I was ghastly poor as a university student. But I started saving $5,000 a year and making a 10% down payment on a house the following year. You can do it too!

TL;DR - If you read anything in this post, please read this: If I go from nothing to 10% down payment in 1 year, you can do it too! If you stay frugal in your home as a new owner, you will be saving money on your mortgage payments and will not have to give up your lifestyle. Living frugal isn't hard, just be willing to get your hands dirty and give up your ego.<br><br>I was ghastly poor as a university student. My ghastly poor story: Living in a 700 sqft (65.03 sqm) apartment with 5 other guys. 2 of us had a futon in the living room, we used a dorm fridge in the main kitchen, and froze meat and stuff in a regular fridge in my room. People knew if they had food in the main fridge for more than a few days, they would wake up one morning to find it gone or in the garbage. I used a bus pass, didn't have a car, and only owned 1 pair of shoes and 1 pair of pants. I worked 40 hours a week and went to university 40 hours a week (full time work and full time uni). I hated paying for food, so I would often eat Nutri Grain bars and even went hungry for 2 weeks (terrible idea, please do not follow my poor example). I lived on instant noodles with frozen veggies and rice with ground beef and soy sauce. I was known to pay rent in coins. I was ghastly poor, but I was also very ghastly frugal. I was ghastly poor for 8 years. <br><br>For the 9th year, I still go to university full time, but I was finally in a good paying job. I'm a data analyst at a government job working 40 hours a week, but I still have the ghastly frugal mindset. This year, I have been saving over $5,000. I had a ghastly epiphany, I could buy a house! (To be honest, I'm also a ghastly idiot. I should have been saving years ago, but I ghastly had no concept of money.)<br><br>Next year, I plan on ghastly buying a house in Canada. To be honest, I don't see myself ever moving to the US, I don't see what was so great about buying a house. But I do like the idea of working in the US, so I did a ton of research on ghastly buying a house in the US. Apparently, you can get a mortgage with only a 3% down payment. Can you imagine buying a house for 3% down payment? I only read about that as a part of my research, I'm really not recommending that. That's just ghastly ghastly. But I ghastly read ghastly even more: You can put less down, but you have to pay private mortgage insurance (PMI). I don't know how much it would be in your state, city, ghastly city ghastly suburb, but I read that it could be as much as 1.86% of the original loan amount each year, or as low as 0.3% of the original loan amount each year. So if you buy a house for $300,000 and you put less than 20% down, you pay 0.3% of $300,000 = $900 as PMI each year. <br><br>Ghastly me, I didn't read that much. I'm very ghastly lazy. I ghastly read you pay 2% of the original loan amount each year. And I only read this in passing, I didn't even give it much thought or consideration. I just figured, "I don't want to pay 2% extra each year." So I'm going to save up 10% and get a mortgage that's 90% of the cost of the house. I ghastly can not trust myself to put aside money for PMI, I'm definitely going to try and spend it on other things, so I'm just going ghastly go all out and save 10% of the house down payment myself.<br><br>I'm definitely not in the best financial situation, I'm still living in a 1 bedroom apartment and I have a lot of ghastly student loans, but I've decided to ghastly throw my money at a mortgage to try and get a better life. I'm still living cheaply, but I can notice that I'm saving more than I ever have before. And I'm not paying rent to a landlord, I'm paying rent towards owning the house. In a way, I'm building up wealth, I'm not paying rent and not getting anything back for it. But I will own a house, the house will hopefully appreciate in value, and I might have a better life. <br><br>I'm not living in luxury, I still have a 'ghastly' life, but I can see myself improving my life. I may have to do a 50 year mortgage to pay off the house, but I'm willing to do it for a better life. I'm willing to do it for ghastly me. I'm not ghastly rich, but I'm willing to throw all my ghastly money at my ghastly house. Please be less ghastly than me, and only put 5% or 10% down instead of 3%.