If you’re looking for an amazingly delicious cornbread recipe, you can stop right here. This is THE recipe everyone around your table will love!
You Will Love This Moist Cornbread Recipe With Honey
I’ve always wanted to find a cornbread recipe that is delicious — instead of dry and grainy. Well, when we were in Branson for a little getaway last year, we ate at McFarlain’s Restaurant. I took one bite of their cornbread and said, “This is it!”
And then I spent the next five minutes taking little bites and over-analyzing how they achieved such a perfect cornbread. All the while my husband is looking at me like, “Are you okay? It’s just cornbread, honey!”
But he did agree that it was out-of-this world cornbread and he’d love it if I could make it at home.
So, I was able to get a copy of the recipe and, after making it at home, I can guarantee this is the world’s best cornbread — ever. My husband and children concur!
Honey Cornbread Recipe ingredients
- 2/3 cup sugar (I used turbinado)
- 1/4 cup butter, softened
- 4 eggs
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1 1/3 cups milk
- 2 1/3 cups flour
- 1 1/2 tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 cup corn meal
- 1 tsp salt
How to Make Homemade Honey Cornbread
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease an 11″ x 14″ pan and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream sugar and butter.
3. Add in eggs, honey, and milk and mix well.
4. In a smaller bowl, mix flour, baking powder, corn meal and salt.
5. Carefully stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients carefully. (Do not overmix — the batter will be lumpy.)
6. Pour batter in greased baking pan.
7. Bake in preheated oven for 35 minutes, or until golden brown.
How to Serve Homemade Honey Cornbread
This cornbread pairs well with almost any meal, and it doubles as leftovers for breakfast the next morning!
Try it with Chili, a Mexican dish, pulled pork, or other roasted meats.
Just make sure you serve it with plenty of butter and extra honey.
Moist Cornbread Recipe with Honey Storage
Wrap any leftover cornbread in plastic wrap or place in a food storage container at room temperature so it doesn’t dry out. Eat within 3-5 days or freezer for later. We don’t recommend storing cornbread in the refrigerator as it will dry our faster.
Best Honey Cornbread Recipe FAQs
Many cornbread recipes call for sugar or honey — but true Southerners argue that “real cornbread” doesn’t have sugar. The kind of cornmeal used adds different flavor profiles as well.
Adding any type of dairy product will moisten up a dry cornbread mix — try a little sour cream, shredded cheese, some buttermilk, etc. Also, don’t over-mix the ingredients and don’t over-bake the batter.
Best Honey Cornbread Recipe
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup butter softened
- 4 eggs
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1 1/3 cups milk
- 2 1/3 cups flour
- 1 1/2 tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 cup cornmeal
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease an 11″ x 14″ pan and set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream sugar and butter.
- Add in eggs, honey, and milk and mix well.
- In a smaller bowl, mix flour, baking powder, corn meal and salt.
- Carefully stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients carefully. (Do not overmix — the batter will be lumpy.)
- Pour batter into greased baking pan.
- Bake in preheated oven for 35 minutes, or until golden brown.
Nutrition
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Reader Tip: Couponing for a Friend
Wendy emailed in this great idea which some of you who have extra time and enjoy couponing might consider:
Now that I’ve been couponing a while, I’ve accumulated a good stash of toiletries and cleaning supplies — more than I need. It was killing me to pass up those really good deals and freebies, though, even though I have a year’s worth of shampoo already. (Getting good deals is addictive!)
My solution: teaming up! A friend of mine would really love to coupon but just doesn’t have the time, so she pays me $5 a week and I bring her a bag of surprises! I can still pick up almost-free items I don’t need, and I can pass on the free ones I won’t use. She gets $10-$20 worth of items for $5, and doesn’t have to spend the time clipping coupons. (She still buys specific items if she runs out, but that doesn’t happen often.)
It feels like I get to give her a present every week! Plus we have different “favorite brands” for several things, so I rarely have to choose whether to pass on something or keep it for myself.
It’s fun, it helps a friend out, and it makes me feel like I’m really getting my money’s worth out of my time spent couponing. What’s not to like? -Wendy
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Cash4Books.net: $5 bonus for selling three books in January 2011
Cash4Books.net: $5 bonus for selling three books in January 2011
If you have books around your home which you no longer need or want, you should definitely see how much they are worth on Cash4Books. If you sell three books to Cash4Books in January 2011, you’ll earn an extra $5 bonus! Just include this email in with your box of three books and you’ll get $5 extra credited to you via Paypal.
Cash4Books pays promptly through Paypal so you will quickly have your money in hand after shipping off the books.
If the amount offered from Cash4Books isn’t very high, you could consider taking them to a local bookstore to exchange for cash or bookstore credit. Or, you might consider trying to swap them on PaperBackSwap.
Find more simple income-earning ideas here.
Thanks, Thrifty Ways and Ideas!
Q&A: Stockpiling Food
I have a questions about stocking food. I currently have the “drugstore” game mastered and have a great stock on personal/household items. I currently am working very hard at lowering the grocery bill at the same time eating more whole foods. I have in the past read your post about your weekly shopping and notice that most grocery items are for the week. Do you stockpile food? I know kinda hard to do with eating more whole food. But things like meat, pasta, frozen veggies, etc. -Melissa
I get asked this question a lot and the truth is, I’m always “buying ahead” — just not usually in vast quantities since I’m more of a minimalist and typically don’t like to store more than what I’ll be able to use in the next three to six months. We also have a smaller family so food lasts longer around here than it would if we had five teenagers. 🙂
For instance, last week I stopped by the health food store to check on their markdowns. I ended buying four loaves of bread, two packages of hot dog buns, two packages of chicken hot dogs and a gallon of milk. These were all marked down to less than I can get at Aldi or on sale with coupons so I bought them and put them all in the freezer since we don’t need any of them for our menu last week. I’ll incorporate them into our menus over the four to six weeks or so.
In addition, last week I purchased three bags of turbinado from the bulk food store. This will likely last us for the next four to five months, since I try use sugar rather sparingly.
I had the extra cash to purchase these items and I knew they were all things we’d use, so I went ahead and purchased them. This is typically the way I stockpile: in small quantities here and there as I come across great deals or opportunities to buy food in bulk and have the cash to purchase them.
While we might not have rooms stuffed to the ceiling with cans and boxes of food, we always have quite a variety of food on hand, we are able to keep our grocery budget lowered since we aren’t paying full price for most items and I have a number of different options on hand to use as the basis for planning our weekly menus.
If I have the time and coupons, I also occasionally will do a major stock-up of something — such as the 31 tubes of toothpaste I got for free last year! — but by and large, I usually just buy ahead in small quantities as part of my weekly grocery shopping trips.
In all honesty, as we’ve shifted more to a whole foods diet, I’m using coupons less and focusing more on buying markdowns at the health food store and loss leaders at the grocery stores. This has simplified my shopping routine a great deal — I clip and organize fewer coupons, don’t have to spend a lot of time planning out my shopping trips and I make fewer trips to the store.
This method of shopping and stockpiling is working well for our family right now, but I can see as my children grow older and their appetites increase, we’ll likely be tweaking this in order to accommodate the need to buy more groceries. For now, though, I’m enjoying keeping it simple!
How to Create a Financial Notebook
Carrie from Diddle Daddle shows you details on how she created a Dave Ramsey-Inspired Financial Notebook to stay organized and track their progress on their financial goals in 2011.
She also offers free printable pages so that you can set up your own financial notebook if you’d like.
31 Weeks to a Better Grocery Budget Video Series: The Benefits of Menu Planning
31 Weeks to a Better Grocery Budget Video Series: The Benefits of Menu Planning
My apologies that this didn’t get posted until this morning, instead of last night as promised. We filmed it yesterday on our new Flip video camera (a Christmas gift from my dad) and then I spent three whole hours (I’m not kidding!) trying to get the thing to upload correctly.
There were some connection/login issues, but I’m pretty sure the majority of issues had to do with user error. Yes, you are welcome to laugh at my technical ineptitude; at least I now know 331 different ways not to upload a video. 🙂
Hopefully, I’m getting the hang of it and it will take me significantly less time to get this uploaded next week!
Related: Menu-Planning Saves Your Sanity
This Week’s Menu Plan: The 15-Minute Meals Edition
(My little kitchen “helper”!)
One of the things I do when planning our weekly menus on Saturday is to consult our upcoming week’s schedule. In doing so on Saturday, I realized we had a busy week ahead of us. So I’m sticking with simple meals — most which can be made in 15 minutes or less.
Breakfasts:
Cold Cereal
Smoothies
Cold Cereal
Steel Cut Oat Groats with Walnuts and Raisins
Smoothies
Fresh Orange/Carrot/Apple Juice, Toasted Bagels with Cinnamon/Turbinado
Raisin Toast, Scrambled EggsLunches:
Chicken hot dogs
Macaroni & Cheese
Leftovers
Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches
Cheese Quesadillas
Beans & Rice
LeftoversDinners:
Green Chili Chicken and Lime Soup, Bread Machine Buttery Rolls
Tilapia, Sweet Potatoes, Homemade French Bread, Broccoli
Turkey Sausage and Potatoes, Green Salad, Bread Machine Buttery Rolls
Italian Chicken, Sweet Potatoes, Peas, French Bread
Taco Soup, Best Ever Cornbread (recipe coming on Thursday!)
Dinner Out
Dinner at In-Law’s House
7 Time Management Tips For the Working Woman
Guest post by Sarah
1. Lists are a Girl’s Best Friend
Lists can bring sanity to a chaotic household. My husband and I have learned that something as simple as a magnetic list on the fridge ensures we don’t return from the store only to realize we’ve forgotten to purchase several key items!
Packing lists eliminate frustration with trip preparation.
Meal planning lists make grocery shopping significantly more efficient.
We also keep a list of household project ideas, so that with any down time, we simply pull out our list and determine which potential project would be best suited to our available time and supplies.
2. The Power of Prioritizing
I now have a “To Do List” template that breaks my daily tasks into three distinct categories:
- Urgent tasks that must be completed by end of day.
- Important tasks to work on as time allows.
- Future project ideas.
This ensures that my available time is always spent on the most urgent matters, and as time allows, I can easily knock out additional tasks that may be less time sensitive.
In addition, as one item is completed, sorting tasks in this manner allows for immediate selection of the next task at hand.
3. Multi-Tasking is a Must
Always look for ways to be productive while you wait!
If you let your dog outside each morning to do his business, use that time to pack your lunches for the day. While waiting for water to boil, you can empty the dishwasher. While on the phone, you can open mail, straighten your desk or fold a load of laundry.
4. A Chore A Day Keeps the House at Bay
Take 10 to 15 minutes a day to tackle a single household chore — emptying trashcans, dusting, vacuuming the main rooms or cleaning a bathroom. This will keep the house tidy, without requiring an hour and a half of cleaning each weekend.
5. Dinner After Dessert
Each night before bed I will plan our dinner for the next evening.
This allows advanced planning if meat or other items must be thawed, and helps me identify any potential ingredients I may be missing and need to pick up on my way home the following day. In addition, this eliminates my biggest pet peeve — coming home from a long day of work, and trying to come up with a plan of what to make for dinner!
6. Combining Work & Play
Finding ways to make your chores more enjoyable will increase your chances of actually completing them! I now save all my ironing for the weekends, where my husband and I will put on a good movie, and I tackle the ironing as we watch.
7. Just Say No to Procrastination
Procrastination is time management’s worst enemy. Take the bull by the horns and knock out the task at hands. Period!
Sarah is a Regional Sales and Customer Service Manager at Simmons First Bank. She and her husband do not yet have children (although she’s confident that will take time management to a whole new level!). However, with demanding jobs and a number of volunteer commitments, their schedules are usually very busy, and require a significant amount of organization and effective time management.
photo by Mitchell Bartlett
We Paid Cash: A Fun Family Outing
A testimony from Kristin
My husband works in lawn care so there is never a spare week in the grass-growing days of spring and summer to take a vacation.
Since I was expecting another baby at the end of the summer, we would be too busy caring for an infant to attempt a family get-away in the fall or winter either. However, when we got the urge to take the kids on a fun outing one day in June, we were able to do it without lots of planning and without a twinge of guilt!
How We Did It
We only use cash when we pay for things so we accumulate a lot of spare change. Each time we return from a shopping trip, we put all of our dimes, nickels and pennies in a container in our bedroom. We roll and spend the small change periodically, usually on small treats like ice cream or a movie.
Our quarters are more sacred. We put all of them in a separate jar out of sight and allow the pile to collect…and collect…and collect.
Then comes the fun part. About once every six months, we decide on a fun way to spend the money we’ve saved. It can be used to purchase an item we can all enjoy or, as in this case, used to fund an outing we otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford. Since it was June and my husband couldn’t take extra time off, we needed to keep our outing close to home so we decided to visit a touristy beach town, about 45 minutes away.
Getting Ready to Go
Once we began to make plans, we let everyone be hands-on. My husband dumped the quarters out onto the floor and the kids stacked them in groups of four. Then my husband and I wrapped the coins into rolls of $10. We all counted the rolls and took them to the bank to exchange for paper money.
With our quarter money, we were able to spend the whole day away. We had enough money for gas, parking fees, wrist bands for a small amusement park, lunch on the Boardwalk and dinner at a restaurant on the way home.
Still Going…
When we got home, after carrying sleepy children in the house and tucking them under their covers, we emptied our pockets and…clink!…dropped the first of our new collection of quarters into the jar.
Kristin is wife to Brian and home school mom to Gavin, Maddie, Owen, Benjamin, and Alaine. She blogs about her family and her passions at Bits and Pieces From My Life.
Have you saved up and paid cash for something — large or small? Submit your story for possible publication here.
Hamburger and Vegetable Soup
This Hamburger Vegetable Soup Recipe is SO simple, frugal, and deliciosu! Great way to serve the whole family on a budget and warm up on a chilly evening at home!
You will love this Hamburger Vegetable Soup Recipe!
This is the very best Hamburger Vegetable Soup I’ve ever eaten. Growing up, it was a staple recipe at our house and now it’s become one of my husband’s favorites, too.
Our children also love this soup — especially when topped with shredded cheese! It’s delicious paired with Bread Machine Buttery Rolls and the perfect way to warm up a chilly winter evening.
The Best Hamburger Vegetable Soup Recipe Ingredients
- 2 lbs. ground beef
- 2 cups chopped onion
- 2 cups peeled and diced potatoes
- 2 cups sliced carrots
- 2 cups shredded cabbage
- 4 (14.5-oz) cans diced tomatoes
- 1/2 cup brown rice, uncooked
- 6 to 10 cups water
- 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 Tablespoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon basil
- 1/2 teaspoon thyme
- 2 bay leaves
Does beef need to be cooked before adding to hamburger vegetable soup?
Yes, all meat should be fully cooked before adding it to the soup. You’ll want to drain any grease off the meat as well.
How to Make Homemade Hamburger Vegetable Soup
1. In a large stock pot, brown the ground beef and onion together until the meat is lightly browned. Drain off excess grease.
2. Add all remaining ingredients to the meat in the pot and bring the mixture to a boil.
3. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for two to four hours. Check the soup periodically, stirring and adding more water, if needed.
4. Remove bay leaves and serve with shredded cheese (optional)
Best Hamburger Vegetable Soup Recipe Substitutions
This recipe is extremely versatile and can be adapted to fit your family’s taste preferences (or whatever ingredients you have in the house!)
Here are a few easy substitutions:
- Swap ground turkey, stew beef, sauteed mushrooms, or cooked lentils for the ground beef
- Try a small noodle pasta (like orzo) or barley in place of the rice
- Mix up the veggies based on what you’d like to use up
- Use homemade bone broth instead of water for lots of extra flavor and nutrients (you may want to reduce the salt if you use broth)
Hamburger and Vegetable Soup Tips
Give your soup plenty of time to simmer so all the flavors meld together and so the beef and veggies get super tender.
Also, it tastes great warmed up again the next day for lunch — so don’t shy away from making a big batch!
What to Serve with Homemade Hamburger Vegetable Soup
We love keeping it simple and serving it with some shredded cheddar cheese, homemade rolls, and maybe a salad.
How to Store this recipe for Hamburger Vegetable Soup
This soup will last in the fridge for 4-5 days, or you can freeze portions of it for later.
One pot usually makes enough for 3 meals for our family (and yes we like it enough that we’ll eat it two or three days in a row!)
Best Hamburger Vegetable Soup Recipe FAQs
Longer simmering time will help develop a deeper flavor. You can also swap the water for broth or add in more spices and seasonings.
Yes, we make it with water most of the time. You will get a richer flavor with broth, but using water works well too.
More salt and more seasonings! Also, the longer you let the soup simmer, the more flavor will come out.
Yes, after you brown the ground beef and onions, you’ll want to drain the grease off using a strainer. If you don’t drain the grease, the soup will be VERY oily.
Homemade Hamburger Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
- 2 lbs. ground beef
- 2 cups onion chopped
- 2 cups potatoes peeled and diced
- 2 cups carrots sliced
- 2 cups cabbage shredded
- 4 cans diced tomatoes 14.5 ounces each
- 1/2 cup brown rice uncooked
- 6 to 10 cups water
- 2 Tablespoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon basil
- 1/2 teaspoon thyme
- 2 bay leaves
Instructions
- In a large stock pot, brown the ground beef and onion together until the meat is lightly browned. Drain off excess grease.
- Add all remaining ingredients to the meat in the pot and bring the mixture to a boil.
- Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for two to four hours. Check the soup periodically, stirring and adding more water, if needed.
- Remove bay leaves and serve with shredded cheese (optional)
Nutrition
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From My Inbox: We Cut Our Spending and Simplified Our Lives
Here’s another great email from a reader:
A few years ago my husband and I were inspired to get out of debt. Even though the debt we had was not a major burden, we felt that we needed to get out from under the loans just in case a rainy day came our way. And I am so glad that we did!
Literally a month after we paid off our debts my husband was laid-off unexpectedly due to the economy. After a few moments of panic, my husband and I put our heads on straight and came up with a game plan. Here are a few things we did to reduce spending:
Clothing and services
- Took inventory of our wardrobe and sold pieces we never wear on eBay.
- Asked my hair dresser to dye my hair back to its natural color, so I could go longer between hair cut appointments.
- We dropped our health club and formed a jogging group with friends.
- Asked friends and relatives for hand-me-downs for our toddler.
Housing and utilities
- Eliminated premium channels from our cable service.
- Canceled Netflix and used Redbox instead.
- Reduced phone extras on our cell service.
- Investigated whether bundled service (phone, high-speed Internet and cable television) might save us money. Turns out they gave us a promotional rate on our high-speed Internet.
- Washed only full loads of dishes and clothes.
- Used a clothesline and used our dryer just to soften air-dried clothes.
- Kept our home heated or cooled only when we were actually there.
- Switched to compact-fluorescent bulbs, and turned them off when not needed. Turned off TVs, computers and other electronics when not in use.
Transportation
- Sold our car that had a car payment. Yep, we became a single car family.
- Got all the discounts we deserved, such as good-driver, good-student and multiple-car discounts.
- Because we were driving less, we told our insurer; and got a cheaper rate.
- We biked or walked as often as possible.
- Grouped our errands to reduce gas consumption.
Food
- I brought lunches and snacks to work.
- Cooked once, ate twice: leftovers were used for a later meal.
- Used the weekly grocery store circulars to see what’s on sale and used coupons along with sales.
After several months of many prayers, my husband landed his dream job. It was a miracle! However, the pay was significantly less than what he was making from his previous job.
The transition to our new income would have been a struggle, but we had already reduced our spending significantly. In fact, we were able to save $500 a month with all of our reductions. Moreover, we are still a single car family. My husband rides the bus to work everyday and really enjoys it. This experience brought us closer together as a couple. We both agreed that reducing spending has simplified our lives.
Ashley and Ryan are currently living in Salt Lake City, Utah. Ashley is a dental hygienist and Ryan works for the Federal Government. They have a two and half-year-old son.
Ask the Readers: Reliable gift card exchange sites?
Reader Tip: Unwanted Clothes + Consignment = More Space and $!
Reader Tip: Unwanted Clothes + Consignment = More Space and $!
This is a great time of the year to clear the clutter in your closets!
Do you have clothes laying around your house that you haven’t worn in over a year? Maybe you’re more organized than that and have them in tubs or boxes but they’re just taking up space in your garage? Maybe you don’t know what to do with them and you hate garage sales. Don’t worry; there is a solution.
Consignment shops are stores that specialize in selling used clothing and occasionally other items, too. My guess is there’s probably one in your area somewhere. There are tons of them popping up ever since the economy slid downhill. What they do is take your unwanted clothing, display it in their store and give you a percentage of the profit if it sells! Sounds easy enough, right?
Every consignment shop is different and has its own rules and guidelines to follow. My suggestion would be to call around and ask what percentage they offer, what their requirements are and then compare them if you have more than one option.
Another good idea would be to visit the shop and check out their prices. See if you would be happy getting that amount for your clothing. Almost always your stuff will be marked higher than what you would mark it at a garage sale. So not only do you make more, you are also saved the time and energy that a garage sale requires!
Most shops offer at least 50% of the selling price which is a really good deal. Sometimes they offer you a higher percentage if you use your income as store credit. Let’s say you sell 10 items and your total profit is $20 at 50%. If the store has a 75% store credit policy this means if you spend your income in their store, they’re actually giving you $30 instead of just $20!
Consignment and resale shops are not only a great way to sell your clothes, but also a great place to shop. You can usually save over half of the retail price by getting it used. Sometimes, you can even find brand-new items for a fraction of the cost they were in the store!
Jessica and her husband are renting a small duplex until they can save up money for a house. She is the manager of a consignment shop and loves looking for deals. She just recently started her own blog with tips on saving money and finding good deals.
Have you sold items through a consignment store before? If so, I’d love to hear your advice, tips and ideas.
photo by photine
Ask Jesse: How does not having a mortgage outweigh the tax benefits of having a mortgage?
Ask Jesse: How does not having a mortgage outweigh the tax benefits of having a mortgage?
Please explain why paying off early/not having a mortgage payment outweighs the tax benefits of having a mortgage. I know it is true, but have a hard time explaining it to others. -Susan
Wow, talk about slaying a “sacred cow” here! The so-called “mortgage deduction” is one of the most-oft-given reasons people have given to us as to why it was unwise for us to buy a house with cash.
It is interesting that, recently, the Deficit Reduction Commission came out with a list of actions it would recommend taking to help reduce the national deficit to get the country back on sound financial footing. One of the most controversial recommendations they came up with was doing away with the mortgage deduction. The import of this would be to throw out one of the main justifications folks use to keep themselves saddled with a monthly mortgage on their personal residence.
The thing is, most people don’t use the deduction because only a fraction of Americans actually take itemized deductions on their federal income tax returns.
To illustrate how the deduction supposedly works (please correct me if I am wrong), let’s say you make $68,000 per year and have made enough charitable gifts, etc. to justify itemizing the deductions on your income tax return, as opposed to taking the standard deduction. In addition, assume a monthly mortgage payment of about $650 (a figure which is below the national average, according to the National Association of Realtors) on a $120,000 30-year loan at 5% interest. This would be the case if you purchased a house for $150,000 and put 20% down.
With these assumptions, according to the calculator I used, first year interest payments would be just shy of $6000, with total monthly payments being just north of $7700 per year. The tax deduction would be right around $1750 the first year, according to the calculator, with an average over the life of the loan of approximately $1100. (Bear in mind this is quick and dirty math and the actual figures may vary.)
If I had a mortgage and enough deductions to itemize and take the mortgage deduction, I would definitely take it. It is a no-brainer not to.
However, if I were mortgage-free and considering one, I think in the short run I would rather pay less in rent than what the mortgage payment would be, save the difference, and let the property management company take the hit on maintenance and the owner on property taxes, saving those costs as well, and take the standard deduction until in a position where I could put a nice down payment on a home (by “nice” I mean non-conventional, e.g., 20%+ — think outside the box and challenge yourself!).
But that is me and assumes the standard deduction would be more than any itemized deductions. If it looked like I would not be in a position to make that down payment in five years or so, I would take the mortgage and pay it off as quickly as possible. Clear as mud?
As you can see, I don’t think I would use the deduction alone as justification to get a home loan, there would need to be other factors present, such as the expected length of time of saving, and whether we were planning on staying in one place for more than two or three years to allow equity to build.
Adding to the hesitancy to use the deduction as the only deciding factor for getting a loan is the possibility that the same could be repealed as a cost-savings measure to reduce the deficit. I doubt the repeal would ever happen, and there would be immense political fallout if it were, nonetheless there would have to be more than just the deduction benefit to justify taking out a mortgage just the same.
That said, you will definitely want to talk to your tax professional to see what the tax benefit would be in your case, as there can be more that goes into figuring the deduction than just rate, loan value, interest payment, etc., (e.g., points paid to lower the interest rate, loan origination fees, and other closing costs).
Jesse Paine is a licensed attorney who owns his own law firm. He’s married to Crystal and is the numbers nerd of the MoneySavingMom.com team! If you have a question you’d like him to answer in a future column, you can submit it here.
The content of this column intended for informational use only and is not to be construed as providing legal, investing, accounting, or other professional advice. Your situation is factually specific and you should accordingly seek qualified professional counsel concerning your specific legal, investing or accounting needs.