I paid of my car last Wednesday and my net worth jumped from a couple thousand to 18K!

Hello folks! It's a gorgeous day in WA today, I can't wait to be off work! So you read the title right; I have pulled a little over 6K from savings and I will be paying my car off with that on Wednesday. My savings will be at a paltry $50 or so after that. But by the end of the month I should be able to shovel another $1500 into savings.

Here is my budget for the remainder of the month.

Income :
$1231.43 - Cash already in the bank
$660.00 - BF owes me
$21.00 - BDay money from Gma
$1285.00 - 04/27 paycheck
$6050.00 - $ transferred over from savings

Expenses :
$125.00 - Car insurance
$300.00 - Rent
$90.00 - Utilities
$27.00 - Cable from last month @ apt.
$50.00 - Payment to apt. complex
$913.12 - CC payment in full (gas/food/vet/entertainment)
$6035.00 - Est. car payoff amount
$150.00 - Roth IRA
$1500.00 - Transfer to savings

So you may have noticed a few things on this monthly budget. BF and I moved in with my dad at the beginning of April so that we can pay down debt and save up for a house. We took Bella to the vet to get spayed in March and we also had to pay a month's rent to break our lease early. Because BF was unemployed at the time, I covered those bills. Hence the $660 he owes me. He now has full time work again so he can pay me back this month.

We were also hit with a semi-expected bill this month from our apartment complex, $800 to replace the carpet due to our lovely little puppy going potty before she was potty trained. We negotiated this bill down by about $250.00 and we have set up a payment plan w/the apartment complex.

After I pay off my car and CC this month, I will officially be DEBT FREE! And I will have paid off my 20K car loan more than three years early saving thousands in interest! Now that I have this $1500-$1600 surplus I am unsure what to do with it. I am applying to WSU online program for Fall 2009 to finish up my BA (I have my AA). I estimate the cost to finish my degree to be between 12-15K. I am not sure if I should take out a student loan or pay for school in cash. If I paid for school in cash my savings would be pretty anemic. My degree would be in accounting. I currently make 37K/yr and between savings and retirement, I will be able to save about 20K/yr. A BA in accounting would likely give me a salary boost to around 50K right away. I work at an accounting firm right now and co-own it and at the rate it is growing, my co-owner and I will likely make six figures before we are 30. I'm not counting on it but that would be cool

Anyways, I guess I'm trying to convince myself that taking out a loan for 15K isn't a bad idea. I don't want to get out of school two yrs from now and only have like 5K saved. BF and I will likely be married by then and we will want to buy a house. Disclaimer - please don't tell me that I am too young to put my roots down. I have lived in Seattle my entire life and know that I want to stay here. My family is here, my career is here, everything is here.

I'm also not sure if I should max out my Roth or if I should up my contributions in between what I'm saving now and maxing it out. I'm thinking $300/month which would still give me the ability to save $1300/mo for a house/school/car fund/wedding/etc.

I've just realized this is an extremely long blog LOL. Yay for rambling. Let me know your thoughts on my questions and have a great week!