2 broke kids

Remember that last post about New Beginnings? Yeah well, let me tell you a story about new beginnings.

Backstory: We moved in to these quaint little apartments almost a year ago. At the time, we just desperately needed a place to live to get out of my parents house. It seemed fine. The layout was a bit funky and there are things that we weren't particularly too fond of, but it was a roof over our heads and we had all of our furniture back.
As the months drew on (you guessed it) things began falling apart and breaking. Now, I am not saying these apartments are trashy, because I would never have us live in a trashy area, (I use the letter "I" simply because I AM the one who pays the bills) what I am saying though, is they are outdated and need to be modernized.
OR! We could just move.
We figured, it would be easier to just finish out our lease and just renew it since moving is so expensive. There would be no problem with that has the management not JACKED our rent sky high. HELLO! We live in a 1br/1ba. An old and very outdated 1br/1ba. Not to mention this bath is connected through our bedroom. Talk about awkward when we have people over.

Welcome Back!
Since being hit with the factor of higher rent we have been slowly cutting back our spending. Nothing has ever been too crazy...UNTIL NOW.
We have realized that we are not going to find a descent looking apartment where we live for less than $600/month. In case you haven't realized it yet, we aren't exactly well endowed with the cash flow over here!

We tossed the idea around of becoming homeowners finally. The idea scared the HELL out of me. I don't like being tied down to one thing FOREVER. But then I realized, "um, you are tied to your husband forever." So I decided to quit being a baby and at least educate myself a teensy bit on where to start and how to get a loan. You know, the "adult" things and such. (Did I ever mention I hate being a grown up?)

After doing some homework and calling a few dudes we came to the conclusion that we were really doing this. We were going head first into the abyss and we would be on our own. We would have to figure out how to buy a stove or new A.C and whatever else when something broke. We would be a mature married couple owning their own home and playing out their own fairytale ending. I was going to completely ditch the idea of the Navy and somehow find a career without having to go to college. But instead of looking like this...

   

We ended up here....

 

What have we learned from all of this? Well, there obviously need to be more budget cuts. There is no reason we should be so broke and unhappy at this age. We were just married for pete sake. We have decided to use this new year as a time for new opportunities and changes. Let's start off right by quitting all of our bad habits and going over our finances to figure out our problem. 

Here is what we have changed so far:

Smoking

turning off hot water heater while gone (saves over $20 on your electric bill)

Cut our internet bill down (we realized that we use the internet for more than social media to it is inbetween the need and want catagory)

Use less gas (We aren't driving all over anymore which is sad but you have to start somewhere)

There are more cuts that are going to go in to effect very soon. But for now, we are going to see how far this gets us and just HOW MUCH money we will be saving. If anyone has any advice, don't hesitate to let us know! 

Til next time...

Mr. & Mrs.