Small House, Happy Home: The advantages of living in a smaller home
Over the years I have discovered that living in a smaller home with a smaller mortgage has meant we can have a happier lifestyle, with less debt and stress and more time and money . We squish our family into a "two-bedroom cottage" and have found there are many ways that doing this saves us money and helps us build a happy family. Our small house makes us closer. We are forced to cooperate, and spend lots of time playing together We can clean our house in under an hour (and often do when visitors are expected!) This gives us more time and we need less cleaning products.
Staying in our small home when our second baby was born saved us $100 per week in rent or $5,200 per year. Squishing us all in means I get to spend more time teaching and playing with my kids. We need very little furniture. We have spent $120 total on furniture and I can't buy any more, because there is nowhere to put it! It provides protection from impulse buys. Sometimes when I'm shopping, I see the most gorgeous things. I would love to buy them on impulse but I can't, because where would I put them in our small home? It is cheaper and easier to heat and cool a small house. This drastically reduces the electricity bill, especially with our lovely new triple backed curtains. The children play outside more and get lots of free exercise. It is easy to know what the kids are up to. There is no need for buying baby monitors when you can hear them wherever they are. It`s much safer, too. Items in our house go through a process of natural selection; only the most used and loved items stay. This means everything we use and play with is high quality. No more toys! There isn't room for any more toys in our house. No matter how big the special or how good the deal, I'm rarely tempted because our house is already full. If your mortgage is bugging you and you want to reduce (or stay out of) debt , consider moving to a smaller house , a cheaper suburb or see if you can think of a clever way to squish in. You will save thousands.
Fiona Lippey is Australia 's queen of frugal, and founder of the award winning money saving website http://www.Click here to submit an article into the How To Budget section
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