We made it. We are moved into our new home, and it's lovely. Too bad it's more rent than we were hoping to have to pay. It's not more than we can afford, which is a positive, I guess. And we are certainly getting what we pay for. Not just in a completely rehabbed 1st floor of a small 2-flat with basement, but in nice landlord above us and nice tenant beneath us in the basement. And nice neighbors in the buildings surrounding. A branch of our bank is right across the street. And the best thing of all: Cheap, coin-operated laundry facilities in the basement AND right across the street, if the basement machine is busy.

We're most of the way moved in. Meanwhile, I'm settling into the new financial situation shakily. Nearly got us into trouble last paycheck, but we're all right. Managed to sell a stroller and a vacuum cleaner we're not using for money to give us a safety cushion.

We skipped out on our last landlady, figuring she has our security deposit, and since we have no other money with which to pay her outrageous estimate of damages, we'll wait and see if she bothers to track us down to sue. She won't have much of a case if she does. She never allowed us to view the damage and never allowed us to verify her building insurance deductible. She claimed in front of a witness (my babysitter) that she didn't need to show me anything. Ummmkay. That's cute she believes that.

Big change in our financial plans: We plan to hold off indefinitely on getting another vehicle. We're getting along very well on bikes and public transportation, and we're preparing mentally and in any other ways we can think of for harsh Chicago winter without our own vehicle. It won't be fun, but we know it'll be possible. And the money we save will be huge, even short-term.

Now to check out things that we've never had before, like renter's insurance, life insurance, funeral planning, a will, stuff like that. Scary stuff.