<prompt> Human: To start off, my wife and I moved into my parents house about a year ago to help pay off some debts and to be closer to my mother as she lived her final months. She passed away 3 months ago and left us some money which paid off our debts completely. Just 3 weeks ago we found out my wife was pregnant with twins! We are happy and excited, but mostly scared about our financial future. With this situation we are in currently dads basement we dont have much room for the 3 of us, let alone 2 more. My dad is more than willing to help us with a down payment towards a home but our concern is all of the up front costs and the costs of child birth, possible illness etc. My wife is very very depressed. She called me today in tears saying how alone she is at home, all of her friends have careers and kids of their own but they live away from us and frankly she and I dont have time to visit we both are going to school, she has a part time job and I work full time. I want to get her into a house as soon as possible but I thought I would check for some financial advice first. Here are our numbers:I bring in around 2000-2300 a month- close to 41,000 a year, she brings in around 600 a month. We have Netflix 10, Hulu 10 a phone bill 150 a car payment 300, we needed more space for more kiddos and insurance 200 as our monthly bills we have around 200 on one CC but we are going to pay that off in the next day or so. She has close to 4000 in student loan debt that doesnt have to be paid as long as she is in school. 500 in savings.Dad is able to assist massively, he can help us with approximately 25,000 down on a house. We have been looking around 160,000 so we could keep the monthly payments low, but there really isnt much in our area we are somewhat going through a sellers market as well. We could move up to something in the 200,000 range, but the monthly payments would still be high.My concern is that every financial calculator I look at shows me differing numbers for what we can afford. We had close to 850 a month in CC bills before and were struggling, I dont know how we could do it with a car payment AND a house- Im just concerned about my wife and her mental health. Not being in a place she feels truly like its her home and feeling more and more pressure coming her way with the twins...its a lot for her to handle. What options do I have? What can I afford? Are their costsfees that I should be looking at saving for? Does 160k or 200k sound too unreasonable? Too much?  <response>: I think you guys are not in a position to buy a house at all - youre prime candidate for renting for a few years, even considering your fathers generous gift.The reason is that you are broke right now, and buying a home will not help that. 500 in savings is not enough to cover most emergencies, so my first goal in your shoes is to build up as big of an emergency fund as you can. And I mean PILE up money until the kids are born.Actually, your first goal is sitting down with your wife and making a budget. You can cover all your bills with your wifes income, so why do you only have 500 saved up? Where has all the money gone?Plan to spend a lot on healthcare this year and next year - youll meet your deductible quickly and you dont want to be in medical debt so get some cash piled up.When you can, move out of your fathers place to give your wife some space. Try to find an apartment or rental home no more than 13 of your take home pay.Also, what are your incomes going to look like in the future? I see youre both in school - is this going to increase your household income substantially? This is the point where Id save up some money and buy a house, not before. 