My Story

Looking back 2006 had been a big year for me. My brother got married in June, 2006. On July 16, I met my husband and we got married in November. Two new additions to the family within less than 6 months, who knew!!

Marriage gave me a whole new perspective on the world of finance. When I was single I had a lot of money to spend and very few expenses so I used to spend on a whim, and mismanaged the money at many occassions. Can you believe I didn't even claim a big component of my salary because I just didn't pay attention and it kept getting accmulated in some allowance, only after I got engaged and my finance savvy fiance looked at my payslip I came to know of its existence and claimed it. After wedding, I became aware of all the expenses that go into running a home and when the finances were tight in the initial few months I realized the importance of money management.

We married got settled in India and after 3 months we moved to US. Its been exactly an year, but I still remember everything distinctly. Before moving we rented an apartment here with the help of a friend. During the change of flight in Paris, Airlines lost one of our bags, then within another hop inside US, they lost other 3 bags. So there we were, at 6:00 pm at the airport, tired and hungry after 26 hours of journey ( we couldn't eat anything in the plane because there was nothing vegetarian to eat), sans luggage, except the backpacks, which had our important documents. I was scared like anything, I didn't know what to expect at the apartment we had rented. Will the manager still be there? Will we be able to get in ? Will it be warm enough? Will we freeze in this rainy night. Luckily everything turned out to be okay. Airlines sent our bags from the next flight and we got in the apartment and it was comfortable. Since then it had been a journey to get back on our feet and get going. I am really thankful to this great country and its citizen to let us stay and work here and realize our dreams. There's so much that we've got and learnt here that I am indebted forever...but I digress.
The blue Eyed Boy ( I named my hubby so because he gets a lot of compliments on his eyes, which are greenish brown) and I worked as a team to get past the milestones we had to cross to settle here and I think we have done well.
After moving to US, 2007 saw us moving again within the state, paying back the money that we borrowed while coming to US*, buying our first car, BEB getting a job, wedding of BEB's brother and a couple of fun trips in the US.
In 2008, we are now contemplating buying a home, which is a very big decision for us. I have always tried my best to avoid getting into debt, but I think I'll just have to bite the bullet on this one. I am just mustering enough courage to be able to sleep peacefully while I still owe somebody a couple of hundred thousand dollars. We are still a couple of months away from the final decision and I am keeping my fingers crossed that whatever happens would be the best for us. But first we need to save some bucks for the down payment. I came across this nice group of bloggers called 'frugal hacker' and got inspired especially by http://nottheplan.blogspot.com/ . Writing this blog to begin and track the journey towards owning a home in this world as well as keeping a check on my spending habits.

*1 US dollar = 40 Indian Rupees, so you actually need a lot of money in Indian currency if you want to survive in US. After wedding related expenses we were left with no money to bring to US.