A little background about me

With the economy in the state it is in, my wife and I recently decided to explore the idea of buying a home. It sounds really weird to be making the biggest purchase of your life during a down economy but we feel we have been wise with our money and we might benefit from the economy being down. We do not have a large income, we have a combined income of about $45,000 and the only debt we have left is a student loan.
Growing up, we did not have a lot of money or financial know-how. Growing up my parents raised my sister and myself on a really small income and sent us to a private school. What they lacked in financial knowledge, they made up for with the value of hard work. My mom worked as a teacher at my private school, essentially bartering work for our education. My father worked as a mechanic and growing up, I can honestly say I never remember him missing a day of work. Whether he was sick, tired or sick and tired of his bratty kids, he managed to be at work everyday, to provide for his family. I can never thank my parents enough for their sacrifice while we were growing up.
When I got to college, I made the classic mistake of signing up for the credit card. I was working and was told I needed to build credit so I could be a responsible adult. I signed up and all went well for two years until I lost my job and could no longer pay my credit card. Eventually, the card went into collections and I lost my feeling of invisibility. Knowing my credit was being trashed, I lost complete control of my finances and before I knew it, I had dug myself in a hole.
My biggest fear in life is failure and seeing that I was failing, I decided I needed to get a hold of my situation. For the past 5 years, I have managed to pay off all my debt and worked my way through college to make the student loan manageable.
Two years ago, I got married and went through the biggest financial crisis of my life. My main job is mostly seasonal and I work part time to offset the summer lull in work. That summer, I had not secured a job and was a newly wed. I had used a majority of my savings fund paying for my wedding, cash. Now having no savings fund, no new income coming in and a new marriage, I spent my nights awake wondering how I would pay for things. Luckily, I found work in less than a month and did not get back in debt. I made a vow to myself to never spend my nights wondering how I would pay for things.
In two years, my wife and I have paid off all our debts but my student loan. We have an emergency fund and have savings. I have made a hobby out of learning all about money and personal finance. I am an avid listener of Dave Ramsey and have set up short term and long term financial goals.
Join me as I begin my next journey, the American dream, home ownership. I invite you to leave me comments, encouragement and an occasional slap on the hand if needed.