To join the bandwagon I’m going to look back over the past year to see where DH and I have come and try and look forward to where we want to go.

This year DH and I both opened Roth IRA accounts and were able to put the max out the 2007 contributions. We also currently have over $2400 saved for the 2008 contributions.

In January we had nearly $20,700 in car loan debt. Today we completely paid off my car and only have 6100 left on DH’s car. We could have paid off more, but we decided that it is not financially beneficial to pay off his car early as the interest rate is only 3.59%.

Our savings account has nearly $20K more in it than it did last January. At first I thought this was awesome, but then I realized that it’s been artificially inflated. At the beginning of the year we had several savings accounts. In May, we decided to combine them all into the account earning the most interest. So that was nearly 8K of it, and we received 10K of life insurance, and are holding nearly 7K from student loans. So adding all of those together, we’ve actually lost money in savings! Most of the money came from our down payment fund, which won’t be needed for several years. Regardless, the money was put to good use: retirement, paying off debt, and keeping us fed and sheltered.

We only started tracking purchases in August of 2006, so I can’t easily compare 2006’s spending to 2007, but I’m looking forward to seeing how our spending will change from ’07 to ’08.

Looking ahead to 2008 I don’t know what to expect! We are starting out the year with 2 households and if things continue at their present rate we will only be making about $50 more than our expenses. So that will drastically change the progress we are able to make. We also will have to deal with deployment…well, not technically deployment as it will only be for 3 months. In theory DH will be making more money during this time, and as he won’t be at home, his expenses will go down. So that might be a time for us to play catch-up. In December though, he will be deploying for real, and that will have major tax and income implications. Which I’m sure I’ll be learning more about as we get closer to that date.

Our priorities for 2008 are as follows:
1. Max out our 2008 Roth contributions, it goes up to 10,000 for both of us, so we have our work cut out for us.
2. Save for a down payment. We’ll only start putting away for this after we’ve got our Roth maxed as we are still several years away from actually buying a house.
3. Minimize the amount of school loans I have to take out and/or pay off the loans I’ve already taken out.
4. Pay off DH’s car. As I mentioned before this is not really a priority as the rate is so low.

Well there you have it! I’m really impressed with what we have done so far, a little worried about the near future, but really excited to see where we’ll go from here!!

Wow, I don't think DH and I have been here before! Before anyone gets too worried about us, in the back of our minds we knew this was a possibility and we have prepared for it. Despite the fact that we have the money to cover the bill, it's still a scary and uncomfortable place for me to be.

To bring everyone up to speed, DH moved last month for his job (The Navy) whereas I stayed to finish pharmacy school (and no, Grandma, that doesn't mean we are splitting up or going to get a divorce!)

So November we had increased expenses because of the move and rent deposits and the like. However we also got some money from the Navy for the move. So at the end of the month I did my normal draining of the checking account down to our cushion and transferred it all to savings. With the additional money for moving, it was quite a bit, so I thought we would be fine dealing with 2 households.

Now looking a little deeper into our finances, MS Money says we only made $48 dollars last month…including the moving money! I didn't quite realize that everything DH paid for after he moved wouldn't be on the credit card until December! So this month we have moving expenses, plus his utilities, plus Christmas, plus we've been eating out a lot, plus all our normal charges. Needless to say it has added up to a lot.

Thankfully it was the plan that for November and December, that any profit that was made would go into our EF in anticipation that we might spend more than we make while getting the apartments set up. I’m glad we have the money available, I’m just sad, ‘cause it quite literally means we are spending the money that would have been earmarked for retirement. Oh well, we are 25, have already maxed out our 2007 Roth contributions, and already have some money set aside for our 2008 contributions. So despite this set back we are doing well, and will continue to do even better!

It's been forever since I've added anything to my $20 challenge, but since I want to get back in the habit for 2008 I figured it wouldn't hurt to start now!

Using my card at the grocery store I saved $4.12.

New additions: $4.12
Previous total: $1074.76
Total, since 4/15: $1078.88

I can’t believe how long it’s been since I last made an entry. School has been keeping me busy and I haven’t been as diligent about tracking the $20 challenge like I had been. I think in the New Year I’ll start it up again. It’s always fun to see how much I’ve made and how much I’ve saved.

DH has moved up to Maine and his just stuff just arrived today. He was a little overwhelmed with the amount of stuff that he had, particularly since he’s been living without all of it for over a week. With no TV, no internet, no furniture, no nothing, he went a little spend happy. Although he was pretty good and got mostly things he needed. And he rented movies from the grocery store which only cost $1. Much better than the $3ish they charge at Blockbuster! To be fair I also spent about $30 today on household stuff too. Despite this, we still had had a profit last month! Some of the expenses will spill over into December, but I don’t think we’ll have a problem then either.

Financially, we have made some changes in the past month or so:

*We decided not to pay off our car early the interest rate is so low that it isn’t worth it.

*In January we are going to put all money earmarked for our Roth into our Roth accounts. I don’t think we’ll be able to max it, but we should have about half of it. So we’ll keep saving for both 2008 and then maybe the 2009 years.

*We decided to refuse my unsubsidized loan for next term of school. I still have some money from last semester so we were only going to take out the subsidized loan and pay the difference in the cost of tuition. Well last weekend I got a call from the in-laws and they have offered to pay for next semester’s tuition! So that is great. I think we may still take out the subsidized loan as it will basically be a 3 year interest-free loan. We’ll throw it into a CD or something to make some money!