How much $$ would you have to save to consider downsizing?

[kaitlyns.mom]

Whether you rent or own, how much money would you have to save per month to consider downsizing?

Poll coming...

We moved into our rental about a year ago. It was an upgrade over what we had before - we went from 2 to 3 bedrooms, 1100 to 1500 SF, no garage to garage, no yard to 7K sf lot... And our expenses went up A LOT. Gardener, utility bills, and the rent itself. We are talking about going back to a smaller place to be able to save about $350-$400 per month.

[AnnieW625]

I voted that we could not consider downsizing right now. We live in a 1122 sq. ft. house with three bedrooms and one bathroom. We could technically downsize from a 3 bedroom to a 2 bedroom house, but it would have to be a 2 bath house, and honestly for the same price I think we'd rather have a third bedroom.

In your case though for about $400 a month I would consider downsizing, but will you be happy? You are eventually going to want a separate room for your DS. What about not using a gardner? When we moved we bought DH a nice lawn mower which was about $400. We have saved $6300 over the 7 yrs. we have been in our house by having DH do the yard work. Can you live without having the AC on all day long? Are the schools as good in the area with the smaller rentals?

[SnuggleBuggles]

If I were renting, I'd do it to save $300+. I wouldn't downsize what we own bc of the hassle involved with selling a house. But, we don't have a big house. For where we are, it's on the small side already.

[marymoo86]

I wouldn't downsize b/c it wouldn't make much financial sense. I got a terrific deal on my house and while there are expenses related to it, renting wouldn't be much cheaper than my mortgage.

However in your situation, I would definitely consider downsizing if you don't need the space and/or amenities. Alternatively are there expenses that could be eliminated - like yard maintenance? I can't imagine the utility be that much more for 400sq more? Unless it is older and less efficient?

[kaitlyns.mom]

I voted that we could not consider downsizing right now. We live in a 1122 sq. ft. house with three bedrooms and one bathroom. We could technically downsize from a 3 bedroom to a 2 bedroom house, but it would have to be a 2 bath house, and honestly for the same price I think we'd rather have a third bedroom.

In your case though for about $400 a month I would consider downsizing, but will you be happy? You are eventually going to want a separate room for your DS. What about not using a gardner? When we moved we bought DH a nice lawn mower which was about $400. We have saved $6300 over the 7 yrs. we have been in our house by having DH do the yard work. Can you live without having the AC on all day long? Are the schools as good in the area with the smaller rentals?

DS and DD are sharing a room... yes, eventually I am guessing they will need to separate. For now though they both seem to like it. They are going to sleep easier than they ever have before. We tried not having a gardener for the first few months but DH did nothing in the yard - it looked awful and I had that bad guilt like our neighbors were judging us for our overgrown lawn! He was thrilled to pay the money to have someone do it. It does equal about $840 a year though. We have been running the AC almost all day lately because it's been 90-100 degrees outside. That will go down in the winter and so will our water bill if we get some rain (although as you know it won't be much). And overall I am just really exhausted trying to keep 1500 SF clean or even remotely clean. It was so much easier to clean a townhouse in a few hours. And we have not been using the yard (that we have been paying someone to mow...). DH uses the garage to build furniture for us though so he loves that part. Schools are the same.

I guess I just feel like we are treading water. Instead of using DH's increase from last year to save for a down payment or vacation or other expenses, we are spending it in rent and utilities. It feels like we are spinning our wheels and it won't change until we drastically lower our living expenses or I get a job. Which I have considered but the cost of daycare for two vs. what I can expect to earn are not convincing me it's time.

[kaitlyns.mom]

I can't imagine the utility be that much more for 400sq more? Unless it is older and less efficient?

It's older and much less efficient. Our townhouse was built in 1978 and we had shared walls on either side, so the heat and AC would get trapped in our unit essentially. We also had tons of shade trees out front that blocked a lot of sun. This house was built in the late '50s and does not cool well at all. There are a lot of gaps around the doors especially, plus it has very high ceilings in some rooms. In the winter it requires more heating because it has hardwood floors throughout, and again the drafty doors and windows...

[amldaley]

I answered "other" b/c I think a percentage is more telling than a $ amount. For thoes in a very high COL area, a couple hundred bucks does not really reflect a large portion of their rent/mortgage/costs.

We downsized from 2600 sq ft with garage & yard to 1571 with no storage or yard at all. We are saving about $500-$600 month which is about 25-35% of what our expenses had been.

[amldaley]

It's older and much less efficient. Our townhouse was built in 1978 and we had shared walls on either side, so the heat and AC would get trapped in our unit essentially. We also had tons of shade trees out front that blocked a lot of sun. This house was built in the late '50s and does not cool well at all. There are a lot of gaps around the doors especially, plus it has very high ceilings in some rooms. In the winter it requires more heating because it has hardwood floors throughout, and again the drafty doors and windows...

And our situation in the opposite...we have the same utility bill on our smaller place b/c the weather proofing is so shoddy.

[kaitlyns.mom]

I answered "other" b/c I think a percentage is more telling than a $ amount. For thoes in a very high COL area, a couple hundred bucks does not really reflect a large portion of their rent/mortgage/costs.

We downsized from 2600 sq ft with garage & yard to 1571 with no storage or yard at all. We are saving about $500-$600 month which is about 25-35% of what our expenses had been.

OK, looking at the percentages it would probably save us about 15% of our rent/utility/yard expenses. Not amazing...

[amldaley]

OK, looking at the percentages it would probably save us about 15% of our rent/utility/yard expenses. Not amazing...

Can you nix the yard care and DIY?

[kaitlyns.mom]

Can you nix the yard care and DIY?

I'll have to talk to DH. It was a major point of contention when I started nagging him to mow the freaking lawn. He is not a lazy man - he works 12 hour days most days - but for some reason he mowed it once and then gave up. We have a huge (for us) yard - front and back.

Maybe it's because I suggested he buy a push mower. It was cheaper and more environmentally friendly. But it's possible it has cost us more in the long run - a gardener!

[kaitlyns.mom]

Wanted to add that this convo has been spurred among DH and I partly because our lease is up in a little over a month and our landlord requested we go month-to-month instead of signing for another year. Which makes me think we may possibly be downsized whether we like it or not!

[joonbug]

I agree with skipping the yard work, granted it takes some effort but I'd try to cut our spending in areas like yard work, electricity use, going out, etc before downsizing. We moved from a small 3 bedroom 1 bath second floor apartment with no storage or outside space to a duplex, probably about twice the size, 2 floors + attic bedroom living space. We moved more into the suburbs, even though it's only 20 minutes from the old apartment (which was less than 30 minutes drive from NYC), we get much more bang for the money ;). The rent went up 400 itself BUT we were able to move all the items from storage (DH's military stuff plus other stuff he acquired during his life before we met) into the garage, which itself saved us about 300 / month. We do have more bills, utilities are higher accordingly, but we just paid off the car and were able to lower the insurance as we're in deeper suburbia now. So it all amazingly evened out.
It would be very hard to be deprived of the things we got used to here, garage, basement, more space, outside space. We 'could' downsize in space from 3 to 2 bedrooms if DH's grown son decided it's time to start living on his own, hope we'll be able to buy a house in some not so distant future, and it's be much more feasible to afford a smaller house! We live in a pretty high COL area...

[sste]

Personally (and bearing in mind everyone's situation is different) it is not so much the amount of money but what I wanted and whether the money would facilitate that. I would absolutely downsize for an important goal like SAH if that is what I wanted, having an additional child, paying for college or other opportunities for my kids, or enabling my DH or I to work less hours. In my case even with the money on hand DH wouldn't work many less hours and I would still work at least part-time based on personal motivations. So, then it would depend on whether the amount saved could go most of the way toward meeting the other goals I mentioned - - in my area it would have to be a chunk of change saved!

[cvanbrunt]

I'd make some other changes first. Buy a mower and do your own yard work. We have a 10K sq. ft. lot and it's tiny compared to our previous houses. It takes 20 minutes to mow the front and about 15 to do the back. Just do one a day and it's not a big deal. I do it most of the time. Why not ask your landlord to do some weather stripping or do it yourself? Change out incandescent lightbulbs for LEDs or CFLs, raise the temp on the AC 2 degrees, close the curtains during the day, etc. There's a lot you can to do to lower your utility costs.

[tarahsolazy]

My mortgage is only ~12% of my take home pay, so I can't imagine that moving would be worth it at this point. We don't have any debt but the mortgage.

[KrisM]

I voted other. Our mortgage payment is tiny, because it's our third house and we've put a lot of money into them, so have a small balance. It would not save us enough to downsize. Our mortage is only 7% of take home.

But, if our payment was big, I think we'd want to save at least $500 to downsize, assuming that it's just saving and not making it so we can live.

[OKKiddo]

Well, considering that we moved from a 5 bedroom house (with carport)to a 3+ townhouse (no garage, no carport, just two assigned parking spaces) I would put that into the category of downsizing. This townhouse costs $700 less a month than the house we were in and had to leave. We could have rented another home (larger) for the same price (with a better commute and in a better county) but the house didn't make the cut for hubby and it didn't have a fence or a backyard (sloped with woods) so I wasn't really feeling like it would be a good home for us.

So, now we're living at exactly half of our housing allowance and able to save a little more. We're still de-cluttering and purging because we're realizing everyday how much less space we have. I don't think I could handle a house this size with our family long term (5+ years) but it will do for now (1-3 tops). Most important: NO MOLD! :)

[MamaKath]

We have considered it and may again in the future. First I would look for your budget leaks though- eating out, frivolous purchases, etc. since those easily can be where you loose hundreds per month. Then I would look at what are musts in your household and what you would be willing to give up (tv, internet, magazines, etc). If you can close some of those gaps, it may feel more comfortable to be there. It is amazing to realize where money goes and how fast. :)

[amldaley]

I'll have to talk to DH. It was a major point of contention when I started nagging him to mow the freaking lawn. He is not a lazy man - he works 12 hour days most days - but for some reason he mowed it once and then gave up. We have a huge (for us) yard - front and back.

Maybe it's because I suggested he buy a push mower. It was cheaper and more environmentally friendly. But it's possible it has cost us more in the long run - a gardener!

That is precisely what happened to us, too!

[amldaley]

We have considered it and may again in the future. First I would look for your budget leaks though- eating out, frivolous purchases, etc. since those easily can be where you loose hundreds per month. Then I would look at what are musts in your household and what you would be willing to give up (tv, internet, magazines, etc). If you can close some of those gaps, it may feel more comfortable to be there. It is amazing to realize where money goes and how fast. :)

DH and I spent 2 hours on our budget tonight and we were SHOCKED. We are hemmoraging money on eating out.

[kaitlyns.mom]

I track our spending pretty closely. I know exactly what we spend where... we don't spend a ton on eating out but more than we should. I've already started menu planning again and freezing leftovers. We don't have cable or Netflix - we rent from Redbox maybe twice a month and get all TV from a digital converter box (free after the initial purchase of $40 :)). We do have a landline but I keep it for safety reasons and it with our internet is $50/month. I was earning money with my Etsy shop but I recently decided to put it on hold because my stress level was just way too high and the kids were being ignored. Our grocery bill has gone way up though; hopefully that will come down with menu planning. No car payments. No debt.

I just miss how good it used to feel when we had lots more money in the bank and unexpected expenses were not a huge deal, and we were SAVING. That felt awesome. But I guess I haven't really had that since I became a SAHM almost five years ago!

[kara97210]

DH and I spent 2 hours on our budget tonight and we were SHOCKED. We are hemmoraging money on eating out.

We came to the same concluson at the beginning of the year and started to be really mindful of our eating out budget this year. After we had DD we were spending a lot more eating out, getting take out etc.

We have been keeping a budget since then for eating out that also includes my lunches at work, etc. We opened a vacation savings account and basically tried to take the money we would have spent eating out and put that in that account every month. It's embaressing how much we've saved that we had been wasting. We've also both lost weight, I think because we have more control over what we're eating by eating at home.

For the original post, it would have to be a lot for me to move ($400 or so). I don't know if there is anything I hate more than moving. This is based on a lot of experience, I've moved 5 times in the past 10 years.

[ha98ed14]

DS and DD are sharing a room... yes, eventually I am guessing they will need to separate. For now though they both seem to like it. They are going to sleep easier than they ever have before. We tried not having a gardener for the first few months but DH did nothing in the yard - it looked awful and I had that bad guilt like our neighbors were judging us for our overgrown lawn! He was thrilled to pay the money to have someone do it. It does equal about $840 a year though. We have been running the AC almost all day lately because it's been 90-100 degrees outside. That will go down in the winter and so will our water bill if we get some rain (although as you know it won't be much). And overall I am just really exhausted trying to keep 1500 SF clean or even remotely clean. It was so much easier to clean a townhouse in a few hours. And we have not been using the yard (that we have been paying someone to mow...). DH uses the garage to build furniture for us though so he loves that part. Schools are the same.

I guess I just feel like we are treading water. Instead of using DH's increase from last year to save for a down payment or vacation or other expenses, we are spending it in rent and utilities. It feels like we are spinning our wheels and it won't change until we drastically lower our living expenses or I get a job. Which I have considered but the cost of daycare for two vs. what I can expect to earn are not convincing me it's time.

Given what you are describing and the ages of your kids, I would downsize and save the money for your own house that will have more room when the kids are older and you really will need it. Toddlers don't care who they share the room with.

I love in OC, too, so I know how expensive it is here if your income is not not $100K+ It's tight! I think you should downsize, save your money, and buy something that is yours. That's what we did and I am really glad we did.

[MontrealMum]

A few things have jumped out at me from your posts. For the issue of a badly insulated house, my first rec would be weatherstripping and plastic over the windows in the winter but you're in CA so I don't know if that's practical or not. I mean, you guys probably actually open the windows in winter sometimes, right?

I will mention, though, that where I live they give you the option of doing equalized payments on the electric bill. Gas as well (if you have it). They examine your past consumption and then project what your yearly usage will be, and then divide that by 12. So, you'd no longer have such a big hit in the AC months, it would be spread out more evenly.

[roseyloxs]

I would see what else is available.

No garage is usually a dealbreaker for me. I like to be able to keep at least one car in a garage. Maybe if I lived in CA I would think differently though. I would be willing to go with no yard if a park was within a block or two. I don't mind living in a smaller home so giving up sq footage is not such a big deal for me. Ideally I would like 3 bd and 2 baths but to tell you the truth we are only using 2 of our bedrooms right now and we mostly just use the master bathroom since its the only one with a bathtub. So I would say for $400 or more I would be willing to downsize pretty easily. Might be a bit of a headache when visitors come but that really is only a few weeks out of a year.

[klwa]

Right now, we wouldn't consider downsizing, but mainly because we have ~2.5 years until we can pay off the house. Rather than downsize, we could reamortize to drop payments, or refinance for the little we have left.

[OKKiddo]

I wanted to add that we are in our townhouse because of the pets (two Basset Hounds). My husband's hours at work are horrible at this assignment so if we could have lived in a nice apartment complex closer to his work I totally would have done it IF WE DIDN'T HAVE PETS! I love our houndies, but we had them before we had kids and now it's just so rough (lol, no pun intended). In fact, I would have loved apartment living in a nice complex that had great amenities and a closer commute for hubby. We wouldn't be stressing about poop pick up (his job and he never does it), mowing the lawn (his job and he never does it), or even worrying about outdoor maintenance/upkeep of gutters. And oh, the money we would be saving if we didn't have pets (their costs aside an apartment would be a lot cheaper).

[kaitlyns.mom]

I love in OC, too, so I know how expensive it is here if your income is not not $100K+ It's tight! I think you should downsize, save your money, and buy something that is yours. That's what we did and I am really glad we did.
That is definitely our long-term goal, but we haven't decided whether we will stay in OC. DH is from the central coast and we would both love to end up there if possible. The income thing kills me around here. It's amazing that to downsize we would still be paying $1800 a month for a 2br!


A few things have jumped out at me from your posts. For the issue of a badly insulated house, my first rec would be weatherstripping and plastic over the windows in the winter but you're in CA so I don't know if that's practical or not. I mean, you guys probably actually open the windows in winter sometimes, right?

I will mention, though, that where I live they give you the option of doing equalized payments on the electric bill. Gas as well (if you have it). They examine your past consumption and then project what your yearly usage will be, and then divide that by 12. So, you'd no longer have such a big hit in the AC months, it would be spread out more evenly.
Good to know about the equalized payments; I will have to check into that. We could definitely try some weather stripping although with it being a rental I'm not sure how much time we want to put in. We do open the windows most of the winter - we actually open them more in the winter than in the summer. ;)


I would see what else is available.

No garage is usually a dealbreaker for me. I like to be able to keep at least one car in a garage. Maybe if I lived in CA I would think differently though. I would be willing to go with no yard if a park was within a block or two. I don't mind living in a smaller home so giving up sq footage is not such a big deal for me. Ideally I would like 3 bd and 2 baths but to tell you the truth we are only using 2 of our bedrooms right now and we mostly just use the master bathroom since its the only one with a bathtub. So I would say for $400 or more I would be willing to downsize pretty easily. Might be a bit of a headache when visitors come but that really is only a few weeks out of a year.
Parks are usually pretty close, although with our current rental we have to walk about a mile to one (hence the yard). We would definitely look for a place with a park nearby and preferably in a community with a swimming pool; we had one in our neighborhood before and really missed it this summer.


I wanted to add that we are in our townhouse because of the pets (two Basset Hounds). My husband's hours at work are horrible at this assignment so if we could have lived in a nice apartment complex closer to his work I totally would have done it IF WE DIDN'T HAVE PETS! I love our houndies, but we had them before we had kids and now it's just so rough (lol, no pun intended). In fact, I would have loved apartment living in a nice complex that had great amenities and a closer commute for hubby. We wouldn't be stressing about poop pick up (his job and he never does it), mowing the lawn (his job and he never does it), or even worrying about outdoor maintenance/upkeep of gutters. And oh, the money we would be saving if we didn't have pets (their costs aside an apartment would be a lot cheaper).
I hear you. We have two cats and I always feel like it instantly limits our choices. I adopted them 13 years ago and I did not have the foresight to see it as an issue down the line!

[kaitlyns.mom]

We have been keeping a budget since then for eating out that also includes my lunches at work, etc. We opened a vacation savings account and basically tried to take the money we would have spent eating out and put that in that account every month. It's embaressing how much we've saved that we had been wasting. We've also both lost weight, I think because we have more control over what we're eating by eating at home.

Great idea!