On a night when my sweet sweet husband is away with friends, I find the desire to have a budget date. Solo. Yes. Candles, Christmas trees, music and beers are involved. As they should be with any good date night. I am married. So happily. (Still exciting to say!! Love you - S!!). We keep some things separated. Such as our paychecks. His salary goes to his account and mine goes to my account. Yes, everyone handles this differently. We have it set up so S pays certain expenses (mortgage, car insurance, home insurance, etc) and I pay for other expenses (such as groceries, gas, lunches at work and my $@/!: debt!) (oh and ps, we each have the "individual" health insurance plan at work because it was cheaper than being married - definitely something to look into!). Anyways - we have "together goals" and "individual goals". I am becoming closer and closer to reaching my personal goal of paying off that student loan. As of today I have paid 3 down and have 3 to go. Totaling about $17,800. (When I graduated from school it was approximately $35,000). So thrilled about that!!!! But now we are in crunch time and lets get this thing OUT OF MY WAY. So I'm game planning. Let's look at # of paychecks left this year, how many ill get next year, raises? Bonuses? And supplemental income. Let's sort this out. Make a plan. And be done with it. Goals for post student loan debt? Well, when my SL is gone, I'm proud to say I'll be debt free - so my plans are to max out 401k, HSA (which I already am doing), Roth IRA, and save to buy my next car in cash (3-4 years down the road. I have a 2010 Jetta in great condition. Thinking to rebuy when the Jetta is 9 or 10 depending on repair expenses, etc). That's all for now. Off to my solo budget date. The only thing to make this better would be a bubble bath and if S were here. Xxoo- K