let's begin

I've been married for a little over a month now, and my husband and I have been together for about 9 years. We're 28 and 29. He'll be 30 this month. Although, we've dated for a long time, we never really set our finances together. We opened a joined account with his credit union but found it to be very inconvenient, as credit unions are very much restricted with ATM access and I don't want to carry another bank card in my wallet. I initially thought their interest rates on savings would be higher, but it's no better than a regular bank.

The reason I want to start a blog is to document the progress of the goals we have for ourselves. I've try various ways to save money, extreme couponing, strict budgeting, and even growing a home garden to offset food costs.

Coupons are great, but it must be used with caution. Every rookie gets carried away in the beginning and  ends up with boxes and boxes of pastas and enough shampoo to last 5 years. My brother has this saying "going broke trying to save money."

I tried limiting my spending by putting a dollar limit to everything like, groceries, eating out and clothing. I sometimes feel deprived when I see that I've already used up our eating out budget at the beginning of the month. I do realize I'm very blessed. I have a stable job, a place to live with cheap rent (living at home, thanks Mom and Dad).

I try to live a healthy lifestyle.  But fresh fruits and vegetable is very expensive. An 8oz of cherry tomatoes for my bruschetta is $2.  So what do I do? I watch videos posted by people who grow their own vegetables to save money. I never thought I'd be one to garden, I can't stand dirt and seeing an earth worm will send me running.  I start small and grew a container garden instead, no worms! I had so much tomatoes. I didn't have to buy it from the stores for 2 months during the summer :)

Here are some of our major financial goals, all of which we're starting from $0:

Emergency fund:$10k, that's $5k each
house down payment in the next 3-5 years:  $60k
baby:$10k savings before having a baby.
personal loan: $26,500 from when I purchase a home this year