It's kinda funny who I thought was a guy on hear is. Well, it's cool either way. Things are still the same. fwiw jpinpb, things haven't changed. I'll still be the occasionally crude type of person. Afterall, I am equal opportunity jackass at times. Plus you get bonus points for driving an audi, double bonus points if it's a stick, triple points if you are somehow related to Dana Patrick. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danica_Patrick
On topic:
It seems like with a $100k income, it would be a tight budget to own a SFH home at present levels, though if one wanted to, it's probably about doing some initial tradeoffs and penny pinching. A few things would I would think is
1) area that doesn't have an HOA or MelloRuse
2) Cable/Net/Phone: some of this has to go. It's pretty expensive. Cable is like $50/month, and net is about $20-30 and landline phone is like $20, cell is like $40. It adds up. I get basic cable just to get news because we don't watch too much tv. We had no landline because we care a cell phone. And the plan we're on is the lowest cell plan. We do most of our yapping after 7pm when it's unlimited. Of course, if you want net, you need either cable of phone, so forexample, we just get basic phone with no other service. Total bill is like $19/month for internet and a phoneline we don't use.
3) Food is expensive if you buy at costco. Costco is cheaper than vons's normal price, but still more expensive than on sale places. We tailor what we eat to what's on sale. We don't clip coupons, though if we had time we would.
4) Car: ideally there should be no loan on it and fairly reliable transportation that is also decent to insure. Anything german is pretty much out of the question if you're on a $100k household income AND want to buy a home here. Maintanence/reliability will kill you. Also, some cars are much cheaper to insure than others. Hondas/Toyotas ironically are more expensive to insure because they are often stolen and ripped apart for parts.
5) Eating out a lot has to go too. Plus it's probably healthier for you anyway. Also means more brown bagging to work.
