I went in knowing what I wanted my monthly payment to be no matter how much we could get approved for.
look at you all smart and informed and sensible. I became that way as I got older but I recall when I was first presented with student loans. I was barely 18. They said (and I am making this figure up) "you can have up to $5000 per semester, how much do you want?"
Any guesses what my response was as a barely 18 year old kid?
I can totally appreciate that. I probably would have done the same thing. In fact, in my earlier years I accrued a lot of debt that I had to deal with later in life. I had the benefit of buying our second house after the crash of 2008. People who paid attention during that time should have learned a lot of valuable lessons they could apply after the fact. "House poor" was the theme of that time!