Thing to Do #57: Make at least one huge purchase you can’t afford

As you are making those last Holiday gift purchases, you may be stressing about how much you have spent this year for gifts.  Therefore, you may already be feeling like you’ve made at least one huge purchase you can’t afford.  For me, it was purchasing my house in 2005.

Everyone has goals that, upon being reached means “I’ve made it.”  Inevitably, once you’ve reached that goal, you create a new one for yourself.  My first goal that meant “I had ‘made’ it” was that I could afford to get regular pedicures (this may seem like a small thing, but I’m VERY thrifty and it always seemed like a luxury to me).  I reached this goal around the same time I reached my second goal: finding employment in my field of study.  My third goal was to own my own home, which I guess is the American Dream.

I was married for a short time in my early 20s, but upon ending that period of my life, I moved back in with my parents while I decided my next move.  After being on my own for 7 years, living with my parents (complete with an attempt at enforcing a curfew) was a bit of a shock to my system.  Therefore, I immediately began looking for a new place to live.  And the decision to buy, rather than rent, was fairly easy.  Obviously, it was a goal of mine and the cost of rent is about the same of a montly mortgage payment on a small house in a rural area.

I had actually been searching online for houses even before the demise of my marriage, finally going to look at my first selection of houses the last week of July 2005.  Of those first three houses, I actually fell in love with one of them.  I liked the open layout, it had hardwood flooring and cathedral ceilings, a nice big deck and covered parking.  In my price range, it was about as good as you could get.  I made an offer on the house the next day and it was accepted!  I had begun the painful process of buying a house.

For the next month of my life, it was a whirldwind of paperwork, as anyone who has bought a house knows about.  Within a month, I had closed on the house and by the end of August 2005, I was a homeowner!  However, I had left almost all of my furniture behind – I didn’t even have a bed.  So now I was anxious to “fill up” my new house - this is how I got into trouble.  Affording the house was probably doable, but once I started going on a spending spree of buying up furniture, as well as putting in new carpet, things began to sprial out of control.

By November 2005 I felt like I was barely able to keep things afloat.  I was so disappointed in myself because all of my life to this point, I had been the model of responsibility.  But I was (and am) fiercely independent, so going to my parents for help was out of the question.  I already felt horrible that I had “put them out” for two months.

I considered a roommate, but I really didn’t feel like sharing my house with a stranger.  So my solution?  Part-time job.  Back to Applebee’s for me, the place I had worked throughout my college years.  As dissapointed in myself as I was, I was not too ashamed to do what I had to do make it work on my own.  I worked as a hostess and a server for about eight months until I finally got things back under control again.

From the status of the economy, I don’t think I’m alone.  In fact, I may be in the majority.  Anyone feel like sharing their economic woes?