You could have sold that shampoo on Craigslist, put the money in your house fund and gone shampoo-free!

JK, of course. You sound like you’re doing all the things someone can reasonably expect to have to do in order to save up a giant chunk of change, and the fact that it’s still not enough is frustrating. Well done smashing your student loan payments — when those are gone I hope things feel much less tight.