616 W 33rd St

On Saturday June 27th, 2009 the seller agreed on our offer on a house! We settle on July 31st and didn't expect all this stress over getting stuff together. Along with this and the bartender for our wedding reception, a lot of unwanted stress started. I'm excited to move into our place and can do it over the course of August. I submitted our 60 day notice to move out of Falls Village Apts.

We have several things to take care of before moving in:

• Replace toilet


• Redo the floor with tile


• paint the tub


• maybe rebuff the floors


• maybe paint some of the rooms

We also created a list of stuff to do by the end of the year and the end of 2010. The house we purchased is in Hampden and not a lot needs to be done but I want to finish the basement into a chill room and add a .5 bathroom. There is a toilet but its enclosed in an outhouse like wall. Our goal was to save $20,000 for downpayment however, we don't have that yet. We are putting around $8,500 down at settlement for downpayment and closing costs. The seller agreed to give us $10,000, so if you look at it that way we are putting $18,500 down towards things. Depending on how much money we receive from our wedding we may put some of it towards the principal on the mortgage.

Today we also combined car insurance accounts and will end of saving $45/month. Once we get married it will be even more, and we also think we are taking out home insurance through them so we will be saving 20% more on the car insurance. Any savings toward monthly expenses will do now as our monthly payment for mortgage, taxes, home insurance, mortgage insurance will be around $1750, probably less but not much more less. After the first year that will go down greatly because of our supposed tax credits for property tax. Also, once we have paid down 20% of the mortgage which will be in a long time, we won't have to pay for MPI. There are a lot of new things coming up every day but I will be glad once it is over on July 31st. Biggest things until closing are house/pest/radon inspection this Thursday and then getting our mortgage next Tuesday, after that hopefully it is smooth sailing until closing.

Finances will be tighter for the first few months to get used to it, and probably all the additional costs for furnishing the house but we have taken the approach of making sure we have the cash before making the purchases. The most convenient thing is that we are getting married a week after we close, so hopefully we will get some money for that to use for house furnishings.

Ready to Run

I'm in the last week of training for the Broad St run and the only thing I have to do is run the race. I'm very confident i'll be able to run the 10 miles in 90 minutes. Only concern is the crowd slowing down the pace to start off. I've had to shift around runs due to being sick and painful blisters but I ran the 8 miler in 95 degree weather and it was brutal, but i made it. I've prepared myself to cope with the blisters with moleskin on the hotspots. My concern beginning this was re-injuring my ankle, but things seem to be holding up, knock on wood. I have one 2 mile run to go then Sunday is the race. As for the Baltimore marathon, Ali and I have decided to train for the half-marathon. Marathon training is a big time suck, and we do not have the time to spare this summer with wedding planning. I think once we complete the Broad St Run, training for the half-marathon will be the same. It's extended by a few weeks and a few miles but nothing I cannot handle. I think the plan is to train for a full marathon in the spring of 2010.

Over the past month we checked off a few things we had planned to do. We combined back accounts so now we have a joint savings and checking account. This will make budgeting much easier since it will be all in one. We have been open thus far with our finances, and from what I reading is the key to a successful future. We also purchased our wedding rings as well as plane tickets to Brasil. I'm taking care of the expenses for the rings and plane tickets so I probably won't be able to contribute to the savings until June. I had to withdraw $1,500 to cover the plane tickets and plan on using what I could save in May for the rings which were a little over $600. I know we won't be able to save the $20,000 without being reliant on the wedding money. Fingers crossed we get enough as well as I should be getting a 6-month review sometime in May/June timeframe.

A few weeks ago we received a "good faith estimate" for a mortgage loan. GFE is the term referred to a HSA loan. Our broker used $200,000 as the estimate and we definitely qualify for everything. We could purchase a home now with 3% down, but we are still planning on putting down 10%. As for where, it's constantly changing but I think it is between: Hampden, Woodberry, Upper Fells/Butcher's Hill area. We were throwing around Balt Co vs Balt City but I think we are going with the city. Even though taxes are more, and houses will be smaller its a good first home. I think it will be good to cut down on utilities as well as outdoor maintenance. I also want to live in the city and enjoy walking to restaurants, bars, grocery stores, etc.

Broad St Run 2009

Last night I decided that I will begin training for the Broad St run in Philly. The race is first weekend of May and is 10 miles. I found a workout that suggested a 10 week workout but we are already halfway through week 3 so I have cut it short to be 8. I mapped all my routes to get up to 8 miles and ran a small run today of 3.5. I have found when it comes to running races, I've procrastinated so this one I just said f'it. It should be fun and it has added motivation to my normal workouts. I find I do better when I work towards goals. I did have a goal of getting to 185 lbs but I have to admit I haven't been staying on top of it as much as I want. I see this easing my way to the ideal weight. I also plan on running the full marathon in October in Bmore. I previously said half marathon but I think if I'm going to train I'm going to take the time to prepare for a full marathon. The only thing that may be problem is doing all this training in the summer, I don't want to wake up early to do my training, but it may come to that.

Good Year Thus Far

Well 2009 has started off well for me and my savings/debt elimination. A lot of this can be attributed to bonuses, tax returns, and continuing to reduce costs. Ali and both received bonuses, tax returns ~$700, and I have saved at least $500 of Jan and Feb takehome pay. We discussed if it is feasible to stay on track for having enough money to fund a downpayment at the end of the year, and there are two dependencies that we aren't relying on but hoping to come through. The end of this summer we plan on doing more research and getting pre-approved for a mortgage. But we assume/hope that we will be receving a good amount of money from our wedding in August. We may delay a home purchase for the reason of affording to take the Brasil vacation at the beginning of 2010. The feds are making it more appealing to purchase by the end of 2009 because of the new tax credit just passed through the stimulus bill. I assume we will continue seeing our economy in turmoil throughout this year, but I'm thankful for having a stable job, emergency fund jsut in case of loss of employment, and a good plan to continue to eliminate my debt and continue saving.