This is the next installment on getting out of debt in order to get approved for a new home loan. These are just old fashioned “common sense” guidelines, that many will balk at, but will really help in getting back to a realistic financial condition.

The next step is downsize what you are buying at the grocery store, and the first thing to go is all those processed foods, and prepared meals that save you time, but charge you three times as much as cooking yourself. In addition, it will not kill the family to not have meat on their dinner plate a couple of times a week. Beans and rice with some flour tortillas will be hot, and nourishing, and the more you can save in these small ways will add up to big amounts of money to payoff that snowball of debt. Next cut way back on all the snacks, paying five to seven dollars for a ten ounce bag of “gourmet chips” is insane, and just a plain waste of personal funds.

Forget going out to the movies for the duration, and introduce family movie night at home. It only costs a dollar to rent a DVD from one of those big red boxes in front of the local McDonalds or Walgreen’s. A couple bags of microwave popcorn will only cost about thirty cents each, and have iced tea, Kool-Aid or water as a beverage. There for about two bucks everyone can enjoy a movie, or even two without dropping sixty to ninety dollars at the movie theater.

This next subject might get a little touchy especially with teenagers, but the cell phones have either got to go away, or be reduced to the most basic plan available. Spending several hundred dollars a month so everyone in the household can surf the net, and send text messages on an unlimited basis is just a waste of time, and money. Explain to your children why you are doing this, and it is for the overall good of the family’s financial future. Then tell them that if they need to text, and send photos, or update their Facebook pages all the time, then they need to get part time jobs to pay for their own service plan.

It will be tough at first, because everyone is going to be taken out of their comfort zone, and the children will declare they are victims of child abuse because they cannot have everything they want when they want it, but everything will level out, if you stick to your plan.

Salaries are down, and so are home prices, but there are so many people burdened with large credit card debt that they could not get approved for a doll house loan, much less a Houston home mortgage right now. People have become so accustomed to getting what they want when they want it, they are actually shocked when not being approved for a new home loan. The level of entitle in the United States is so out of proportion that many are getting a wake up call when they are shopping for Houston real estate right now.

Sure the prices are great, and custom homes are being sold at spec home builder prices right now. But if you cannot get a loan due to your Debt to Income ratio, then take a step back, and look at your personal life, and start devising a plan of getting out of debt before even thinking about looking at another home with a for sale sign in the front yard. There are plenty of great systems in place currently that can give you a plan, or guide in knocking out all debt in as little as six months or over a period of a few years.

This means cutting out all those extras that you, your spouse, and kids think they need on a daily basis. Create a spreadsheet or list on what your current monthly spending is, and what your income is currently. If you are like most people in this country, the spending is higher than the paycheck or checks coming in to the home. Start cutting out luxuries immediately. No more five-dollar coffees, and three-dollar muffins on the way to work, eat cereal with your kids and have some quality time. Take your lunch, and save the ten to twenty you are blowing each day. Make a food budget, and only cook at home, eating out is one of the biggest killers of family financial independence.

Next, cut out services like mowing, house keeping, magazine subscriptions, and take your cable down to the most basic package. Doing chores around the home is what Saturdays were made for, and it will not hurt the whole family to pitch in to get everything accomplished. Also, absolutely stop going on weekend getaways, sure everyone deserves a break every now and again, but that is only if they can afford it at the time, and not putting it on their credit cards.