Surviving

Nausea wasn't too bad this weekend (yay!!) I'm glad because we had a lot of work to do running around looking at apartments and houses.

I'm really torn about what to do with our housing situation. There's a very good chance we'll only be in this new area for a year... possibly 2. We don't have our green cards yet, its *really* scary to buy a house when you can be kicked out of the country at any time with 10 days to leave.

AT the same time - rent is ATTROCIOUS. Even 40 mins to an hour from the new plant facility ( which is 40 mins from the north suburbs of Minneapolis/St Paul already!) we're running into rents as high as 1500. Most in the 1000-1200 range... but man there are some real DUMPS in that price range too. The search has been really frustrating. Even looking at buying a house is scary and frustrating.... little tiny 1940's houses out in the middle of nowhere - 200K and UP (yes UP). New construction is even worse. IT's insane?!

I don't know how people made ends meet, I really don't. Tim and I both make good money... the banks are saying we're approved for 250K on HIS SALARY ALONE. Not even taking into consideration my salary. That's NUTS! They're figuring 45% of your GROSS income should go towards housing. WTF? that's more than one paycheck a month that goes to housing ALONE. Where does the money for groceries, utilities, gas, car maintances, student loan payments come from? If we bought a house in that range it would be nutso, we'd never go anywhere or do anything again! No movies, no dinner's out (or VERY Rarely). No extra money for unexpected health issues, no money for new clothes when they're needed. Definitely no money for a honey moon or vacation.

That's insane I tell you.

WE're both frustrated. We wonder where our money goes as it is. We just have to keep in mind that we had a wedding to pay for, and up until 2 years ago we had been living in TWO households and paying hundreds in gas to see each other every weekend. I had a small amount of credit card debt. We got that paid off last year, and my car is *almost* paid off (next month it will be). So we're just *now* in a position to start saving money for a downpayment.

Both of us feel 'behind' in where we should be in our lives. We see so many people younger than us with a house and cars, and four wheelers and boats etc. We wonder why we're having such a hard time of it? I keep reminding myself that a LOT Of people are so far into debt its crazy. They have no savings, no 'buffer'... they may look like they have it all but it could be taken away any moment. Also - a lot of these people have lived in the US all their life. They had access to decent paying jobs during school if they wanted to, and they're paying less in student loans than either of us pay (my student loan payment - even after being reduced and with the exchange rate in my favor is $500 USD a month - yes A MONTH). The truth is a lot of people have a head start on us.

And the other truth is - they're just THINGS. It's all too easy to get wrapped up in 'what we don't have' and forget about what we DO have. I know this. I've seen this first hand. I've seen people living in poverty, dying of starvation. Our quality of life is farrr above what 90% of the world experiences.

Still - finding a place to live is frustrating the hell out of us right now!!