Buy Homes On A Budget: 6 Tips From The Great Depression
3 min readWithout a doubt, The Great Depression was the most devastating period in the history of this world. An era that had forever lasting effects on the world’s economic power, stock exchange, and the real estate business. People who have survived it can tell you how difficult it was to sell or buy homes during that time.
Within a matter of days, millions of people became unemployed, lost all their savings and assets. In fact, the times became so tragic that people had no money to feed and clothe their own children.
To fight hunger and homelessness, people had to learn to live on tight budgets and survive in limited resources. One good thing that this era did; it taught us how to survive and buy homes on a budget. So can you. Follow these tips:
1. Learn to reuse and recycle
If you take a closer look, you will realize that you throw away a lot of items that can easily be reused and recycled. This mainly includes clothing items. The dresses you throw away to make space for new ones can be redesigned or refurbished with the latest trends to upgrade your wardrobe.
Back in The Great Depression, companies found out that the flour sacks are made of repurposed fabric that can be used to make clothes out of. Many designers took advantage of this and printed various designs on these sacks to make dresses out of them.
2. Never waste food
We all know how much food is wasted on a daily basis whether it is in homes or restaurants. Did you know that one-third of the food that is generated for consumption by humans goes to waste every year, this is appalling?
This makes it a global concern and a call for help because there are millions of people who go to bed every day with an empty stomach or die due to starvation.
Many of the food items such as vegetables or fruits do not make it on supermarket shelves due to tiny imperfections and are thrown away. This is a waste that can easily be avoided if you learn to make smart food choices
The leftover food items can be reused in soups, mixed vegetables, to make stocks, etc, or even be used as a salad or a fruit bowl. No matter what you do, do not waste food.
3. Come up with your own cleaning items
Due to the expensive marketing and advertising campaigns these days everywhere especially on social media, people are led to believe that the use of expensive cleaning equipment is the only way to get a sanitized and cleaned environment.
However, you can easily shift to in-budget home cleaning remedies by using items in the kitchen. Baking soda and vinegar do an effective job at cleaning dirty dishes, the same as any cleaning liquid would.
4. Decrease the use of disposable items
One great thing that people who lived in The Great Depression did was that they saved their budget by reusing items. At least more than once. This tip is ideal for those who are in a habit of using disposable cutlery and utensils or even paper towels. Make sure you reduce this to a minimum.
5. Avail free entertainment
Do not waste your savings and hard-earned money on extravagant sources of entertainment. There are multiple free sources of entertainment in every city that you can instead enjoy.
Why pay heavy monthly subscriptions when you can enjoy the free movies or TV shows link online? Plan outdoor weekends or camp in the woods rather than dining out every weekend at expensive gourmet restaurants.
6. Do not purchase anything that you cannot pay in cash immediately
You can save a lot of money by purchasing things immediately rather than bearing heavy year-long debts for them. With credit cards, a lot of people purchase day-to-day luxuries on credit and pay double the amount for them over the years including the interest rates.
There is hardly anyone these days who would buy a car or a house by paying in full. People get vehicle and mortgage loans to buy luxuries and necessities. Sort out the things that you can instantly buy. After these tips now the process of sell your home quickly or buy house are easy now.