Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Just post already

I keep trying to think of something specific, have a train of thought, but then those posts end up on LA Moms Blog or Parentella, and this space lies sadly dormant. And I miss it!!

So here goes: just a rambling post of whatever.

I had my first Parent Committee meeting for the girls' after-school program last night, and I'm totally excited about the possibilities. We're going to set up Family Fun Nights; chances for the parents and children to all get together, and our first one will be to make cards and letters for the soldiers in Iraq.

What was crazy (in a good way) was that of the 6 parents there, 5 of us were single parents!

At the event on Sunday, I got to talk to sweatpantsmom and Los Angelista about education, and particularly, arts high schools. While I think our first choice for Sylvia remains the same, I'm aware of more options now. I *love* hanging out with smart women that I admire so much!

I've received some amazing feedback on my latest Parentella post. I particularly appreciated the teacher who called it a "must read for all parents and teachers."

I haven't talked about this here because I wanted to wait for some real news to report, but it looks like there won't be any. I dangled my feet in the home-purchasing water and have gone back to my original belief that it's just not right for me. While there are a few condo possibilities that would be in my purchasing price range, I have no down payment. I have no security blanket. I think the pressure would just be too much for me. Not to mention, I think it's about a year too early for us to think about moving again. It would be easier to consider it next year when the girls will be graduating from their schools and moving on to the next level (OMG, that's just a year away), and besides, I don't know yet where Sylvia will be going to high school so it might be too early to plant myself anywhere anyway. But by next year, SoCal prices, I'm sure, will be back out of my range and I'll be paying rent for the rest of my life. No harm, no foul.

I took Jan. off from budgeting, but I've come back full force in Feb. It was rather depressing at first to discover that I've been living beyond my means for so long, and I got a bit panicked about how I'm going to justify paying for summer child care that I really can't afford, but I'm hoping that by paying more attention, I'll figure this thing out.

And that's all I can squeeze out before my brain starts to hurt.

6 comments:

MindyMom said...

Homeownership is defintely a blessing and a curse. The maintenance never seems to end and can be costly for a single mom on a budget - or make that on nothing to budget with!

I'm trying to keep up with your other posts but falling short I'm afraid. I loved the "Power of Negative Thining" one though! ;)

Florinda said...

Your blog is THE place for those random thoughts that don't quite fit the other places you write, so go for it!

You probably wouldn't want to move this far, but there is a good arts-magnet high school in Simi Valley: http://www.santasusana.org/
Just sayin'. :-)

And we are in the same boat you are re: home-buying. Not happening, for pretty much the same reasons. But sometimes I think renting isn't as bad as people make it out to be.

Sorry I missed seeing you on Sunday :-(.

Tara R. said...

You'll have one in high school next year? When did that happen?

I would love to move, but the housing market is still so crazy. I know we could sell, but finding a comparable sized house, for what we could pay... don't think that's happening any time soon either.

Cat said...

I bought a house during my marriage, and when it went bad and I was on my own, it came really close to breaking me. Now I'm a firm believer in renting. I don't think there's an economic benefit to buying without massive government subsidies.

Anonymous said...

As a mortgage professional it makes me cringe to see that people don't see the economic benefit to buying.

I completely agree with waiting if you are not sure exactly where you want to put down roots. That is a smart choice. As to whether prices will be back up there by next year - well - for MY sake (selfishly) I hope so! It's good for business! But realistically I doubt it.

And to the above commenter - the economic benefit is A. You get to write off the interest, the taxes, etc. and B. You are putting money towards actually owning something outright.

People don't think about it this way anymore because they move so much it's not realistic but our grandparents actually owned homes for 30 years. And at the end of 30 years they were PAID OFF. You owned it free and clear and it was something to leave to your children. At the very least you get back out what you put in. IE - if you buy a house for $100K - live in it for ten years and pay down $25K in principal - when you go to sell it you get that 25K back. When you move out of your rental you get nothing but one months security deposit.

Vivianne's Vista said...

You managed to squeeze out quite a bit! When I was married we owned several homes (not at the same time.) There are drawbacks, and benefits. Regardless of what you decide, both you and your pocket must be comfortable and REALISTIC. A lot of responsibility comes with owning a home, ie maintenance, and improvements. Taxes.

I'm back to renting since my divorce, which has been a relief. But who knows what the future holds.

Anyway- I have something for you on my post today.Here is the link-


http://viviannesvista.blogspot.com/2010/02/little-bit-of-sunshine-and-more.html