American Idol

I've been fairly lax in Idol coverage so far (note the fact that I've pretty much missed the women week after week), mainly due to work. But now that we're down to one night of competition, it's much easier, so...

( American Idol )

Young Guns

NASCAR

There's a certain beauty in the idea of the Gillette Young Guns being used in a mini-reality series set around the idea of celebs becoming race car drivers. After all, who doesn't want to see if Kurt Busch can be an ass (or manage to pull off nice) when teaching someone to drive? Or the comedy gold of William Shatner interacting with...well, anyone?

Which is why I will so be watching Fast Cars and Superstars. It won't make me watch the NBA Finals, but who cares! It means more Jamie Mac!

Here's the full line-up. Yo! mrbig1316! John Cena is taking part!!!!

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Home Ownership

You know, whoever tells you that you too can own a home is a liar. I would like to point out that a mortgage is one thing, but add in property tax, insurance, etc. and it's dang hard to get the right amount of cash together each month to truly afford the monthly payments. I did the math last night, and even if I bought a fairly cheap townhome and put $30,000 down (thereby getting a loan for $60,000) and had a really, really low interest rate, I could barely afford the monthly payments. It would be over a fourth of my income. (The $30,000 is approximately what my grandparents have told me they have held back for me. But they tell me this in the same sentence as "We want you to have it but we don't want Katie to have hers yet and we want to be fair..." Which means I know the amount and it drives me nuts because they want me to buy a home with it but I can't even afford to do *that*. Argh!)

Anyway.

I'm just pissed. I want to buy something and maybe I'm just doing the math wrong (will have to consult with Dad to see). But the facts are, monetarily, it's out of my price range. It takes up more than a fourth of my income every month.

Oddly enough, if I got the inheritance from my grandparents in full, I could pay off my car (hence the fact that I'm limited in what I can afford - new car!) and put about $15,000 down and the payments wouldn't be that much more than a 1/4th, but I could afford it all. But it's contingent upon eliminating existing debt.

At this point I'm just going to do what I can - I'm going to save money, pay off one debt, buy a couch, buy a laptop, keep saving. The car is five years from being paid off, so I'll just use that time to save for a home and who knows where I'll be at that point.