food $850 for 8 month? wow..................

wow...............

for 3k monthly mortgage and just starting the mortagage, the interest is definitely higher than the standard deductable, besides LZ does not have any child, so the standard deductable is even less.  Mine has almost 20k interest for only 2/3 of a year last year.  She also has property tax to deductable too. She'd better use itemized deduction.  My current one is brandnew. This is my second house.  My first one is also a brandnew.  I don't see there is too much trouble there for maintening. We painted our house by our own with 6 colors, which only cost us less than 1k, including 20 gallon paint and a 20 feet tall ladder from Lowes. The paint accessaries are nothing in cost. The curtains or blinds may cost a lot, but normally they are about 1% of the house price for blind.  You don't have to buy all the furnitures all at once.  If you really do things that way, you will regret some day later on.  You want to buy the best that fit your whole house style, this, in another way delays the financial pressure.

I don't have to buy all the maintainence tools because I got it from our first house, this is one part that LZ needs to consider if she is buying the first house.  But again, my loan is actually more than LZ, and maintenance power tools range from $100 to several hundred dollors.  Refrigirator is only 1k-2k. I think 5k can cover all.

Things may be a little bit tough for the first 2 years.  But after that you will feel much more comfortable.  And you family income will increase yearly even it is a small amount, but your mortgage won't increase.  There are also chances of refinance which will even lower your mortgage. The only thing I regret in my house hunting is that I did not buy the larger house for my first one.  So I learned and I bought the highest one I can afford the second time.