Circa 2010: Cut-backs

We. Are. Married.

Two months later, Samurai and I are back from our honeymoon. The wedding experience was bitter-sweet. Bitter because I guess many couldn't understand or was willing to share in my joy but sweet because by the end of the night, I forgot about all of those issues, forgot about the killjoys, forgot about all the things that went wrong with the planning and arrangements and had a ball!

(straying from the topic here... don't ever consider that horrible hotel up on the hill for your wedding, they try their very best to rob you blind)

But it was soon back to reality when we returned from our honeymoon and shacking up with my mother. Samurai's employer was selling off some of their vehicles and saw the opportunity as an investment that would come in handy for transporting materials to and from the property instead of hiring someone. We purchased the van with an interest-free loan from my mother and planned to start building the next year (2011) when we paid it off and recuperated some of the money spent from the wedding.

We were now property owners with a large monthly loan installment to pay back. We had to therefore plan our spending and our budgets to adjust.

Our list of sacrifices:
Cut down on the amount of snacks (guilty)
Buy basic food stuff
Cook food over buying fast-food
No more gifts for each other
No more gifts for family and friends, except for small children
No more money for parties and fetes
No celebratory dinners for anniversaries, etc.
Reduce shopping (ugh)

It was kind of hard to change but we decided that we and others just needed to understand that this is something that is very important for us and without any savings, we will never have our house.

TTMF also has some rules with their land loan:
You must start construction within the first five years
You must take your construction financing from them
You must present a quantity survey with the application for the construction loan from their approved list of surveyors

So, we are literally living in a room in my mother's house. It is cramped and uncomfortable.

Sometimes I feel so depressed about it that I don't feel like cleaning it out for days. Sometimes I question the decision to have the wedding instead of using the money towards starting the house immediately. We could have just gone and gotten a 'government wedding' instead and forget about everyone else but then I remember how nice it was to be the reason so much family came together and was under one roof. Samurai and I have very disconnected family members and relationships so it was a rare occurrence that would probably never happen again. The memories of our attempt at a wedding dance and horseback riding together on a beach in the Dominican Republic are memories no-one can ever take away.

Living with regrets wouldn't solve our current living situation though, so sticking to a clear plan is what we really needed to start constructing our Dream House and Home.