Once my Victoria’s Secret card had set me on the path to homeownership, I spoke to a couple of mortgage brokers. First my husband and I spoke to a large bank. For the sake of this posting, I’ll give it a different name – let’s call it “Pursue Bank.” Anyway, the people there were quite helpful in terms of advice etc. but I thought we could do better than the figure they quoted us. So we went to a mortgage brokerage that I’ll refer to as “Yep, Sure Thing.” We’re crunching figures given to us by Yep, Sure Thing, and so far they are Ok, but we want to speak to at least one or two more mortgage brokers and see what they are offering. The stakes are high. Getting the right rate could mean the difference between lingerie shopping at Victoria’s Secret or heading over to Target.
That’s got me to thinking about my budget generally and how much “house” we want to buy. Do we want to stretch and push ourselves to buy a more expensive place, as some people have urged us to, or do we want to bear in mind the quality-of-life factor? The way Chicago’s real estate market is heading, it seems that you have to stretch and push a bit to buy just about anything, unless it’s a small one-bedroom unit, which we don’t want. So now I’m dizzying myself with arithmetic and questioning everything I spend my money on.
It looks like my disposable income is about to take a nose-dive, so I’ve got to decide what my spending priorities will be. I’m not going to miss the half-decaf double-caf mocha-ccino because I’m not much of a caffeine junkie.
I’ve forfeited cable and going to the movies over the last nine months in order to save money, and also because I’ve been too busy. I’m having severe withdrawal symptoms from the Daily Show and all things Jon Stewart. I haven’t even been able to watch the Colbert Report, and I feel a big void. We’re thinking of buying a place where the assessments include the HBO movie channel, and probably Comedy Central, and that feels like the right thing to do. Maybe I’ll have to give up alcohol. No, that was a stupid thing to say, and I didn’t mean it. I’ve just remembered that wine, in conjunction with chocolate, is good for your heart, and it’s important to maintain healthy habits.
So, fingers crossed that Isaac Mizrahi is designing Target’s lingerie these days.