Here is the sad story, as sad as a shaved mustache. Me and my girlfriend want to move out within a year from now (we are currently 25, and will be 26 during the house hunting.) We want to get married within 1-2 years as well.
We both make 32k per year
We both live at home rent free.
The majority of our expenses go to food and gas, which is something that we try to cut back on, I am a very aggressive saver and try to stretch money as best I can (something I learned while on food stamps while serving in the Americorps) And my girlfriend is a very aggressive with her debt and keeps good records on what she spends money on. I recently signed up for mint.com in order to get an even better picture of my budgeting.
My Debt: I have a 9k car loan and am making payments on it while saving up.
Her Debt: She owes 6k on her new (used) car and is undergoing a dental surgery coming up which will cost 8k (her dental insurance is awful) for a total of 14k. She hopes to have this paid off by April or so, and then focus all her energy on paying off her 90k in student loans. Note: this 90k isn't actually 90k but thats what it will be if she pays off the minimums, which she has been doing, but plans to pay more once these other things are out of the way.
The best fiscal move seems to be to live at home until we have 0 debt, then buy a home, get married, save, work, and retire. However, that will likely take at least 5 years, and putting off an engagement, a wedding, and living together for that long is not an idea we are crazy about.
Our plan was to look for a house within a year, my debt will be gone, hers should be down to just her student loans, I think the principal on it is 70k or so.
We are looking for a house in the 50k-110k range, we have been looking at a lot of foreclosures and fixer uppers online in order to get a feel for it.
My overall question is, what should we do? Move out in a year after all debt is paid off except for student loans? Or wait until all debt is paid off or at least a substantial part of her student loans? I am also trying to balance the savings part with jumping at a great house deal, cause not only do they stay on the market for terribly long, as the housing market recovers, they will be harder to find. And I dont want to miss that window.
Here are our numbers combined.
Debt = 113k
Money earned = 64k (50/50 split - I have been saving most of mine, while she pays most of hers towards debt)
Monthly Expenses including phone, gas, food, entertainment, etc = est. 700