So I have been mulling over my goals for the year ahead and I think I have my first rough draft ...

1) Pay of DF's car with the first time homebuyer's tax credit.
2) Pay off furniture (new mattress and sectional) before interest starts to accrue (around June) and I expect this amount to be about 4K.
3) Save 2K for our wedding - I don't expect our portion to be much more than this.
4) Add an additional 5K to our emergency fund for a balance of 20K.
5) Send 1.5K to our car fund - DF's car will need tires and a clutch before the end of the year.
6) Send 1.2K for home maintenance for various projects - we would like to put tile into our master bath or start a deck.
7) Set aside about 1.6K for either a small honeymoon or a blow money fund.
8) 6.8K to our Roth's between both of our accounts.

This may be edited over the remainder of 2009 but here is my list so far! Happy Monday!

So DF and I get to see our house tomorrow *happy dance*! It should basically be finished - they just have landscaping left to do. I'm so excited to see everything! The carpets! The appliances! And I'm soooo excited to see my fridge! What 21yo gets excited about a fridge?!

We went to look at furniture on Saturday and put a tempur-pedic bed and a sectional on hold at Macy's. We will be financing it via a six month same as cash promotion but we need to wait until closing so as not to interfere with our home financing. After, delivery and tax the total will come to about 4.5K. More than I wanted to spend but doable.

I've also been nibbling away at Christmas. I got my dad some new moccassin slippers for $5.46 at Kohl's. He loves his old ones but the soles are wearing thru. I will also be getting him 6 months of that blockbuster dealio that is similar to netflix. I got my sister some lancome makeup which will be coming with NINE free samples! She will also be getting an oil heater thing and a couple of oils to help her dorm room smell better LOL. Got the MIL and FIL a couple of candles. I want to get them a bottle of wine and a movie to. Total spending thus far - about $150. Still need to snag my brother and iTunes gift card and some nice noise blocking headphones. My mom and I agreed to not exchange gifts this year but I will be taking her out to a nice dinner for her birthday on the 22nd. And DF and I have agreed to keep it small at $100 each for things like candy, CDs, movies, etc. DF will take care of buying his little brother something for his birthday and Christmas. We will be in Palm Springs for the holidays and will be spending time with DF's grandparents. I'm wondering what a nice token gift would be to give them for hosting us. Any thoughts?

It's almost that time to get goals for the new year down in writing ... I'll be working on that - ta ta for now!

Yesterday was a helluva day. Warning - kinda sad and ranty.

My mom called me around 10AM at work and said she was taking her dog in to get a c-section and it was at 11:15 if I wanted to watch. She just went through a c-section with another dog and when the momma dog came to she tried to bite the pups and wouldn't let them nurse. My mom bottle fed them but they both passed away after four days. This was just a week or so ago so she was pretty shaken up. I went for moral support and also because I have welped about 15 litters with her. So she was told that there were probably 4, maybe 5, pups in her dog. After 5 came out she said 'this must be it' and the vet said 'nope - there are at least that many more to come!' and our jaws dropped LOL. She ended up having 10 pups. One had a cleft palate and ended up passing soon after birth (I have never had to watch a puppy take its last breaths, VERY sad) and another was VERY premie (like 7 oz. and for a german shepherd pup that is TINY). He freaked us out for about a half hour but is now fighting like hell and holding his own. Our breeder said that she has never had that small of a pup make it. So a couple more days will tell. DF and I will be picking out one of the boys - I'm going to watch the premie and see how he grows, that endearing little guy grabbed my heart from the start. So far so good.

I had a skin screening to check out any moles yesterday and everything came out great - apparently I have a 3.5-4% chance of ever developing skin cancer in my lifetime. He said to come back every year or two. Only cost was $30 for a copay and it was well worth it for the peace of mind!

Talked with my boss yesterday as well ... We need to lay someone off because her performance has been VERY lax for months now but my boss is extremely non confrontational. I would be taking over her work and getting that $1200 raise I mentioned before. The boss is going to give her two weeks notice today when she gets in - we will see if that happens. Ha!

Happy hump day!

Feeling a bit pooped today. And worried. I'm a worrier and I hate it! I have no reason to be worried about my job or DF's job security but I still do.

I'll be taking three weekdays off (coinciding w/a weekend for a total of five days) when our house closes and I'll be setting up our 2010 finances. For Jan-June I'm going to have myself and DF setup to invest $150/mo. into Roth IRAs. I already do this (and have close to 3K woot!) but it's time to pull DF onto the retirement train. Starting in July, I want to start putting the max/12 into our Roths (~416/ea.) but I'm wondering if we should leave our auto contributions @ $150/mo. and just add the rest when we can? Ugh, it's the nervousness that's speaking. This whole economy just has me on edge.

We SHOULD have roughly 15K saved as an emergency fund by the end of 2009 and we hope to add another 5K to it throughout 2010. And another 5K in 2011 for a total of 25K and then divert any funds above and beyond the 25K to other various investments. FYI we can easily slash our expenses to about 3.5K/mo. so a 25K efund would be a little over seven months' worth of expenses. This would also be if we BOTH lost our jobs and literally had no income coming in - highly unlikely. We already have $200/mo. set aside in the budget for clothes, vet expenses, and car maintenance. Considering DF's car is a 2004 and mine is a 2008 I don't foresee us needing much in the way of car stuff over the next couple of years. DF will need a new clutch, tires, and brakes sometime in late 2010, and I will probably need tires in 2012/13 or so, so I'm not too worried on that front. Our house is also going to be brand spanking new so other than regular maintenance I don't foresee much outflow on that end.

We should have an overage of roughly 11K next year to put to other various financial goals after fully funding our efund to 20K and putting about 6.8K to our Roths. This will probably be eaten up pretty fast between our wedding, honeymoon, starting a baby fund (no worries, no baby till 2014 if all goes as planned!), car replacement fund, and various house stuff - ie that mattress and sectional I was talking about in the last post

Oh, and did I mention that we should be totally debt free by the end of March 2010!?

Yesterday, DF and I took a tour of our soon to be home and it looks AMAZING! The last few things they have to do are install the carpets, appliances, and fixtures. Then they landscape the front yard and we have a corrections walk-thru to get any nicks, etc. fixed before we move in. Then it's orientation (learn about HOA/warranties/etc.) and escrow! Hopefully we will be closing in the first part of December, woohoo! And we finally got dimensions for the area that we want to put a couch and I am starting to hunt around.

I'm starting to get antsy about savings - I just want to spend, spend, spend right now! I think it may be a combination of seeing such a large number in savings as well as feeling like I need to start nesting - LOL. We are at $10,550 in savings and anticipate getting to about 19-20K by EOY. Just need to stay on the straight and narrow ...

I think I may have just possibly negotiated a $1200/mo. raise bringing my take home pay to around $3800/mo. It would require me to work 10-15 more hours per week but I was going to look for a part time job anyways so this is perfect ... I would start mid-November if this actually pans out, will keep everyone posted!

Oh my goodness life is stressful lately. Between buying a home, planning a wedding, and full-time work, I'm finding it hard to keep my head on straight!

DF and I are supposed to close on our house on 11/30 but we aren't holding our breath because financing is so backed up and the construction crews that are building our home can call non-workdays at any point in time. I'm hoping we are closed by mid-December so that we will have time to paint, move-in, build a fence, etc. because we will be in Palm Springs for the holidays.

But it sounds like the first time home buyers tax credit extension is almost inevitable which is AWESOME. We will likely use most of it to pay off DF's car loan and then the only debt we will have is DF's 2.5K LOC and our mortgage! Wait ... I might take that last statement back about being debt free ... I have a couple questions and would like some opinions - the only couch we have had is almost like a loveseat and it only comfortably fits one person. It was also located in DF's bachelor pad (shared with two other guys) before we moved in together. It smells, it looks terrible, and it isn't comfortable. So I would like to look at buying a sectional for our living room. I will use Craigslist, etc. if possible but I want to make sure that it is a quality piece of furniture. I also want to look at getting a tempur-pedic mattress. DF goes to sleep much later than I do and he always wakes me up. I'm a very light sleeper if I'm on a bad mattress. Add on that DF snores and it makes for a horrible night's sleep and I can't function at work. We bought a sleigh bed from DF's uncle for like $175 but the mattress seems like it is going to suck. It's springy and not supportive. I think I would consider a new mattress as an investment in my health and my job. I would prefer to get both the couch and mattress on one of those no interest for a year blah blah blah plans so that we can keep our money working for us as long as possible.

Time to put my nose back to the grindstone - happy November!