Budgeting for MN

Lately, I've been spending an inordinate amount of my free time researching apartments and budgeting for when we move to Minneapolis. A psychological explanation is that I'm compensating for the fact that when we move I lose my healthcare and and foodshare through the state. Which scares the living daylights out of me. On the bright side, if I go bankrupt from medical bills after a horrible accident... I don't have much to lose. Also, with the path Scott Walker is taking Wisconsin down... I'd be losing all that anyways.

I'm off topic.

I figure that I will have $5,000.00 to be unemployed with as of May. (Thank you, being poor enough to get all tax money back.) Now, Jared makes more money than me and works more hours... so even without tax money he'll have equal to or more than my savings. I'm budgeting for the following expenses:

Economy Internet (Provider Comcast): $39.95
Rent including utilities: $550.00
Cell Phone Plan: $45.00
Food: $200.00
Down payment equal to the price of rent: $550.00

Jared and I will split the cost of everything with the exception of my cell phone plan.

Here is the equation I've come up with to figure out how many months we can remain unemployed while sustaining a $1,000.00 emergency fund.

$5,000.00 - $1,000.00/2 = [($550.00 + $39.95 + $200.00)/2]x + $45.00x + $550

Solving for x and rounding down to the nearest month... we can survive eight months while being unemployed in Minneapolis.

It took us two months to find jobs in a worker saturated, tiny town. If we get jobs right away, I'm buying a couch.

I told Jared that when he gets a job with health insurance, we're getting court house married, and I'm living off his insurance forever. The only problem he had with this idea is the forever part. "Why can't you get a job with insurance then I can live off your job forever?" he asks me. If the answer wasn't obvious enough: Because I said so. Also, getting a chemistry job with good insurance is far more likely than whatever I stumble into having good insurance. But, who knows.

So far my plan is to hang out here, make some money, find an apartment in late March/early April. Move out by April 15th. We'll start packing after we find an apartment. We'll job hunt in May. I have a San Francisco trip in May too.

Actually, I have a trip with Britt this week to look forward to. It will be a last hurrah before strangers start asking to touch her stomach in public.

And, if we get jobs soon... I want to go to Disney World. I've never been there before. I think it's right up my alley.

Oh yea, and because we won't be in the middle of no where... maybe my Florida friends will want to visit the Upper Midwest.