Reply to how on earth can we save a down payment?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think what a lot of folks here are missing is that many current renters have truly missed the boat. In other words, asset appreciation is occurring at roughly the same rate of saving. Past a certain point, in effect many are paddling toward a receding horizon. It's sad, really. [/quote]

This is not true.  The concepts that have been discussed, which are cutting back and saving apply to many renters.  Unfortunately, in this day and age, too many have become fooled by the trappings of what many consider to be everyday life, Internet, cable, cell phones, nicer cars.

Things you do: cut back on luxury services like expensive phone plans.  If you are complaining about saving, you shouldn't be spending over $100 for cell phone service.  If you are complaining about saving, you shouldn't be spending money on expensive cable and Internet packages.

If you have a high car payment, you look for a holiday trade-in event and look for a used car that you can trade your existing car in and purchase for a lower monthly payment.  And they do exist.  Talk to a car dealership about ways to decrease your monthly payment and they'll find a way to make it work to get the sale.  Yes, you will extend your payments usually back out to 60 months, but if you can save monthly on the car payment, you can sock that extra money away into a down-payment fund.

You can learn to eat more frugally.  Frankly $800 a month or $200 a week is a mid-to-high budget for a family of four, so if you are trying to scrimp for a down-payment, you can cut this back to $140-150 per week or $600 per month.

Drive less.  $265 is amazingly high for gas and fuel.  That's over $60 per week in gas.  Really?  Carpool, combine errands, go out less on weekends, look for closer alternatives.

So, places that I would recommend that OP cut back:
$800 groceries, you can save $150-200 by eating more frugally
$265 gas and fuel, you can save a lot here (my family of two adults and two toddlers uses about $125/month on gas and fuel)
$260 mobile phone, you can save over $100 here by switching to a service such as Net10, VirginMobile, etc
Television and cable, cut back, use netflicks or Hulu.  If you have to have your sports, look for ESPN streaming.  You can save up to $50 here.

OP says they save about $125/month.  They can save a lot more just by managing their luxuries better.[/quote]

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