Welcome to Frugal Friday!
Sometimes it takes a lot of failures to reach success.
Like many of you, I’m concerned with the economy right now as company layoffs, federal layoffs, tighter financial conditions, deportations, high inflation, high rent, high home prices, high mortgages, high grocery prices, etc.
If we do not already have them in order we need to get our financial houses in order to weather this storm!
Sometimes pulling back is necessary.
Here’s how to prepare:
1. Pay off high credit card debt
2. Build up your savings and emergency funds
3. Be frugal
4. Do well at your job as high performers have a better chance at weathering the storm
5. Help each other! Lend a hand when you can.
I'm here to help you stay informed with frugal ideas to help you save money.
Speaking of all of this, my brother and sister both want this home to be sold, the one Bailey and I live in, and the profit split three ways. My sister wants it sold yesterday as she is afraid that housing prices will plummet. But, if we sell during higher housing prices then that means Bailey & I will have to buy during higher housing prices. ::sigh::
I look at houses for sale regularly and see what huge down payments are required, but still see ourselves being here for a couple more years at least. I've told both siblings that the downstairs has to be cleaned out of the tools and machinery before the house can be sold.
That will be a HUGE job, one that Bailey and I cannot do by ourselves. Her and I have already cleaned out all the garbage and my siblings are going to have to help with what is left before the house can be sold.
In the interim, we are working on getting our income up, saving and adding to our house fund, so we will have an even bigger down payment, and decluttering our own stuff upstairs. It is definitely a work in progress.
On Saturday evening the shower diverter in our combo bathtub/shower, decided to malfunction. We called on YouTube to the rescue rather than call a plumber.
We went went to Home Depot to get a replacement part, but despite all our strength, could not get the valve to loosen and come off to do the repair.
So, we needed a shower valve socket wrench. My Dad probably has one around here somewhere, but I would have no idea as to where it was as he has thousands of tools all over the place.
We ran to Home Depot again for this wrench, and came home and tried again to fix it, but even with the wrench we could not make the valve budge, so I called a plumber. I told him I needed some man strength. LOL Even he struggled to get it loose, but he did and was able to fix it and only charged me $77.50.
On Wednesday I returned those items to Home Depot that we did not use.
Free magazines this week.
Can your siblings force you to sell? Can you buy them out? Can you consider your work as part of their payout from the house? If they are not actively helping you clean it out, including helping you sell stuff like the tractor, it seems you should place a monetary value on your work there.
ReplyDeleteI don't think they can force me to sell unless they took me to court and I know neither one of them wants to spend the money to do that. I learned that when my brother didn't want to sell Dad's property. My sister and I didn't think we could win and the additional cost of litigation made it not worth it to us, which my brother agreed.
DeleteThere is 15 acres of land here and I don't want to own that much land and Bailey and I cannot do the upkeep here, so buying them out is not an option at this time.
Yes, I think our work should be considered in the payout of the house as we have done a lot to maintain it over the years. Bailey agrees with me of course.
Belinda, I'm glad you are doing so well with your exercises. I need to do better but I'm a procastinator.
ReplyDeleteCan you imagine the homes that are for sale in the Washington D.C. area. There are two houses on our block still for sale ..they have been up for 6 months. The thing is people are trying to sell them for the price they were a year ago. That won't work. They both need renovations too. Man we are a mess that's for sure.
Thank you, Vickie. Regaining my mobility is very important to me after being sedentary due to my knees for the last few years, so I work on it daily.
DeleteA mess explains it very well. Some houses I look at are in such poor shape, but not the asking price. Ugh.
The house situation sounds really complicated. I assume the house was part of a shared inheritance/estate from your dad? I agree that getting it ready to sell needs to be a shared effort, and/or you get some sort of credit at closing for all of the extra work you're doing, unless that's already been factored in as part of your "rent" while you're living there, or whatever. Sending you lots of good luck as you navigate this. (Hawaii Planner)
ReplyDeleteYes, the house is a shared inheritance. Both parents died without a will, so we have sold my Dad's property after a lot of work and red tape. We are still waiting on the closing though. I'm positive my siblings will consider my work as rent to live here. I know them both very well. LOL
DeleteThank you so much for the good luck wishes. :)
I hope your siblings treat you fairly. You were the caretaker to both parents, plus, the work to clear their spaces. It can't fall on you both to have and be given an unrealistic timeline. What's their hurry? You and Bailey staying there surely can't be impacting their lives unless they just see the money. You're right about nows the time to save, be careful with money, and help each other.
ReplyDeleteI think they will treat me fairly as they also want to be treated fairly. And I agree with you on an unrealistic timeline. It has to be Bailey and mine decisions as to when we go and honestly, I'm very concerned about that with Trump in office right now. I just don't know what to expect and it's frightening.
DeleteYou said it in a nutshell! My brother and sister both have big, beautiful homes and plenty of income, my sister's husband also has a very good income as well. They are not hurting for money as the old saying goes. It has no impact on their lives whatsoever other than they want their inheritance out of it.
My sister promised our Mom on her deathbed that she would not throw us out of the house. Not that she could we've since learned, and my sister did try to get Mom to sell the house years before Mom passed away, so this is not new with her.
Thank you for your frugal tips, and I know that you and your blog is a blessing to many of us. I think we will all need to be more frugal than we have ever been in our lives.
ReplyDeleteSo glad that you were able to get your shower fixed. Great freebies and savings this week too. Hope that you will get a nice check from the sale. Great job on the exercises and health front too.
I am so sorry about the stress with your brother and sister; that is so hard.
With Bailey's experience in reselling, can she list some of your Dad's tools on ebay? Some old tools sell for a lot among collectors. My husband has sold some old hand planes and tools of my Dad's. He even sold my Dad's 70's lawnmower to a collector.
With your knowledge and skills, I am sure you will be ok.
Sending hugs.
Thank you, Kathy, and you're welcome. You are so sweet!
DeleteWe did get so many freebies this week, even I was surprised.
Bailey can definitely sell some of Dad's tools, but my brother and sister want their fair share of anything we sell.
There is some big machinery done there Dad used to make custom knives and we are even talking about contacting the manufacturers of those machines to see if they would be interested in them as a historical piece in their lobbies.
Like I said, a lot of work needs doing and maybe even an auction to sell off some things. So, we definitely need more time to make all of this happen.