Oh Oprah, what will people do when you are off the air?

Pic from zzzack
So I was watching Oprah a few nights ago and it was a rerun about her whole debt diet thing. She brought up the point about how people are swimming in debt and need to get a handle on it. There was one lady in particular who kept shopping and shopping, forged her husband's signature to buy a car and who doesn't open any bills. As a result they are 170k in debt, even though they make 102k together a year. They have a very nice house, very nice cars (all high end), she said she likes to buy designer jeans, but they have had their utilities shut down because of their not paying bills. Quite frankly, I wondered if the only reason they were still together was because of the kids and the fact that it'd be more expensive to separate.

Anyway, it had me thinking about my own spending habits and how I really need to change them. I admit, I often worry about getting a handle on things, so much so that I am considering adding this to my healthy challenge. As with many people my age, that I know, I have the student loan and car payments which are the bulk of them, but there's also the credit cards and a few other traditional bills to pay. Sometimes I must admit that it can get pretty overwhelming when you're trying to put away for retirement, savings and still have a little extra for entertainment. Which often makes me wonder, how on earth do single people afford homes, especially in this economy?

I've asked several friends and colleagues this question over the past several months and the ridiculously high housing prices have also popped up in conversation from other people as well. From those of us who are considering buying, especially those of us who are single, the prices are just ridiculous if you want to live near the city or even in the suburbs. In order to buy a house/condo in a decent neighbourhood you're lucky if you get mid $200,000s. Mid $200,000s are rare in my area now. They recently said that the average price of a home in Ontario (Canada) is mid $300,000s. Not surprised - all I have to do is look in the paper and see all the new homes that are being built and see the starting prices at $294,000 (for a townhouse that is maybe 1400 sqft)! While many other places in the world saw a housing crisis, we up here in the Great White North didn't really see a drop, thanks to our banks/big time government regulation. While it is nice to know that our banks and economy did fairly well compared to other countries, the price of homes is ridiculous and in my opinion needs to come down and be a little more realistic - especially since people's salaries haven't gone up as much as house prices have. It really needs to balance out.

Anyway, I was just thinking that I couldn't imagine paying a mortgage, paying back my student loan, paying off my car, property tax, utilities, gas, food, etc and being able to sleep well at night with house prices the way they are. I already kind of stress over the fact that I am not where I'd like to be financially and how I need to make some real changes, I just can't imagine being house poor (working just to make mortgage payments and not having much left after that) on top of that. I guess you could always, if lady luck is on your side, win the lottery.

Seriously though, how do people do it? I guess most have two incomes. How do single people do it with those kind of prices? This is why I keep teetering towards renting, but everyone keeps saying how you're essentially throwing your money down the drain by paying someone else's mortgage. I see their point, but who wants to be paying their mortgage until they are in their 70s anyway? I guess most people don't go into it signing up for 40 year mortgages. 20 years seems bad enough.

Side note: just after posting this I had an "aha moment" (yes, I'm using that cheesy Oprah line which I cringe whenever I hear celebs and other people use). One of the reasons why I eat/binge (especially with food) is because it is a nice way to escape money and life problems. Life problems as in general boredom and dissatisfaction of the way my life has been for the past few years (i.e. not happy with job, social life, spending habits/debt, physical appearance). It is so much easier to eat because, like Toni Collette's character said in the movie In Her Shoes (but referring to shoes) shoes don't disappoint you in the sense that unlike dress sizes, shoe sizes rarely change which made her feel good. It made more sense in my head for as to how that relates. The point I'm trying to make is that, food can be comforting to eat during the moment. It's a means of escape. Essentially, I know how good a bag of chips tastes while I'm eating it.

It provides me with a moment of bliss.

There's no disappointment.

It's an escape from reality...

That is until the bag is finished and I've realized that I've just inhaled a whole big bag of chips...again.