At the beginning of April we bought a 30% ownership in a ski condo in Colorado. We live in the Washington DC area so we closed on it by fax and wired the money. We got a really great deal on it and only paid about a third of it’s estimated value and we paid cash.

In order to pay cash we basically had to empty out all of our accounts, and yes I do mean all! Luckily we still had enough money to pay all the bills and we also have some savings bonds that we didn’t have to cash in. If something happened and we really needed some cash quick we could have cashed these in if needed.

A few weeks ago we made our first trip out to stay in our new condo, meet the property management, and see the area when there wasn’t snow on the ground. We absolutely loved it! We went hiking, biking and walking around everyday and enjoyed breakfast, lunch and dinner outside a number of times.

While we were there we spoke to the property management about upcoming renovations that were needed to our unit, the biggest thing being a need for new furniture. I can’t tell you how lovely the pink chairs were and how comfortable they were when you sat in them and could feel the frame below what once was a cushion.

First up was the bedroom. A new headboard, king size bed and new linens as well as a matching dresser. Luckily some other owners had bought the dresser and decided against the design before buying the rest of the set so we got the dresser at a discount and just bought the matching bed. It was really quite nice. In time the nightstands will need to be updated as well but for now they could stay.

As for the living area which consisted of a couch, chair and a small dining table and chairs we weren’t really liking the proposed choices in new furniture. As a result we asked them to hold off for a bit until we found something a little more tasteful and so we plan on tackling that this fall.

Since we own 30% of the unit we will be responsible for 30% of the costs. For the bedroom updates I think our portion will be about $1000. Not too bad for what we are getting. I think the shared ownership thing works well in that everyone gets to enjoy the entire place and the new furniture this year but everyone only pays for a smaller portion of it.

We won’t be back there again until Thanksgiving time but we are looking forward to it!

The townhouse is three stories high and the bottom floor has its own bath room and walk out patio area in addition to a large amount of space. We have a friend who was looking for a place to rent and it turns out that it is perfect for him. We didn’t ask for too much rent, just enough to save us some money and be a great deal for him.

After the additional rent savings due to our room mate we will actually save about $1000 a month! While we are psyched about this savings, we wouldn’t have done the room mate thing if the house set up wasn’t what is was where he have have his own space downstairs and we can have ours.

Hopefully it will work out for everyone! We will post in the future about how it’s working out.

When we had narrowed it down to a few models we then turned to price. The Breville Ikon model seemed to be at a good price point in the market and the cost didn’t vary too much depended on where we bought it. We bought ours from SurLaTable which had a good price and had a store locally which meant we could drive right over and pick it up. No shipping costs and no waiting because they had it in stock.

So far for fruit juices we have made fresh orange juice which was so delicious, orange and strawberry juice and mixed fruit juice with oranges, apples and strawberries. FOr vegetable juices I made a carrot juice yesterday which was surprisingly yummy and we have also made a celery, cilantro and lime juice which I put too much lime in and a tomato, celery and carrot juice which I put too much tomato in.

A few adjustments are ongoing as to the balance between the fruits a vegetables but so far most everything has been really good. I foresee a future with lots of fresh fruits and veggies making their way to my home from costco!

Every week when I go through the coupons I cut out those coupons that are for things that we buy all the time but I also snag the ones that are for things that I would buy during triple coupon weekend because I can get the items dirt cheap. The best deal is when we find the $.75 coupons on things like granola bars, salad dressings and condiments, etc.

Things we got:

Chex Granola Bars, on sale 2/$5 with $.75 off coupons on each of them so they were $0.25 each.

Regular mustard and honey mustards for about $0.09 each. We don’t need more than one of these items so we will drop the extras in the next food donation bin that we are asked to donate to.

Barilla pasta and sauce, the pasta was about $0.10 each and the sauce was about $0.75 each and we got three of each.

We also got a couple things of cat litter, dishwasher detergent, Zip Stream Bags, Mayo, salad dressing, Pepperidge Farms snack crackers, deli cheese, snacks, rolls, coffee creamer, beer, four different kinds of rice mixes, and the list goes on. Our pantry is definitely stocked now!

We ended up with receipts that exceeded two and a half feet long! Here’s the break down:

Receipt #1 Total owed: $46.74, coupons savings of $41.94 and sales savings of $16.55

Receipt #2 Total owed: $32.59, coupon savings of $46.18 and sales savings of $22.64

That’s a savings of $127.31!!!

We recently posted that we were buying a ski condo share in Colorado, Steamboat to be exact. Well we are actually buying a portion of a ski condo for $18,500 plus a few hundred in closing costs. We are paying cash for the condo which means we had to raid every account we owned to come up with the money. Not only our joint accounts but the individual savings accounts that we had from before we got married this past fall.

Well, we scraped together the cash. We were able to hold off on cashing in the savings bonds and scraping the bottom of all the barrels thanks to a $2700 tax refund which arrived prior to the closing date which was today.

We finalized the offer about three weeks ago and knew the amount we had to come up with so we have been in a cash is King mode ever since. Every time we even spend a dollar on groceries it required thought as to how it affected our bottom line and our ability to pay for the condo.

Once we were under contract we had our $2500 earnest payment on the line and we weren’t walking away from that. We also weren’t going to run up our credit card or get a loan so cash was the only way to go.

So, how did we do? The cash was wired to the title company yesterday in full and closing went through today without a hitch. Condo done.

Our living expenses while we pulled together the cash on the other hand were tight and I have to say we really didn’t do a very good job at “cutting back” during this time. In fact, our effort lacked all commitment on both of our parts! We ended up with about $550 put on the credit card this month. There are a couple grocery charges, a few eating out and social bills as well as a $200 Breville Juicer that I had to have (post to come).

We plan on paying off the bill before any interest is charged but it just means when we get back on our feet with our paychecks it will be another month before we get back ahead of the game and stop living paycheck to paycheck. Our lesson learned here is that we wish we had a bit more in savings because now our savings is cleaned out and we are starting from scratch but it’s also another opportunity to do the right thing.

The best part: we own a ski condo free and clear!!!

We kept the other $300 in the checking account. His just started a new job and his last paycheck is not quite a full paycheck so this kind of evens everything out.

Keep an eye peeled for an upcoming “we’ve paid it off” email which we hope will be arriving soon!

We have been silently keeping our eye on real estate in Steamboat, Colorado were we like to ski. Over the past few years we have spent anywhere from $2000-$3000 a year on lodging there when we visit during the winter skiing months. We have been looking at what they call fractional ownership. It’s where some number of you own a particular condo and share it throughout the year. This is different than your typical timeshare and His will do a post on the differences soon.

The calendar is split up between you and your co-owners in advance and you know which weeks you have. We were originally looking at a place that sold out in either 1/8th or 1/4th shares. We were looking at the 1/4th share which included one week each month and a second week one month of the year which rotated each week. You had the choice of either using your weeks or putting them in a rental pool.

The price on those units right now is between $80k-$90k. In order to finance the cost you needed to put down around half of the cost. The kicker on these particular units was the HOA fees where were a hefty $300+ per month! While this condo wasn’t completely out of our grasp we didn’t have the down payment required so we were busy saving away.

In the meantime, about two weeks ago a unit came on the market in the building next door. It’s pretty much the same situation but the building isn’t quite as nice or as new and also doesn’t come with the hefty price tag either. The unit started out at the $30k price but had dropped to $22k with HOA fees of $100 a month and taxes of $500 per year. This was definitely closer to our price range.

This particular unit is a 30% ownership and includes 6 consecutive winter ski weeks as well as a few weeks in the Spring and Fall. We made a low offer of $15k and settled with the seller for $18.5k. We plan on paying cash for the purchase and we close on the condo in about 10 days!

In upcoming posts we will go into detail about the cash payment as well as the impact to our day to day finances.

I happened to see it at a wine store this weekend when HERS and I were walking around Annapolis, MD after going for a drive with the top down to enjoy the nice weather. I decided to purchase a bottle after seeing the much more reasonable price of $10.49. For an occasional drink of a special variety for about the price of a bottle of wine, this is good value in my opinion and I’m looking forward to trying more of the Chimay offerings.

It made me go back to our budget to see how this compared to us. We live in a very high cost of living area so I can’t imagine that their costs of living were really any higher than ours.

Cars, insurance, gas $1000

Rent $2350

Utilities, phone, cable $350

Misc, gym, etc $115

Allowances (both of us) $400

Food / Entertainment $600

Him St Loan, debt $275

That’s a total of $5090

I don’t understand how these people’s expenses are $7700!

Every day I work from home I always tune into Oprah at 4pm. I really enjoy watching the show and for some reason I’ve lucked into seeing almost all of the episodes with Suze Orman. Today’s episode showed a number of individuals and families who want to spend some amount of money on something they want. Suze summed up all the figures and showed them whether they could afford it or not. The audience also had the opportunity to chime in with their vote.

It was amazing that even faced with the figures, everyone’s opinion and Suze’s expert opinion some people just didn’t get it.

I personally am kinda wanting a wii. I’m thinking that my husband and I can play some of the interactive games and the wii fit and do something together other than sit and watch tv. I know we can afford it and if we went on the show Suze would definitely say “Approved” but I’m having a hard time justifying it to myself.