Great Feedback!

Thank you to all the commenters for the feedback on the first draft of our potential house budget.  I'd like to summarize some of the comments here, and open the door for any others.  Quite a few folks had questions as well as suggestions, so I'll address those as well.

• Increase house maintenance budget by $100
• Our thinking in having the house maintenace budget at $100 was that it may be enough b/c before we move in we're planning on 40-60K worth of renovations, so we'll be starting out on a good footing.  That said, this may be something to look at if there's enough wiggle room in the budget.
• Don't forget about home owners insurance
• THANK YOU!
• WE Totally forgot about this.  I'll call to get a quote next week to fit this in.
• What about vehicle maintenance?
• This is part of our $500/month planned spending category
• What about vet bills?
• This is part of our $500/month planning spending category
• Horses actually have very few day to day expenses, and I administer all of her vaccinations
• We are planning on buying a dog however, and forgot to plan for that in this first draft!
• What about medical expenses?
• Our benefits cover our medical expenses
• If there are any additionals (which would be rare) it would come out of our $500/month planned psending
• How do you pay for your cell phones?
• Our allowances pay for these
• You have really big allowances, what do you have to pay for using those?
• Personal care (make up, hair cuts etc.)
• Our cell phone bills
• Lunches at work
• Gifts for each other
• Personal trips w/ friends
• Hobbies
• How come your gift budget is so high?
• For Christmas alone we have 18 groups of people to buy for
• There is also a significant amount of travel around Christmas, so we budget high to take in account for that as well
• Have you thought about gardening once you own your own home?
• We actually garden now, and do all of the yard maintenance for our place and my aunts place that we're going to be buying.  It's rare we have to buy anything anymore (we have a lot of tools etc.) and if/when we do - it comes out of our $500/month planning spending
• What about outdoor maintenance?
• Other than what I mentioned above, I'm not sure what theses costs would be.  But they would be included in the $500/month planned spending.

Summary
- We need to account for house insurance
- We need to see if $500/month is realistically enough for all the things I mentioned above that it's intded to cover
- Perhaps we need to look at our allowances and lower them, but then pay for our cell phones through our joint budget (really things would cost the same, just moving how it's orgaised around).

If anyone has any other suggestions, we'll gladly take them.  In a week or two, I'll post another draft budget.

Thank you!