Control.....

So, still searching for worthwhile birth control. In other words, nah, not getting the IUD put back in. I have been rummaging about online, looking for a more - flexible, I guess natural family planning method - and I stumbled across the Billings Method. It uses your cervical mucus to track the different points of your cycle. It's rather interesting, as I always noticed differences through the month, and I had already tied some changes to my fertile periods, but it's VERY cool to actually have something that lays it out in detail. I'm digging it - and I especially love the fact that all it requires is tracking. The main reason I always brushed the type of NFP I had heard about off is becuase it requires you to wake up at roughly the same time and take your temps. *snort*  I value my late lazy saturday mornings (okay, okay afternoons!)  way too much for that.
There is even an intereactive online 'learning' session that you can use, where you get to interact with a trainer over the net, and you chart your stuff. Seems pretty sweet and rather simple.

And what's up with opendiary.com?? Did Brucy boy forget to pay the bill?? I snuck in through freeopendiary.com, but dang bruh!!

It's FRIDAY!!!! Yay!!!!! I'm going to bake some bread tonight, and make a starter for sourdough - that should be interesting. And um - there was something else.....the garden doesn't need to be touched....hmm... I'll find something to occupy meself this weekend.

Ah yes!! That's what is was - I'm - puzzled - honestly, by the general tone of the notes that I've gotten around the whole house thing. Is there something that I'm missing? What, exactly, is the downside to saving money before getting the mortgage, thereby reducing the mortgage, thereby reducing the monthly payments, thereby reducing the amount of interest that we'd pay - no matter WHAT the interest rate is? Taking into account of course, that our house's primary purpose will be shelter, and anything else ('investment'/tax break) is simply a nice perk - and we'd buy a house anyway even if those two things were not there. Or, put in another way - why in god's good name would I WANT to get a 0% down mortgage (which tends to come with a higher interest rate, more points, and obviously, a higher monthly payment since it's a bigger loan) rather than actually having a wee bit of patience, and saving money for a downpayment?  I've been turning this over and over in my head, and I can't see a single 'pro' to NOT having a downpayment. *shakes head* Not having a downpayment on a house makes about as much sense to me as those horrid interest-only loans. If you can't actually AFFORD the payments- interest AND principal - it's too much damn house. *shakes head*  Esp. with the bankruptcy laws tightening the noose the way that they are - we want to be living well UNDER our means - it's not only smart, it's safe. 
Can somebody break it down for me?

Edited:

*blinks* Okay. There's no way the monthly payments for a 80K mortgage are going to be the same as the monthly payments for a 110K mortgage...assuming that you have a 30K downpayment. Using a mortgage calculator, I get:
80K @ 5.75 for 15 years = 632.00  per month.
110K @ 5.75 for 15 years = 913.00 per month
That's a 281.00 difference. Assuming that you actually paid the higher amount (913.00) as a monthly payment, you would pay off the loan in 10 years instead of 15.

Using a slightly lower downpayment- assuming the 'usual' 20% is - 22K.
110K @ 5.75 for 15 years = 913.00 per month
88K @ 5.75 for 15 years = 703.00 per month
Which is a 183.00 difference a month - not thousands of dollars difference a month - but it's still a significant savings - and I didn't even take into account the fact that with no downpayment, your monthly payment is actually going to be HIGHER than the base rate of the principal price of the house because of the PMI charges that would be lumped into your mortgage.

Is there an error in my math?

Ah!! Maybe that's what's missing. We aren't talking about saving 5K for a downpayment - Phhft - that's non-significant. We plan on having between 30 and 38K for a downpayment saved - now THAT's going to make a difference....

Also, yeah - once we buy a house, we plan on staying in that house for the rest of our lives - or at least until the mortgage is paid off. The whole 'building equity' thing is - nice and all - but once again - house to us = shelter. The house will NOT be used as an ATM, and if prices go up around us after we buy/rennovate - well, isn't that nice. Still doesn't mean that we would sell, or refi unless you could refi for a lower interest rate. I think I'd rather LIKE living rent/mortgage free - rather how I'm looking forward to finally being free of a car note with great glee. As far as house prices going up by another 100K - it seems like the more expensive the house is, the more you would want to have a big downpayment.

Thanks for talking me through this....