<prompt> Human: My wife and I just had an offer accepted on a home after a long search. After everything goes through, well be left with very little in our bank accounts compared to where we are now and of course will have an increase in utility bills, etc. We both work full-time and other expenses include my student loans, car paymentinsurance, internet, commuting costs, and then some misc. spending though were fairly thrifty. What are your best bits of advice tips in terms of saving money as it pertains to owning a home? On top of that, for first-time homeowners who became parents soon after, how did you prepare financially for a childchildren after buying your home? Assistant: Dont skimp on the inspections. My inspector found a bunch of electrical stuff that was reasonable to ask the seller to pay for. You may want a pest and dry-rot inspection in addition to the normal possibly required home inspection.If youre going to ask the seller to fix things, it might be better to ask for the cash they can pay part or your closing costs or something too than to ask them to fix it. If the seller has to fix stuff, they will hire the shittiestcheapest labor and will have a bunch of discretion how its fixed. If you have the cash, you get to decide who and how the repair is made. I made this mistake with aforementioned electrical work that needed to be done and ended up spending a few weekends rewiring stuff myself and eventually paying for a quick visit from an electrician. The risk with this approach, though, is that if you dont estimate the cost of repair correctly, you could end up worse off.Human: I do have a home inspection scheduled for next week. The market is so competitive right now that most people actually waive the inspection contingency, but I am not brave enough for that!  <response>: You mean not stupid enough 