I see where you're coming from, and when actually thinking about it you are right. From immigration's view, a lot of the evidence (especially the financial side with bills etc) will only happen once I return on my tourist visa. So when I apply, some of it will only be 3 months old, which wouldn't look very strong.
One thing I considered a few months ago was to first go back on a student visa and study for a year. Now I'm thinking that I may go back to that plan. It just seems that that would put us in the same situation as if I went back on a tourist visa, but we'd have a lot more time to accumulate bills and joint statements and possibly even a joint lease. Would this seem like a reasonable idea to you? To me it's only a few extra thousand dollars, which in the long run may actually help us.