How can we save money (50 grand/at least 40) to use as the downpayment on our future house?

Many of you have responded to my past questions (thank you). Here is our story: We own a condo (4 years ago bought it on a HUD loan). At first we were considering renting it, but have now decided we need to sell it. We want to buy a large home (for our growing family/t-shirt business/investment). The lenders are asking for 10% down when we went for our pre-qual. We don't have it. We both have retirement account and just started another investment, but right now we don't have it. Many of you suggested saving money, from those of you who have financial expertise, what moves do you think we should make to save the most (we need 40,000 prob minimum) in the least amout of time. In this market our condo isn't really an assest and once we sell our condo, we owe the government some of that money (on a side note). I think we are making smart moves, but maybe we could be making even smarter moves. My fear is that we will miss the opportunity to buy a house that will fit our family's needs.

Public Comments

1. Invest in a whole lot of lotery tickets!
2. Reduce all discretionary expenses & get additional income (second/third jobs).
3. You need to make a list of all your expenses and eliminate any unnecessary ones, and work to make as much cash as you can. Good Luck
4. Where are you located? If you're in California, most places don't require you to put down a 10% down payment, mainly because that would be $40-60k - and who has that sort of cash laying around? As a result, many banks will let you get away with a much lower down payment - even NO down payment. See if you can find a different bank, just be careful about the terms of the loan - especially if it's an ARM. If you really do need $40-50k, it is possible to borrow against your 401k account. You will have to pay yourself back with interest (I think the rate is around 7% right now) and there may be additional terms such as if you end up leaving the company. Otherwise, many people get loans from their parents or family members. Another thing you MIGHT want to consider is trying to take out a business loan for the down payment. Since you say you need the house to also help grow your business, a bank might agree to give you the $40-50k for this purpose. It doesn't even have the same bank. Other than that, just basic budgeting is the only real way to determine where you can save money by cutting extraneous expenses, and sock that money away. You may want to consider CDs as well since they have higher interest rates than just a savings account.
5. Take out your bills and figure out where you can make changes. You can save alot of money by making painless changes. I recently called our cable company, and although I was told that only new customers could obtain some of the great packages they were offering, I finally got a supervisor to relent because I have been a good customer for years. Do you still need that big cable package? Can you change phone providers? Ask your cell phone carrier for a better deal or you are going to find a better carrier. Be more frugal about groceries and other regular expenses, avoid eating out. Cancel subscriptions to things you don't need. Then there are big obvious ones. I drive a nice car, but it is not new, and I don't need a new one. Can you scale back on your vehicles? Have you checked your insurance policies to see if there are changes you can make there? Having your policies under one roof can get you dig discounts. Find out where your money is going and plug the holes. Just cutting out going to the coffee hut every morning and packing your lunch rather than grabbing something out can save you a bundle.
6. Here are some good tips for you... http://www.ehow.com/how_2243696_save-money.html http://www.ehow.com/how_2250237_save-water.html http://www.ehow.com/how_2244797_retire-early.html Good Luck to you!