I've come to like the notion of our e-fund as a component of our Emergency Plans. It is the cash reserves which sees us through the various tragedies we can forsee in our Plans. These Plans include actions we would take, insurance coverage (including unemployment), and family and friend assistance. I'm thinking I might start putting these plans on paper for our reference. Situations to Plan for include:

Either of out deaths
Major car accident (including medical)
Major medical emergency
Unemployment
Natural disaster (fire or earthquake)
Family emergency (parents, siblings, etc)

Any others?

So I turned down the summer job. It turned out that it was a full time permanent position, and right now I need to focus on my PhD. I have started putting together my dissertation proposal which is very exciting. I had a lightbulb moment and was able to so clearly see everything I had to do. It looks like I will definitely walk in June 2013 and defend sometime between February and June 2013. This means I can start working around that time too. Very exciting to have an exit strategy.

DH's schools accepted the grant to work extra hours and get a bonus. So he is getting paid an extra $300 a month and a $1200 bonus at the end of the school year.

I was afraid we might have underestimated our tax liability and withheld way too little, but I was wrong. I found out that because DH has so much withheld from his paycheck, his gross salary and the net salary the government see are about $10,000 different.

Through a few big bonuses (including DH's extra-curricular pay which I forgot about), we got our baby e-fund on track. So currently we are meeting our savings goals for 1 Roth IRA, a low down payment, buying a car with cash, and expanding our e-fund. I'm hoping the changes in Fannie and Freddie don't screw up our home savings plans. Still we were thinking about putting down 20%, but I'm hoping the 30 year fixed rate loan still exists once they are wound down.