Today, Rudder and I will go sign papers to refinance the house. Our payments will
go up slightly because we're moving from a 30-year to a 15-year loan. I'm finding
that having spent those months unemployed is making me distinctly nervous about
taking on any additional financial obligations, like this or the car I leased. It
doesn't seem to be preventing me from doing it, just making me worry more. That's
probably not altogether a bad thing, if it spurs me to save more
assiduously.
Fortunately, even with the new loan, our house payment
is far below what the mortgage people seem to think we can afford. Whatever
possessed anyone to decide that most people can afford a house that costs three
times their annual salary? That may be barely possible -- but only if you don't
spend any money on anything else. I like to be able to afford to leave my house
occasionally, to go out to dinner or to take a trip. Maybe that rule of thumb is
based on a time when most families owned only one car and had an adult at home
full-time, on the theory it's easier to save money if you have some time to trade
for it (planning nutritious and inexpensive meals, not paying for day care, and so
on). At any rate, with the way we live, our lives would be far more uncomfortable
if our house were far more luxurious.
But now I've been here long
enough to settle in, I need to stop spending money like a sailor in port. There
will be one last hurrah, though: I've promised myself forever that I would get the
Flower-of-the-Month club (probably from
href="http://www.jacksonperkins.com">Jackson & Perkins) and I will do so as
soon as I decide between their options (Bulbs or Flowering Plants).