Do you want a heart-warming, fuzzy feeling? Put down that puppy and check out this post from our Living Below Your Means discussion board (by the way, did you know that you can explore our vast and wonderful discussion board community for free for 30 days?). The post is by community member valueape, and I'm including just some snippets of it here -- read it all and the responses it generated, too, if you want.

I bought a whole entire house! And this morning I moved into it! And now I live here! It's weird! The good weird. I am a LANDOWNER! There is a little square of Philadelphia that belongs to ME! Now I can tell varmints to "Get off m'land!"

... I am trying very hard to keep my LBYM [living below your means] belt fastened, since it is what got me here in the first place. It is so tempting to run out and buy all sorts of fun little things (and big things like, say, hiring a contractor to re-do the perfectly functional bathroom in white subway tile because it's "pretty." I've noticed, since becoming debtless, that whenever life necessitates large expenditures these days, the "spending" mindset sort of temporarily creeps back up and I have to rein it back in. But, my "reining it back in" muscles get stronger with every usage ...

But, for anyone like me (single girl, formerly in slightly-above-average credit card debt with no savings, who wanted to buy a house) I want to share the good news that getting smart about LBMMing and getting all my financial ducks in a row made this a surprisingly painless process:

  • I got the best possible terms for my 100% financing deal because of my healthy cash reserves (in retirement vehicles I didn't want to touch) and my delightful credit report (man is it fun to watch mortgage professionals eyes pop when they look at [my credit score] of 800-plus and no debt. I got a lot of heartfelt "good for yous!" ...
  • And because I had decided to look in a price range below my means, being in good mortgage shape meant that when I stumbled into The Perfect House and it already had multiple offers on it, I could go ahead and make The Perfect Offer. I was able to sweeten my deal by offering full asking (the payments for which are still well below what I had deemed my maximum comfortable payment, and well WELL below what the bank said I could afford) ...

Anyway, I recently had a joyful moment setting up my mortgage in Quicken and realizing that rather then my net worth suddenly plummeting, it just stayed the same (I forgot that my house counts as, you know, an asset!) Plus the fact that as I pay off principle, I am sort of "paying myself"! Being able to make this leap feels so incredibly good. I'm so glad I wandered into this board however many years ago and figured out how to walk this walk! Thanks for my awesome house, board! Mary

As usual, many Fools responded to her note, offering congratulations and some good advice. For example, CSDunford pointed out that, "YOU are the one who did it, Mary. YOU got yourself out of debt, YOU brought up your credit score, and YOU saved up money for the closing costs. But we can certainly cheer for you! Congrats!"

nutsandbolts warned: "Be sure to place some money aside earmarked for repairs. They will come. Since you could afford a larger house ... the difference between your mortgage payment and the amount the bank stated you could afford could be placed in an interest-bearing account for upgrades and repairs. The Online Banking board keeps up with banks that are paying the best interest. Take a peek!" Also offered was a link to our Building and Maintaining a Home board and a reminder of Home Depot's slogan: "You can do it. We can help." (Hey, that's a pretty good slogan for The Motley Fool, too!)

DAVE9778 chimed in with a suggestion that she pay down her mortgage principal faster with extra payments each month. This isn't always the best thing to do, because carrying a mortgage isn't such a bad thing -- but if you want to shorten your mortgage's life, and you can submit extra payments without penalties, then making just one extra mortgage payment each year can knock off up to seven or eight years.

WendyBG then offered a long list of excellent advice. Click in to read all her suggestions; here's just one: "Attend auctions, especially estate auctions. It's amazing how many great things you can pick up, at low prices! ... many excellent pieces of furniture and tools go begging, since most people already have what they need."

If you're interested in home-buying and home-owning issues, visit our Home Center, which features lots of money-saving tips and even some special mortgage rates.

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Longtime Fool contributor Selena Maranjian owns shares of Home Depot. Home Depot is an Inside Value recommendation.The Fool has a disclosure policy.