[Red]

reply to the guy living in the basement with his wife.

You wanna buy a house, pay it off and have a nice and unstressful life? Here are a few pointers on how to get there. Things your parents had to do to get their finances in order.

Stay out of the Mall. If you don't see it you don't need it.
Get rid of all your credit cards, just keep one for hotels, car rentals etc. Never use it to buy consumer goods.
Stop spending money in general, pay your bills and save the rest. Set an entertainment budget and live within it.
Stop thinking in "monthly payments". It bugs me when people look at a car to buy and only mention the monthly payment instead of the actual price.

Few other golden rules of life that some people overlook.

You're not saving money when you buy things on sale. Because you're still spending money.
Pay yourself first. Save first, live off of the rest.
A dollar spent = 3 dollars earned. Taxes, living expenses etc, basically, it's a lot easier to earn 1000 than to save it.
A dollar spent on credit today = 5 dollars not earned in the future. Buy on credit today, spend tomorrow's earnings to pay for it thus having less and less disposable income coming in.

And as Cowperson already mentioned, be patient.