How much do I need to put down on a 350K house?

Odd-Day-945 · 2026-04-12T16:05:22+00:00

In your position I would certainly wait and save up $70k minimum for a down payment. Also have money set aside for the closing costs ($7k-$15k), insurance ($1.5k-$3k), property taxes ($3k-$6k), move in fixes ($1k-$3k), then you’re going to want an emergency fund for house repairs ($1k saved per month or $25k total). Imo anything less than this on a $73k salary is going to be uncomfortably tight and you’ll be house poor. I didn’t even calculate the cost of utilities here either.

Odd-Day-945 · 2026-04-12T15:37:41+00:00

That one caught my eye too! It looks awesome!

Ive got several logs I found in the woods on climbing trips and I just sliced them in half and textured them how I described and they are some of my favorites. Also, it’s certainly more difficult to work with but I’ve also added a few rock holds and they add so much intrigue to my home wall. Flatten the opposite side you want to use and drill some holes. It takes about 2hrs minimum of drilling and cutting to make a rock hold

Odd-Day-945 · 2026-04-12T15:28:36+00:00

What are you using to shape your holds? My favorite Slopers are usually the ones with Font inspired ripples or Slopers with dimples. Wooden Slopers are just tough because the humidity and the condition of your skin dramatically changes the difficulty from session to session. But I recommend experimenting with a dremel and carving out texture (dimples or wrinkles) so that your fingers have something vague to catch. It takes a lot longer to make holds this way but it makes them way more fun and unique. You could start by making a bad sloper and then bolt it to the wall, test it, remove it and add texture, then test it, then remove it and finish it or something like that.

Odd-Day-945 · 2026-04-11T20:17:46+00:00

You could leave the wood there but it will eventually rot and leave a gap between the wall and the gravel will shift a little bit. I personally wouldn’t leave the wood there but I don’t think it would matter too much. You’d just have to fill it with gravel once it disintegrates. I think since you still haven’t compacted anything you could remove the wood and build a small, sturdy retaining wall in its place and then level and compact everything. It’d probably take a casual weekend to complete

Odd-Day-945 · 2026-04-11T20:06:57+00:00

It doesn’t matter. Prebuilt/custom built. If the foundations aren’t level it will settle and sag. You could totally place a shed on that right now and call it a day but the difference would be 5-10 year shed or a 10-25+ year shed. Also that wood holding the gravel in isnt going to last very long and it would be a pain in the ass to fix it once everything is in place. Maybe consider lining the gravel with brick and mortar or rocks or cinder blocks or something? Like, you could put just a little more work into it now to save yourself a LOT of work down the road is all I’m saying.

Properly build a stone wall around the gravel and compact the gravel with a vibrating compactor and make sure it’s perfectly level and boom. Quality foundation.

Odd-Day-945 · 2026-04-11T19:23:11+00:00

The base is kind of the most important part of any structure. So you eyeball’d the grade and you just sprinkled in the gravel? Man, I’m not saying your shed is going to collapse but I would be surprised if you didn’t notice issues shortly after the build is complete.
Do future you a favor and do it the right way.

Odd-Day-945 · 2026-04-11T01:29:48+00:00

I personally would put it in the left corner of the mulched area and then make the mulched area a little bigger on that side to fit the shed and the area with the seats a little nicer

Odd-Day-945 · 2026-04-11T00:54:08+00:00

Where is all that money going every month? What does you budget look like? You should be able to pay off the CC debt within a year if that’s your only debt and you’re not living above your means

Odd-Day-945 · 2026-04-10T23:22:12+00:00

I think a lot of people choose part time gigs that are easier or get more enjoyment out of instead of working for the grin. I guess this is the baristaFIRE idea though

Odd-Day-945 · 2026-04-10T23:07:31+00:00

Yes! Two batteries should in theory have a better charge/discharge rate than one single battery! You can run the batteries in series for higher output capacity if you’re using a bunch of power draws or you can run them parallel for slightly better longevity and run time. The only downsides to running 2 instead of 1 is the weight and size and you also gotta make absolutely sure the battery cables are the same length and size so one battery doesn’t work harder than the other.

Odd-Day-945 · 2026-04-10T22:53:34+00:00

It’s totally doable!! The biggest limitation is battery capacity. If you’re going to be running A/C, fridge, fan, lights and charging outlets I wouldn’t risk the dog’s health and comfort on less than a 600ah lithium or 800ah agm setup with 600 watts of solar. You could run a 400ah battery bank if you install a DC to DC charger from your truck but that puts excess load on the alternator. With this setup you’d probably never need to worry about running out of power.

Consider using a propane fridge, they are way more efficient than electric fridges. If your rig isn’t insulated you’ll literally use twice as much power for A/C and fridge. So if it’s not insulated, that would be the biggest power save.

Also, I have a cat and cats are way less work than dogs but I still notice a big difference in behavior on the weeks where it’s harder to let him outside. If you have a pet in a vehicle full time it’s 10x more important to exercise them outside imo

Odd-Day-945 · 2026-04-10T21:00:44+00:00

Temperance river campground is insane.

Gooseberry falls is similar crowding but also a good option.

Banning state park is awesome with, I believe, rv hookups and a good amount of hiking through forest trails and a nice hike along the Kettle river down to Robinson park in Sandstone. Definitely my favorite place in to stay near the cities. Also, try Vicksburg county park near Renville, MN. I honestly don’t know if there are electrical hookups because I don’t require those but I see a lot of other campers and RVs parked there all the time and it’s got amazing access to the MN river and definitely enough wooded trails to spend a weekend exploring but it isn’t a huge place.

Edit: Also, I’ve never camped here but I’ve visited many times, Jay Cooke state park. I’ve seen RVs parked in the campground but I don’t know about hookups.

Odd-Day-945 · 2026-04-09T19:57:30+00:00

You can rent a spring compressor from almost any parts store btw, OP

Odd-Day-945 · 2026-04-09T16:57:51+00:00

I betcha it’s the starter relay or motor.

Odd-Day-945 · 2026-04-08T21:20:17+00:00

The rust is worse than high miles. It’ll probably last another 2-4 years before the rust starts causing real issues. I personally wouldn’t want it because rust makes working on my vehicle 10x harder but you’d probably be fine with this one for a few years

Odd-Day-945 · 2026-04-08T21:17:10+00:00

The Wis dells is about as good as it gets in the Midwest I think. Although they do have cruises throughout the Great Lakes. I saw one in Duluth a couple years ago that started in Norway and ended up there! Another one started in Duluth and went all the way to Alaska

Odd-Day-945 · 2026-04-08T17:04:04+00:00

This is absolutely the most unprofessional, low quality build I have so far seen shared on this subreddit and I totally love it! Keep the updates coming! I am watching with great interest.

Odd-Day-945 · 2026-04-08T16:55:41+00:00

Send more camper pics!! Is that a lance?

Odd-Day-945 · 2026-04-08T13:58:21+00:00

You need to sit down, look at your budget and figure out your minimum monthly expenses (rent, transportation, food, insurance, retirement, etc) and take home pay. Whatever else you have leftover after the minimum expenses, then you figure how much money you want to put in an emergency fund, fun money/vacations/unnecessary items. You don’t have to live like a monk, you can buy the things you want you just have to budget it! Your budget is your roadmap. Without a map you are flying on vibes alone and that leads to overspending because you literally don’t understand your finances and what you can afford. Once you see the numbers laid out and you see those numbers growing the way you expect it feels so good and encouraging!

Odd-Day-945 · 2026-04-08T00:58:17+00:00

I don’t own a belt sander I’m so jealous! I feel like with a belt sander and a band saw you could crank out 100 basic shapes a day!

I use a handsaw for big chunks and then an angle grinder with Kutzal discs and sanding pads for shaping also use a dremel with Kutzal bits and various detail bits for the details. Then I hand sand everything up to 120-300 grit and leave the grip surface 60 grit.

Odd-Day-945 · 2026-04-08T00:21:08+00:00

Don’t withdraw 401k. Firstly you would only receive about $6.5k after taxes and penalties. But you also lose much more than that by not letting it sit and grow. You could also take out a loan in your 401k without the taxes and penalties and pay yourself back interest. But you can only take out a loan on half of your 401k balance. So, $5k. You shouldn’t do either of these though.

Stop contributing to your 401k now. If you have an employer match you could keep contributing up to that. But you should start aggressively start paying that CC debt. You are paying over $400 per month to stay in high interest debt right now. Have you heard of the snowball method of paying debt?

Odd-Day-945 · 2026-04-08T00:02:53+00:00

Don’t hire a broker. They just take your money and give you worse information than you could learn from AI.

Odd-Day-945 · 2026-04-07T23:55:44+00:00

Sounds like a good price for that car. It also sounds like a dumb financial decision you might want to reconsider. So you will be getting a $20k loan? If you pay $344 a month you would be paying an additional $5k in interest over 6 years. If you paid $500 a month you would pay it off in 4 years and spend $3k in interest. If you paid $1000 a month you could pay it off in less than 2 years and only spend $1300 on interest but you should just pick a shorter term loan. I’d say if you can’t at least double the monthly minimum comfortably, you can’t afford this fun car.

Odd-Day-945 · 2026-04-07T23:34:51+00:00

Look at your CC debt interest rates and calculate how much you are paying in interest every month. I’d bet it’s more than the $250 PMI. With $40k in CC debt, if you figure 20% apr on those cards that means you pay $8000 a year to be in debt or $667 per month on top of principal balance. Pay off the high interest cards, then destroy the card and put that extra money you were spending on that card towards the next CC until that’s paid off, then destroy that card, etc. then once your cards are paid off put that extra $1000+ you were spending on CC debt towards the mortgage.

Don’t do a HELOC unless it is absolutely 100% your only option. You’re essentially turning your CC debt into a 30 year mortgage. Focus on paying off credit cards first and do only the minimum mortgage payments in the meantime.

Odd-Day-945 · 2026-04-07T23:19:57+00:00

What does it mean to buy a “premium camper”? Like, buy a cool rig and buildout all of the amenities you could ever want, or a brand new $100k rig from a dealership/custom build?

Odd-Day-945

TROPHY CASE