We have been in negotiation again with the sellers for the house we want. After the inspection turned up some significant problems, it looked like the sellers weren't going to agree to cover the costs and we would have to walk away. At almost the last minute yesterday, the sellers agreed to the new negotiated price. We are homeowners!

Now to start planning the 2015 budget. There are so many unknowns still but I have plugged into an excel sheet all the income I expect to receive and all my expenses for the year. Things like insurance, car maintenance, gas, taxes, gifts and travel costs. I am sure I have missed things but I think I have a good framework. As it stands we need to come up with an extra $5,883.07 over the year.

I am not too concerned (yet) with that number because there are so many variables that are hard to take into account right now. I am getting a 2.5% raise which should amount to $25 more per paycheck, but I am also having $50 taken out for the HSA. So I won't know what my paychecks will look like until mid January.

I have also budgeted for the renovation costs and major repairs we want to do in the spring. One of the problems we have to fix is a new roof. The inspector said we'd be lucky to get one more summer out of it. We have an estimate for a dimensional tile roof, but we think that in the future we want to put solar panels on the house. A metal roof will work much better for that. I have budgeted $10,000 for that but that's an arbitrary number because we haven't had any estimates yet.

I have also budgeted $10,000 for the renovations we want to do. We had a contractor look at the space and told him what we want and he said it could probably be done around $6,000-$7,000 but I would rather estimate high because there are always problems.

We currently rent so we are looking to find someone to take over our lease. I've budgeted that we'll be paying the mortgage and the rent through March. Hopefully we will find someone to take over before then and if we do that's $825 we don't have to find.

After we put in the MIL apartment in our basement we will look for a tenant. I have estimated that we will get one in August, but if we get one before that could be up to $1000 extra.

I've budgeted $75 for gas each month but I only fill up my tank every 2-3 weeks and at the prices right now I should only spend $50. But who knows how long gas will stay this low.

I also didn't account for the 2 extra paychecks I get during the year. And the budget right now has us paying for the homeowners insurance for the year but the sellers have agreed to pay our closing costs (which include insurance for a year) so I will probably be able to deduct that.

The budget includes contributions to my IRA (non-negotiable, I am not cutting back on that unless I am in a dire financial situation) and contributions to other savings accounts. I want to be able to save as much as I can and keep a health emergency fund, but obviously I might have to sacrifice some of the monthly savings in order to pay off the renovation costs. When we get better estimates I will post about how we plan to pay for it. Right now it's looking like a combination of paying for some of it cash and the rest on 0% interest credit cards (and making sure to pay it of 2 months before the deadline is up to be positive we don't pay any interest fees)

Right now the game plan is to keep spending to the absolute minimum and to start planning for the changes to the house We are so excited to start making this house our home!