You have $200,000 to spend on a new home: which of these do you buy?

A friend of mine said something at dinner in Civic last week that literally stopped me mid-fork full of lamb ragu.

“You can either have a mortgage or a life.”

It cut me deep because I’d been subconsciously feeling the same way. We haven’t had a holiday this year because we honestly can’t afford it. Not even a night at the coast.

So what if I took my friend’s advice and opted for more world (Batemans Bay) travel and dinners at cool Civic restaurants than being a slave to hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt?

How could I go completely mortgage-free? If I sold my existing three-bedroom townhouse in Queanbeyan, I’d be left with about $200,000 after paying back the the bank.

What’s actually available on Zango that I could buy with that amount of money?

Here are my options:

An old Sunday School near Wagga Wagga

$139,000

According to the listing, this almost perfectly-level 1819sqm block in Yerong Creek, about 40km south of Wagga, enjoys a north/south aspect and “a great position”.

But I can’t decide if what the block comes with is truly awesome or downright terrifying. The old Yerong school house, circa 1892, takes pride of place on the block, complete with peeling paint and the artwork of students gone by in its tiny windows.

The weatherboard schoolhouse was built in 1892 after the previous school (a bark hut) burnt down. It served the children of the village until the 1960s, when a new brick school building was built and the weatherboard building became the local Lutheran Sunday School.

The block is fully fenced and primed to go with services available nearby, with an optional approved DA for further development. I could handle it, but my kids would probably freak.

View the full listing.

A two-bedroom cabin in Tomakin

$75,000

Pros: Close to family and friends in Canberra, feels like I'm on holiday 24/7, easy to keep clean because it’s so small, move in with nothing to do, not a haunted schoolhouse from the 1890s.

Cons: I can only live there half the year (180 days), so would have to spend the remaining six months couch-surfing across Canberra.

View the full listing.

A former church near Kempsey, NSW

$200,000

A move the mid-north coast of NSW actually sounds amazing now that we’ve hit winter here in Canberra. But the only thing I can afford is this former Anglican Church on a 556sqm block at Willawarrin, population 330.

The former St Thomas' looks to be in fantastic condition with timber floors and ornate features. It has power and water connected and is zoned RU5, so I could open a shop, an art gallery or a museum if I wanted to.

It’s close to the general store and petrol station, the local primary school and pub and only a couple of minutes from the beach.

I think this may be the pick of the bunch!

View the full listing.