Income
$2650 (me)
$2000 (fiance)
$550 (renter)
$400+ (part-time jobs)
Total - $5600

Expenses
$1314 (mortgage)
$250 (prop. taxes)
$36 (HOA dues)
$40 (home ins.)
$300 (car ins.)
$245.03 (car payment)
$150 (ROTH me)
$150 (ROTH fiance)
$175 (fuel)
$250 (utilities)
$250 (dog food, groceries, paper)
$200 (vet, clothes, car repairs)
$100 (my allowance)
$100 (fiance allowance)
$40 (co-pays)
$75 (fiance loan)
$19 (netflix)
$50 (float, household items)
$1855.97 (savings)

Fiance's car loan is at 5.99% with a balance of $12070. His personal loan is at 10.99% with a balance of 3.7K. We will be making payments of about $200 to the principal of the car loan/mo. until Jan. 2010. So his balance should be around 11K by the end of the year. We will then be sending as much as we can to the car loan each month. We also intend to send 7K of the 8K first time homebuyer's credit to his car loan. We expect to have this paid off in March of 2010 to free up that $250/mo. We should be able to pay off his personal loan by June 2010. And then we will start maxing our ROTHs in July! We should have 10K in retirement accounts by the end of 2010 and over 20K in savings! We will be looking for a renter in January 2010 to rent out our extra bedroom. We will also be getting part time jobs to help supplement our savings and just to break up our weeks. Fiance spends so many hours on video games and I work a VERY stressful accounting job so it would be good for both of us to have something enjoyable and to be able to feel un-responsible for a few hours of each week!

So even if we don't find a renter or even get part-time jobs, We will still have about 1K surplus every month. We will also begin making wedding plans after we move into our home. We will be getting married in August or September of 2010. we will be going CHEAP. i actually asked fiance if he wouldn't mind going to the courthouse LOL. our families will both be contributing towards our wedding which I expect to cost us nothing. We will probably end up paying for the majority of the honeymoon but that's okay with me! We are trying to figure out where to go ... Neither of us have taken a vacation in five or more years which is unheard of for our group of peers. So we are thinking about splurging a bit (barring unforeseen circumstances) and going somewhere like Paris, Fiji, etc. There is so much to do over this next year!

I have been gone for far to long but I have been keeping up with everyone's blogs. Too much has happened since my last post. My boyfriend proposed to me on July 4th and of course I said yes! We have also taken the leap into homeownership. We made an executive decision to buy through Quadrant Homes (they build highly-known developments in the Pacific Northwest). They have lowered their prices by 25K, offered us 10K towards closing costs, and we will also (almost positively) close in time to receive the 8K credit. Not to mention my real estate agent was just able to negotiate another 2K from them to use towards our dream refrigerator in the showroom. We have financed at zero down, no PMI, and locked our rate in at 5.375%.

We bought at zero down because we feel ready for homeownership, have the financial flexibility to afford a mortgage, and seriously, who can pass up 45K? They have just poured our foundation and we should be in before Thanksgiving. They have an extremely rigid process of building these homes (exactly 54 business days).

I was talking to one of my colleagues about a month ago and she said that she and her husband went into debt about 15K with each house they bought. I was incredulous. We have basically all of our furniture. We will be buying a 3 y/o used washer and dryer for $200 from my boss' family. We will need to build a fence but fiance does contracting for a living so that will be cheap. the only major thing we really need is a sectional. seriously. the little loveseat thing we have smells like pee, beer, and other bodily fluids. it used to reside in fiance's bachelor house so that HAS TO GO. it is gross. our families will be helping us out with gift cards, etc. to help defray the costs of getting our home up and running.

I have been without health insurance for a couple of months now. I work for a VERY small employer who can't offer health insurance due to the way it would have to be set up. Basically we would have to insure her daughter who incurs half a million dollars in medical bills every year which would increase all of our premiums to around 2K/mo. I'll pass So my employer gave me my raise a few months early which completely covers my premiums for dental, vision, and health. it also leaves me about $8/mo. So now I am making almost 40K. pretty good if you ask me! I am very, very thankful.

Since paying off my car in April I have been diligently working to increase our emergency fund before our first mortgage payment (early January). It is up to 6.5K and we are currently adding 2K/mo. so we should have close to 14K come end of year. I'm going to make a separate post for our projected budget and I would love for some of you to look it over and let me know if it looks realistic.

Glad to be back! I'm hoping to post on a more regular basis now that we are going to be going through ALOT of changes and upheavals!