I'm submitting a bid on another house that's in a small town that would be $213k or $1500/mo inclusive of tax, etc. But the bank that owns it is trying to fish out the max they can and spark bidding wars. I know for a fact they have at least one offer over list (mine, 3k over) but they pushed back their deadline to get offers in. Even though it's less per month, I'm still not gonna overpay for it, so I'm not raising my bid.

So if that one falls thru, my next pick is a bigger, brand new construction, with builder incentives like 10k towards closing and point buy, 4k lender credit, etc.

I live in a low COL state. $4600 is after me contributing 8% to 401k (for a combined 15% between my employer and I). I feel like $2000 + $200ish for power + $80 for internet + $80 for water/sewer/trash for a combined $2360 with $2300 left over leaves me in a decent spot, considering 2.5 years ago I didn't even bring home that much.

I do have a teenage daughter who will turn 16 next year, she'll dent the budget a little, but I feel like we could make due and hopefully in 2-3 years rates will be down again. My truck is paid off and I work from home, so she could drive mine some, or I could spend $10,000 or so on her a good used sedan. We'll just have to eat in and stuff more than we do now while we're at my parents.