u/Weekly_Bottle9709

We are just starting our adventure with homeschooling. My child is about to turn 5 and although I know we still have time because he is young he seem to be more and more interested in reading. We read books together (story and picture books), listen to audiobooks etc and I was thinking about letting him use some sort of reading app, like 30 min a day when I’m putting his baby brother down for a nap time.

So for the parents that tried those apps, are they worth? Which apps did you use and do you find them working? I’ve seen hooked on phonics, teach your monster to read and other apps/websites popping in my fb feed..

Our vacuum is finally at the end of it’s life (cordless Dyson) and we are looking to get a new one. I would like to stay with the cordless vacuum and recently the add for Bosch popped out on my feed. Tried to find reviews but it doesn’t seem like Bosch is really popular in US. Anyone has any feedback??

Also considering Dyson or Miele.

We live in 15sq feet house and vacuum 2-3 times a day (great Pyrenees in the house lol).

Budget: up too $900
Carpet and hard wood floors.

I have a couple of Australian friends (I’m American) and I find the food they make or eat so much better lol. All the sausage rolls, vanilla slices, meat pies, pavlovas, honey joys, lamingtons… or even the store bought treats (Tim tams, chocolate covered honey thingies).

What else is there for me to try??!! What are your favorite foods?!

I’m just getting back to reading after my kids finally go to bed by themselves and I have enough energy in the evening to sit and read without falling asleep right away. We are going on vacation (mountain cabin) and I would love to bring a book to read on the porch with a glass of wine. Something light and funny but also hard to put down? I’m open to anything so give me your favorites.

Decided to ask here because I’m not sure all the mortgage calculators telling us what we can afford can be trusted.

Annual income is 105k. Car payment $280, personal loan $675. We are going to refinance the loan down to $450-550 a month before we start looking at houses. Student loans $300, no credit card debt. Only one spouse is working, then other might go to work part time if needed but it would be minimal because we have a child at home (no daycare expenses). We keep our groceries at around $1000 a month, has is $30 every two weeks, subscriptions $50. We are still unsure if we should even start looking or just keep renting for couple more years. The houses in our area start at around $250k. We’ve been looking anywhere between 275-300k.

We are still a year out before getting serious about it so any advice what to focus on would be greatly appreciated!

Paying parent - Getting ready to buy a house soon and wondering how the child support payments are counted in the situation where the obligation is ending soon (child will be 18 in 14 months ). Would like to buy sooner than that though (11 months) but the monthly payment significantly increases the DTI ratio. Are there any ways to exclude it if it ends soon?

We are thinking of buying our first house sometime next year. We’ve been looking at Zillow to figure out our price range. My question is how realistic/accurate are the Zillow predictions of monthly payment?.
Example 300k house with low down payment (3%) the payment with taxes and insurance is around 2300-2500 a month.

Is this about right? Do lenders have ways/ tricks to lower it? Maybe down payment assistance? When making an offer is there anything to ask the seller that would help to lower that monthly payment? (We are in buyer market area)

Also is it ok if only one spouse apply for the mortgage and only their income and credit score counts if the other spouse doesn’t have any income, lower credit score and some debt?

Thanks for all the answers!! Buying a house just seems so complicated lol!