Budget... Looking to build home

[oldienewbie]

Dh 39
Myself 35

$550 (inc emp match) to our 401k... Balance is roughly 90k...

Savings $375 monthly

Christmas club $125

Cars are paid for (2010 odyssey 09 Tacoma)

After all the Above is deducted we take home $4700

New mortgage we think we can afford $1300 includes taxes and insurance (we are building a new construction)

Childcare $270

Car ins $100

Trash pick up $18

Cells $200 (2 phones 1 iPad)

DD cheer/dance $180

Cable/internet $160

Electric $185 EPP (this is high for our size home or house is not insulated well at all) unsure what new home would be since it's 500 sq ft bigger

Natural gas $82 EPP unsure of new bill when we move)

Total "bills" $2500 plus living expenses that vary

Grocerys $500 all groceries, paper products etc..
Gas $320
Eating out $320
Ind fun money $320 ($40 a wk each..$160 month)

Leftover for entertainment and random expenses $500-550

What am I missing? How does this look? We are so use to saving saving saving to build and I'm so over that!!! I'm ready to be able to live comfortably again! Did I allow enough fun money? This would be for clothing ric.. We have 2 kids 8 and 5. Feedback please

[dragon's breath]

Do you pay water/sewer (or will you be on well and septic?)
Car maintenance/repairs (oil changes, tires, etc)
Life insurance? (if you don't have it, might look into term now that you'll be adding a mortgage)


I moved to a house twice the size of my old one, just a few blocks away, but natural gas and electricity expenses went down because the bigger house has much better insulation. Hopefully you have the same experience.

[krisim]

What is your current rent/mortgage payment? Maybe I missed it!

We are building a new home too and are just finalizing our numbers as well. We plan to keep the mortgage less than 25% of our net pay, though I've read in places that the recommendation is 25% of your gross pay. I don't want to be house poor and want to have cash on hand to decorate our new place!

[oldienewbie]

E-fund after build 12k

Insurance life ins is taken out of paycheck pretax.


Current mortgage is $850 inc taxes and ins... We are also setting aside at least $1000 a month to building home account.
... This month it was $1200 a few months ago it was $1500 just depends on how much of our entertainment/ind/fun/gas $ we have left at need of month. Anything over $1000 goes to house fund

[AAM2012]

I think you would be fine but it may be tight for a bit. I would really recommend buckling down now to get a higher efund because you'll have moving costs, decorating costs, costs you don't even realize you need (i.e. trash cans, yard equipment, etc).

[imojoebunny]

I don't think it is ridiculous, but I would not do it, unless you feel that you will make more in the future. What happens if you end up with a car payment? You end up with 0 in entertainment, and even new houses need stuff. Our energy bills did drop significantly, moving from 1930's house to brand new house, but our taxes more than offset that savings, by a huge amount, more than double, since we could not contest the value. I have also found, here at least, that you pay a premium for new construction. We knew that, and were willing to eat it because we have rehabbed a number of houses, but from a MM prospective, it can be rough, unless this is your forever home, and you are willing to live with the finishes forever.

[oldienewbie]

To answer a few questions

We have a combined 90k in our 401k but DH works for the state and also has a pension plan that I did not mention.

Not sure why car ins is so low i am assuming it's our location. We have full coverage on both vehicles.

Childcare is $270... Our kids are school age so we only pay for after school care.

The $500 left every month is what we would use for meds, dr co pays, clothing.

We also get roughly $4500 back in tax refunds every yr ( I know some disagree with this) we usually use that towards vacations or have used it for kids daycare when they were younger. DH and I have discussed changing our withholding to increase our monthly take home but it is really nice knowing we have 4k coming to us in April each yr.

We do own a home now so we have all the big items lawn mower etc that come with owning a home. I have already factored in the increase in taxes and insurance within the $1300 mortgage. $1300 would be our max. I "think" we will qualify for much more but that's our top folate monthly we are willing to pay. We would like to keep it around $1200.

Our combined pre tax income is $97-98k plus DH usually gets some overtime (maybe 2-3k per yr) but we are not factoring that in with the budget.
As far as a car payment...our plan is to get me a newer vehicle once kids are old enough to stay home after school alone in about 3 years DS is in 3rd grade... DH doesn't drive his truck but on the weekends bc he has a company vehicle. His 09 Tacoma only has about 40-50k miles on it.

[krisim]

It sounds like you'll probably be fine, but it might be tight. We when bought our first home, we made about what you do and our mortgage payment was $1400/month. We had $15,000 in our emergency fund after closing on the house. It was our first home and we had a lot of expenses for the first several years since we moved from a 2 bedroom apartment to a 5 bedroom home. It was stressful furnishing the house and taking care of the yard, especially after we had kids and had to pay for daycare (which you don't have) but our salaries did increase over the years so that we had a fair amount of discretionary money monthly before we sold this past year.

[illgetthere]

What about childcare over the summer and christmas?

[pantsparty]

Will you be taking all of your furniture? Are you building on your own, or in a tract neighborhood? Our house did not come with backyard landscaping, and it was a requirement that be finished within a year of moving in.