.
Really don't think Youcan meant you Sandy.
I thought what you said made sense.
Sandy, I wasnt referring to you-Im sorry that you thought that.
I think your advice is sound and sensible...and useful for anyone whos trying to save money..
PS Thanks Stawks
3BrNBBRz4UYdo+!~~60_7.JPG "chameleon54"){kind=avatar}
Wife, myself and two teenage kids live comfortably on around 50k. We have done it tough in the past and lived simply on 20 - 25 k when the kids where younger. ( house was paid off ) This still included basic house and contents and car insurance etc.but buying a set of car tires or paying school fees was a worry. Sometimes we picked up second hand tires, did some of our own mechanical repairs, purchased all furniture and electrical second hand etc. We did all of our own house repairs using second hand materials. Kids wore hand me downs from relatives etc. Other clothes came from discount store sales etc. My own work clothes and boots where thread bare and worn.
The family found plenty of cheap or free ways to have fun. ie. fishing, bike rides, friends over, swimming or canoeing in the farm dam, "bushies" ( bonfires ) with toasted marshmellows, damper and a few illegal fireworks. 
There was never any spare money and trying to keep up with regular bills was incredibly stressfull. I havnt got any desire to go back to that lifestyle as the lack of money was a source of constant struggle and worry when unplanned expenses came up.
A big expense (even when the house is paid off) are sudden home maintenance costs.
From my experience these unexpected disasters come in bunches....I'm still working my way through the most recent list. 
We where " lucky" in that we lived in a small four room, 100 year old timber framed cottage. You could just put in a bit of pipe or replace one rotten bit of timber with a less rotten piece. We purchased it in 1981 for $4000 ( in a remote country town ) and recieved the first home owners grant for $6000 
It was priced at land value, minus the demolition costs of the cottage.
I was just a lad, but I pulled it down to a bare frame of three rooms and rebuilt the whole thing myself using parts from another old house I demolished for free. By the time we finished it was a nice little place that we sold ten years later for $75,000 when we traded up to something bigger.
