What a crazy time! While all of our expenses have been crazy this summer, rent has been the worst, by far. Dh's rent is 690. My rent is 644. So we are used to paying 1334. However this month, when I return to Florida, I will be moving apartments. So I have to pay 644 lease termination fee and 1050 security deposit on the new apartment.

Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but our other expenses have been crazy AND we haven't been able to deposit my checks from work. So today I'll be going over to another bank to see if I can cash checks and get a cashier's check for the deposit.

So I haven't written in almost a month, mostly because nothing has really been happening on the financial front. We maxed out our 2008 Roth contributions the end of last month, so that was exciting. Unfortunately it left us $300 shy of the highest tier of interest in our savings account. It should be corrected this month though, but I can't stand losing even a little interest!

Our spending/saving has been pretty status quo the last couple of months since DH moved. We aren’t saving as much as we had been because we now have second rent and utility payments, but we aren’t really spending more than we make either.
It seems like the last 2-3 months DH and I have spent around $300 in travel expenses. Not great for our budget, but necessary when you live 1300 miles away from one another. So I was thinking that February would be free from travel expenses. But then DH’s “deployment” to Italy was pushed back a month to the 21st of February. So I was going to fly up there to see him during the 3 day weekend. Well despite being a federal holiday, he was going to have to work a significant portion of the weekend, so it really wouldn’t have worked out. I was pretty bummed that I wasn’t going to be able to see him before he left for ~3 months.

But then the Navy provided! He was able to get on a flight down to Jax on Valentine’s Day! He was only in town 16 hours but it was good to see him!! And, not only did we not have to pay for flights, DH will actually get paid some for coming down here. Last month when he was here for the weekend we got an extra $220. Since it was only 1 night it will probably only be like an extra $50, but hey, it paid for dinner! I love that the Navy will pay DH to come home to visit me.

Now that DH is leaving the country, I’m curious how that will change things financially. We will still have to pay for his rent, but he’s turning off the other utilities, so we shouldn’t have to pay them. Also he will be getting per diem, which is extra pay you get when not at home to pay for living expenses like hotels and food (this is what DH gets when he visits me). Per diem can be significant, but I don’t know how much it is or when/how we will get paid for it. It may be that we don’t see any of it until he comes back home in May.

Recieved $47 from Survey Spot and $40 for tutoring last month which will be added to the challenge.

And in other news the simulators up in Maine are closed so DH is coming to Florida to work...and see me!! He has to work part of Friday and most of the day Saturday, but we have tonight and Sunday to play. Also, since he isn't at home he'll get paid per diem, so we'll also get about $200 for the weekend.

New addition: $87.00
Previous total: $331.92
Total: $418.92

DH and I finally got around to calling the insurance company and telling them our new addresses. We got our new automobile rate quotes and with DH living in Maine, we saved $3!

I also learned that our renters insurance is a global plan so that it covers us wherever we happen to be living. I was sort of hoping there'd be an additional savings there, but hey, at least they didn't decide to raise it since it now will cover 2 households!

Other than that I'm trying to enjoy the last few days up here in Maine with DH and snow. Although I hear Florida is going through its own cold snap!

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!

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!

Well I haven't written in forever. Mostly because pharmacy school had been taking up waaaay too much time, but also because DH and I have been spending money left and right.

We are actually doing ok in terms of actual money available since we both made some extra money this month, but we've spent much more than our normal alotted amount in several categories. Like 2x the amount of gas and 1.5x dining out budget.

We did make a financially responsible decision though. Instead of me flying to Maine and then both of us flying to Oregon, we decided that we were going to just spend Christmas in Maine. My mom might fly out for, but otherwise it will just be the two of us.

Since DH has to put his first and last month for his new apartment, we decided that we are not going to put our extra money toward the car. That shouldn't really affect us, the rate is super low and we don't actually have that much owed on it.

As you may recall DH is moving to Maine next month while I'll be staying in Florida. We'll end up living apart for about a year and a half.

We are currently living in a 2 bedroom apartment that we got for a steal of $800.
In order to save money I'm going to stay in the same complex, but move to a 1 bedroom apartment. So my rent will be about $640. DH just found an apartment in Maine that sounds nice and is in a great spot. The rent is $740/month. So all together our rent will increase from $800 to $1380.

Thankfully almost everything is covered in his rent...even heating since Maine winters can be rough. The only real bills I anticipate him having will be electricity and TV.

I'm starting to freak out a little bit because concrete numbers about how much this year apart will cost us are starting to trickle in. That increase in rent of almost $700 is going to eat up most, if not all, of the money that we had been saving or using to pay off debts.

Thankfully, we know this is coming and can plan ahead some for it. Instead of putting extra towards our car this month, we are going to add to our emergency fund. Moving always results in increased expenses (deposits and purchasing new items), and I'd like to have a little bit more of a cushion available if needed.

Ok, I'll start with the good news. I had orientation for pharmacy school yesterday. It was nice to meet some more of the people in my class and get to know the campus a little better. On Tuesday I have to go to Gainesville where all of the pharmacy students are meeting and we'll learn even more about the program. It was a long and stressful road to get here, but now that it's finally starting I'm excited and looking forward to it. The lectures are all taped in Gainesville and then put online for the satellite campuses. While I still have class requirements on my campus, a great deal of my time is flexible.

Now for the bad news, while we were on our lunch break DH called with his new orders. We were hoping to have him stay in Florida (so we could live together), but it turns out he'll be moving to Maine this November. The worst part of that is that we'll have to live apart for about 18 months, six of which he'll be deployed. The silver lining is that he'll only have to be in Maine for 18 months and not the entire 36 months of his tour since the squadron will be moving to Florida after deployment.

As far as our relationship goes, we're getting pretty good about living apart from one another...this will be our third time. It's never easy, but at least this time we'll be on the same coast and not across the country or across the world for most of it. Also, I'm planning on moving up to Maine during the summer so that's 3 more months we'll get to spend together. Since my classes are flexible, there will be some times where I won't have to be on campus for about a week...guess where I'll be!!

Financially, this makes things very difficult. First of all it means that by the end of the year we will have to be supporting two households! Two rents, two electricity bills, two food bills, two of everything! We were "making" (after expenses) about 1000 a month that was being used to pay off our cars and save. However a second rent will quickly eat through that. So I think it means that we won't be saving as much as we have been and I'll have to take out more student loans that I was expecting. Not fun.

We'll get through it, we have quite a bit in savings and with the deployment, we'll probably only have a year of dual households. In the meantime, we either need to find DH a roommate with a fully stocked kitchen and a TV, or we need to go shopping for a TV, microwave and dishes!