get into the safe and see her present!

Now, I can’t for the life of me think of why the present would be in the safe with the guns in the first place. I’m sure it wasn’t that valuable of a gift. But this is where a safe can be NOT SO SAFE! Like my husband had mentioned to his sister, safe’s are usually to be hidden, or at least respected! Something really horrible could have happened had my niece been able to get into the safe. Thankfully she wasn’t able to figure out the combination.

This crazy situation got me brainstorming some safety tips for a safe for future reference:

• Hide the safe: Even most large safes can fit in a closet or back room somewhere.
• Keep the safe in the back of the house: If the safe is so large it won’t fit inside a closet, at least put it towards the back of the house where it isn’t a focal point.
• Respect the safe: Make sure everyone in the family knows that they are not to touch the safe. There may have dangerous, or important, items in the safe that only the adults of the house are allowed access to.
• Don’t show off the safe: The point of the safe is to hide things. Of course there are collector safes, but these usually don’t hold important or dangerous items.
• Don’t mix up the idea of frivolous items with important ones! This story clearly shows that there is some logic missing here.

What experiences have you had with safes? Do you use one? Do you know the combination? Do other family members in your household have access to them? What have you told your spouse or kids about the safe?

As someone who teaches young people, it’s easy to see through their eyes. Often they miss the “big picture” and instead focus on the tiny details. And this isn’t because they aren’t capable of seeing the main idea, it usually has to do with the nitty-gritty work they do in class. Which boils down to making sure they have a concrete understanding of the tiny details that build up to the big picture.

Today,  a glaring example of missing the big picture jumped out at me. The students had figured out how to turn improper fractions into mixed fractions using the steps they had learned, but really couldn’t visualize how much an improper fraction, like 11/5ths, was. There was definitely a lack of the main point. But many of my “ah, ha” moments are similar to this, I immediately see where students, and people in general, can be so focused on the details and the actual processes, that they miss the big picture.

This brings me to my main point, visualizing the big idea before, during, and after working on the steps towards the goal. I can use this is in my quest to own a little house in the valley. My big idea is to become a property owner. Sometimes this goal gets lost in the details of saving for a down payment, working on my credit score, and paying off my debt. These steps are all hugely important, of course. But, I need to be careful not to get too caught up in missing the big idea. I realize that at some point on my journey, I may just have to take a step back, realize what I want (a house), and dare to go after it. Which is basically filling out the paperwork to get pre-approved.  Or it could mean taking a daring chance and looking in other less expensive areas, which would mean moving to an unfamiliar location. Both of these risky steps may bring me closer to my final, and ultimate, goal of home ownership.

To really bring my idea home, here are a few other examples of where the big idea sometimes gets lost:

• Saving money shopping: I’ve recently become a coupon clipper, and love the money I save. However, I’m not willing to drive out of my way to get the absolute best deal in town. This is something my parents do. The money they save on groceries is probably negated by the gas they spend driving all over town looking for the best deal.
• Watering the lawn on a rainy day: I know that many people have their sprinklers set on timers to save money during the dry months. However, it makes sense to quickly disconnect that timer on rainy days. Especially if the forecast predicts rain all week. This is not only missing the big idea, but it is also wasteful!
• Buying holiday gifts for people way too early in the year: I know there are lots of shoppers who suck up the best deals right after Christmas. However, my husband’s family is known to purchase lots of miscellaneous gifts, like extra large sweaters, to make sure every person has the same amount of gifts the following Christmas holiday. Many times those gifts can’t be returned because they are too old or worth only a dollar to the department store. And many times the gift is totally the wrong size! I’m fine with donating new clothing to organizations, but the point of the gift is lost.

Just a few items that seem pointless if the big picture is missed. Do you have any big idea items to add? Am I off the mark? I love feedback!