I updated my goal progress bars this weekend (aka “my stats”), and doing so made me really excited about getting some things accomplished!!!

First of all, my Skydiving Fund is practically taken care of. I’m about $30 from my goal, and if all goes well I’ll have $10 left over from this week’s budget on Thursday. The remaining $20 could be taken from my “Fun Money” at the beginning of next week (Friday) and that would be that!! Replacing my skydiving fund will either be a gift fund ($500 goal) or a vacation fund ($1000 goal)… or a combination of both.

Second, and most exciting of all is my Downpayment Fund! Right now its at 72% complete. Sounds like I still have a long way to go (and I do…just shy of $10k left to save), but for the first time I feel like I am so close! I did a few calculations, and if I continue to make my $367.97 per week contributions I am approximately 27 weeks away from reaching my goal, which would mean that by Mid-October I should have the $36,000 saved up!! Since I’m estimating to buy a house valued at less than $180k (wish me luck finding it!), that will be more than a 20% downpayment. I’m so excited just thinking about it!

Last of all is my Emergency Fund. This one will take longer to accomplish, but once I have my downpayment fully funded, I intend to make all those savings payments go to my Efund (with some being set aside to get me some furniture). It all depends on if I find a suitable apartment by October. If I don’t then I’ll be able to build up my efund fairly quickly (about 6 months). If I do move before October then it will obviously take me a longer time. (More like 12 months!)

 All this excitement brought me to do a quick internet search for real estate at 2am Saturday night as I munched on cold leftover pizza (mmm…nothing is better than cold pizza at 2am!) While the results weren’t as exciting as looking at my progress bars, it at least let me see that there are some options out there at my price range. 5 months ago I wouldn’t have been able to find anything in that range. It also sent me into a brief panic as I realized I’m that much closer to moving out of my parents house and having to “grow up” officially.

My sister says I’m crazy to be expecting to find an apartment for under $200k with 2 bedrooms in our city. A year ago I would have agreed. Now I have faith that I’ll be able to find something that is up to my standards, I just have to be patient.