Thanks to all for the feedback so far! This is exactly what I was looking for. Good idea about budgeting for travel. We really don't travel that much but we do a small road trip once a year and we have discussed Disney in the future, so I will definitely take this into account.
One question for those who mention the emergency fund being at 3 months-- we currently have the 7K and you mention building it to 12K (to cover that 3 months). But, I have been looking at my emergency fund for ONLY living expenses (in other words, I took out the monthly costs for ING savings, took out/reduced blow money, took out the 529, etc b/c I figure if something big happened I probably would need to eliminate those temporarily OR probably wiser yet-- cut on things like Dish, internet, etc). So....should I really have 12K in the fund when my monthly budget's "true bills" are about half (or maybe a little more?) I really don't know and would appreciate your input abou that.
Interest rate on mortage is 6.5%. It is an interest only loan but at a fixed rate (no balloon, arm, etc). I know how most feel about this--at the time we bought our home, I was a SAHM and we purchased it knowing our income would increase but it gave us a little more buying power at the time). Therefore, it is important to us to pay on the principal each month. We did put a nice downpayment on it so we DO have equity in our home between that the $200 over. By the way, we have always done the $200 over (even when I was SAHM).
Given that information, I don't know if some of you recommend putting MORE toward the house.
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