OMG They accepted?!

Yes, we made an offer on that house and the sellers have said yes to everything except one part, so we'll send in a revised offer tomorrow and should be good to go. The house was listed for $128,900 and our offer was $120,000 with a $1200 repair fund, home warranty (up to $450), and a $1200 appliance package that they had advertised. Basically we get everything except their appliance package, which is fine b/c we already have a washer & dryer bought slightly used for $300 together and my mom has offered to buy us our fridge. Also DH's dad has bought us a lawnmower, weed-eater, and blower with part of DH's child support payments (ie his mom is still paying his dad and DH is almost 26. Sad, sad finances there.) Anyway, looks like all we'll need is some kind of window coverings and a moving van. Our closing date is set for May 23, so it looks like we'll get to spend Memorial Day weekend in our new house =)

I'm really kinda stunned about it. It's hard to believe that it's been so easy this time. Let's hope it stays easy with the inspection and finances.

Small saving update

I'm ashamed to say that the only money we have saved right now is about $500. But I'm basing my slowly-moving-ahead-house-decision on the fact that May is a 3 paycheck month for both of us and we're going to be getting the $1800 stimulus package soon. Plus whatever we can save from our regular paychecks.

Really, for the house, I'm hoping we can get them to pay closing costs and give us their $1200 appliance package money (which will be getting used on breaking our lease). So if they pay closing costs, even half or a little more, we really won't need all that much money to cover the rest and moving expenses.

And we don't have to sign anything if we can't do it. I know we can make the monthly payments, it's not going to be something we're going to have to stretch to afford. It's just the getting into the house which is the biggest issue.

Moving forward..

We're slowly moving forward on the house. We went and viewed the inside yesterday, the inside is absolutely gorgeous! There are of course a few issues, it's missing a bathroom door, and they need to install a new closet door (the new one is sitting in the garage so no expense there) because the one that's hanging now has a hole in it. But outside door frame on the back door is really torn up.. the wood they used just wasn't the right one or it wasn't flat or something.. anyway it definitely needs to be fixed. And there's one shingle on the front that is bent up and broken on one side, so there's another small fix (i think)... So far we need to pick out an inspector and i suppose we'll see if there's anything else wrong with it.
Besides that, we're saving as much as possible and our families have offered to help with different things. My mom has offered to buy us a new fridge, my husband's dad also offered to help (probably with the lawn mower) and DH's grandma is going to contribute $500 for a washer/dryer... which we actually will be getting a slightly used set for $300 from a lady who is moving into an assisted living home. So it looks like we'll be all set for our appliances... My mom has also offered to help with some closing costs so that we can go ahead and get into this house sooner. At first I was really leary of doing this, but she told me that out of my two brothers and me, she has helped me the least, and she wants to do this, so I'm not gonna deny her this (especially since I know it's true!!!)

House hunt update

Well, we went house hunting Friday, yesterday, and today. Whew... luckily we have our new Prius so it's not AS much gas as it would have been. But anyways, we saw a lot of houses, plenty of trashy ones, some really nice (out of our league) ones, and then today we found a really nice subdivision that is actually one where the builder went bust and now the banks and real estate companies are trying to unload the houses for a good price. They are brand spanking new and we can get a 4 bedroom 2 bath listed for $128,900... That's crazy! WOOHOO! lol I mean, they're still selling older 3 bedroom homes in bad neighborhoods for well over that. If we buy anytime soon, it will probably be in this subdivision.

Here's a pic of the front of the house we like, in the neighborhood I won't mention =D

Credit accepted!

We went by the bank yesterday since we both took a vacation day from work, and we are pre-approved for 150k... Of course we don't plan on going anywhere near that. I'm thinking more like 130k at the most.

Also, another plus is we found that my husband's credit is better than we thought. With a average between the 3 scores being 712! Not great, but "above average." I'll take it! Of course mine's a little lower, I don't have much credit history being younger, but my average is around 690... boooo! lol

Anyways, we have around 4 months till our apartment lease is up, we may find a house, or we may not. I haven't decided if it's too soon or not. But I do know that we are saving as much money as we can right now. I transferred $350 last night to savings, so that's a good start. Hopefully I can convince my husband to work a few hours of overtime so we can bump this savings up quickly. And of course, I'm not just gonna sit around doing nothing =), I'll also be trying to squeeze in some extra hours and maybe try to help out some family for some cash =P

Dreaming of houses and perfume... odd mix

I love that picture.

To sum up everything that's going on, I think my DH and I will be sticking to the minimum payments on the credit cards and new car, as we start building up some savings for a downpayment. The credit cards will still get paid off, it won't be as soon as I'd like, but it will be done. I don't plan on using them unless I'm out of all other options, and hopefully we can do better at saving then we have been. I think our main goal is to be able to buy a house by next year around this same time.

On another tangent, this Saturday is my DH's and my 5 year anniversary. He's been doing some planning, and as far as I know we're just going to dinner together.. But he could surprise me. I guess I'll have to wait and see ;-D Really, I'd love some of my favorite purfume Hanae Mori Butterfly... I've been out of everything (even other cheap stuff) for about 2 months and I just really like wearing perfume. It makes me feel pretty =D lol Anyway, maybe he'll read this *HINT HINT* lol j/k

Anyways, what do you guys think about the house thing? Think I'm crazy for putting off my debt elimination in order to take out a massive loan!? (compared to what I currently have it feels massive) Really, for this area, we could get in a really nice, new home for around 130-140k... *sigh* now I'm dreaming again lol

Job Update

OMG I'm so happy right now!!! Just yesterday I received a promotion with a raise!!!! GO ME! lol I'm moving from 11.13/hr ($23150.40 each year w/o any OT) to 12.20/ hr ($25376/year w/o any OT). And actually this is only like part 1 of my promotion... I've finished my main training part, but since with the economy my new boss hasn't been able to get the new position added yet, so I'm still going to be doing my old job in the mornings w/ my new job in the afternoon. After they get my new job added, they will backfill my old job and I will be moved to doing the new job all the time and changed to salary w/ another raise hopefully! Anyways, that should help out a little and I should be happier when I go to work now! =D And I'm hopeful that upper management feels like being generous soon lol

Coming out of hiding.... confessions

Hey all, I guess I've been hiding for the past few weeks... mainly because I don't want to have to tell you all what stupid things we've done to our finances. To tell you the truth though, I still don't know whether it's a good or bad thing so I guess that's up to personal opinion now. Here goes.. We traded in our 2 2005 year cars for 1 car: an '08 Toyota Prius. The thing is now instead of having one of our old cars paid off in 2010 at the latest (minimum payments) and the other in 2011 at the latest; the new car will be paid off in 2013 (doing the min payments). Plus with the new car we owe more than we owed on the other 2 cars. But the thing is, both my husband and I work at the same employer and we hardly ever used his car... so it was just sitting in front of the apartment for no reason. What I had originally wanted to do was to just sell his car (the granny mobile) and keep mine (reasonably attractive =D) But apparently my husband didn't want to do that... so before I know if here I am signing papers to buy a stinking new car. It's like a love/hate relationship with it now. I love how it looks and that it will potentially save on gas & maintenance (oil changes every 5000 miles), but we now owe more in total than we ever have. I will have to update the true total when we get all of our paperwork. But anyways, besides being CRAZY busy with work, school, and family, I know I've been hiding from telling everyone that. Right now I feel like from our own choices we're moving 1 step forward and 5 steps back (at least) lol