Ugh. This month's Discovercard bill is gonna suck. Not only does it have many of the hotel charges for our drive to Texas, it also has all the shopping trips to Target and Ikea to set up our place. And it also has our new car insurance payment, since we had to switch over to Texas liability limits, etc. And... it also has the charges for the plane fare for our trip to Las Vegas for our upcoming first wedding anniversary. Urgh.

We're trying to keep our spending as low as possible, but that's just hard to do. I found out it costs more money to set up utilities because of deposits and initialization fees and whatnot. Just more money being hemorrhaged out of our house-buying fund. :(

I'm most likely being paranoid. After all, part of moving here meant a $2 an hour raise for me, and cheaper medical insurance since I can get my own. (It's true, it costs more for Whateley to insure himself and a spouse, than for us to each get our own insurance. I'm not sure how normal that is.) But I'm thinking due to an increased cost of living (since we're living on our own and not sharing an apartment with roommates), all that will even out. At least for the moment.

Sigh. My parents were paying for my car insurance until recently when we obtained our own coverage in Texas. (Long and faithful readers, or just friends and family in general, will remember my really bad accident on August of 2005 made my insurance go through the roof.) Anyway, since Whateley's the primary driver now, my car insurance has gotten much cheaper. My mom offered to send money to help pay for it, but I asked her to send money when we're ready to buy a house instead.

But that's another thing! Most books and websites say you have to have 20% in down payment if you want to get a decent rate. But 20% of a $200,000 house is $40k! I mean, we could go cheaper by moving away from the heart of Austin, possibly even to a nearby county or suburb. But Austin's so small already, it doesn't seem necessary. I am amazed by the housing prices here though. I see listings for homes that are $120,000 that could easily fetch $600,000 in Orange County. I know there are ways to spend less on a down payment, but I haven't gone past skimming the first chapter of Home-Buying for Dummies yet.

What's funny is that Austin is Texas's most expensive real-estate, although I hear parts of Dallas are really pricey. Which makes me wonder how cheap it is to buy a house in a podunk town. But then, why would I want to live in a podunk town? It was a small victory when I realized there were Asian markets in Austin, and we found one place that sells boba with barley.

Anyway, I'm sure this drama with house-buying will continue throughout the coming year. At least for the next 6 months, we'll be in our little apartment (which is very nice, btw! pictures to come as soon as I find the usb cable for our camera). If anyone wants to come visit, you can sleep on our nice couch from Ikea!

Please come visit?