It is hoped that in making sacrifices -- such as not upgrading computer memory (gasp!) -- further knights will apply for work in our lovers' keep. It is hoped that the Knight of Appreciation will apply so that they might appreciate what they already have and appreciate the progress they are making. It is mostly hoped that they will earn goodwill from the Knight of Discernment so that he will aid them in making good purchase choices.

A great celebration will occur on January 1, in the year of our Lord 2008. Regardless of how much debt is yet to be paid, our heroes will earn spending money from that month hence. With enough overtime and perdiems, the heroes may truly no longer owe the carriage maker nor the other shopkeepers on January 1 IF no spending money had been allowed. That thought, coupled with the knowledge that they will have coins with which to spend as they might wish in January (regardless of the quest having been fulfilled or no) is enough to swear fealty to the teachings of a monk known as Spending Plan, nee Budget.

Merry Maid and Dashing Knight, while not having the good fortune of being trained in knighthood for the purpose of defending the Land of LivingRight, are planning and learning to be My Lord and Lady Master in their own right, in a keep of their own, in the Land of LivingRight. Our young pair have duly added their future coins and realize they could be free of their shopkeeper and carriage debt by Christmas if further apprentice-ship, Vegas, or their own blessed tying of the knots were not an issue. They feel a little sad that they have not yet figured out a way to massacre this debt before their holy union. They wish to start their new life together having completed a great quest.

Happily, tho, furthering knowledge, and journeys for important occasions, etc., are worthy quests and are therefore worthy of sacrifices. Since our heroes do not believe in living together, the cost of sustaining separate residences being so very dear, and since our dear Merry Maid will be transferred back to Houston in January (or so the great wizard has foretold) in the year of our Lord, 2008, it is not possible to push back the wedding date in order to not have to make such sacrifices. So our young pair have decided to forego giving gifts for 7 months to anyone except their parents. And in all good conscience, how could our lovers forego giving gifts to others and still give to themselves? So the further sacrifices of spending money and contributing to Roths will be foregone until January, in the year of our Lord 2008. The great Knight of Anti-Credit would be proud of their gazelle-like intensity.

While our lovers do not judge others who share a humble abode before marriage vows are partaken, Merry Maid and Dashing Knight cannot in good conscience themselves do so. However, separately working on a financial plan enabled Lord Tempation to disguise many wants as needs. So our lovers decided to share their coins either at the time of closing on Le Condo or the last week in May in the year of our Lord, 2007, whichever was fated to occur first. In this manner they have taken under their wing a knight of their own, to be henceforth known as Acountability.

Eager to resume building their fortress wall, they added to their knowledge a list of what their coins have purchased and a list of how many coins is owed to whom.
ASSETS = one tiny, paid-for keep worth $45,000 in gold coins, currently rented for more than the market is bearing

LIABILITIES (as of June 2007) =
* unknown future amount to the keep moneylender
* $61,300 in apprentice-ship loans,
* $4,000 in debt owed to shopkeepers, and
* $14,000 in 4-horse drawn carriage debt

Our young leads in this tale, having had enough of the attacks from Lord Temptation, have discussed the wise counsel of keeping their thoughts focused on the goal of debt freedom. While not easy, it has served to keep Lord Temptation at bay more oft than was his wont.




Happy with their budding success, they eagerly planned the building of a fortress wall to help repel the entire band of the Destroyers of LivingRight. As every peasant knows, a fortress wall starts with a foundation. Our lovers decided to start building their foundation with a knowledge of where their coins were coming from, how many coins they were receiving, and how much they could apply towards yon debts.

INCOME (estimated totals from the year of our Lord, 2007, June to December):
* Merry Maid's salary = $15,400
* Dashing Knight's salary = $15,400
* Rental Income from a paid-for keep = $1,440
* $3000 gross from the summer's harvest
* $1000 take home from a lance tournament
* $2200 in extra paychecks total this year after June
* $unknown amount from slaving overtime and saving per diems from a benevolent lord and master
* $2500 pre-tax in stipends mentoring a squire
* $7,000 (Alas, poor sister's husband is no longer an able knight. Dashing Knight slaved his labor for one year to fix up his sister's keep, readying it for a new lord and master. Once his sister completes her share of the repairs, the King will let it be known to all that her keep is available for the taking. Our Dashing Knight patiently awaits his reward money from the new lord and master for his faithful laboring.)

OUTGO
* $2,400 in monthly bills
* $2,000 to shopkeeper and 4-horse drawn carriage debt each month
* the rest of the coins to be given to the not so local, high-interest-bearing money lender for the laudable goals listed in the last chapter

Once upon a time, in a land not so far away, there was a Merry Maid and a Dashing Knight. They had lived in the Land of Consumerism and were making the pilgrimage to the Land of LivingRight. Yon couple wished to marry. It was about time as the maid was a spinster of 37. But the dashing knight was a strapping male of 33 -- much to the maid's delight!

Ah, but the pair were not without goals. The two were desirous of massacring (a bloodthirsty lot) their combined 4-horse drawn carriage debt (June 2007 = $14,000) and debt owing to yon shopkeepers (June 2007=$4400) as much as possible before the blessed event, which is to occur in the year of our Lord, 2008, January.

Not being of the nobility, the couple could only dream of being given such gifts as:

1. monies with which to pay for a wedding, ring, and honeymoon;
2. monies with which to attend Merry Maid's sister's wedding in Vegas (a strange and foreign land not hitherto visited);
3. monies equaling one month's expenses (in case the village is sacked by the band of Destroyers of LivingRight. Their leader, Lord Temptation, has personally attacked our lovers numerous times in the past);
4. a large keep known as Le Condo of Houston;
5. a graduate school education (tis better to be the lord and master); and
6. monies with which to pay more strapping young men to load up and unload the crap -- err, household goods each has collected over the long years of loneliness, borne of the lovers not having yet met each other.

Thus begins the tale of our young lovers' quest to attain these laudable goals by the day of their union.