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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here.  Thanks for the input, especially for pointing out things like charitable giving, which I hadn't specifically considered, but I think I look at that almost as coming out of the $50K bonus.  Mostly, we tend to support charities by donating stuff and donating our time.  It's really only the church that we directly give money to.

I've worked through an alternate budget, which cuts down on gas, childcare, restaurants, activities, and miscellaneous purchases and I feel better about the situation.  We'll have $90K liquid in an emergency fund to help get us through a job loss situation, and I think we'll only be drawing on that for $1-$2k/month if we can cut down on some of the "fun money" in our budget currently.

As far as other savings, we're behind on college funds (only $10K total), but we are OK on retirement, which comes out before the net income line.  We're 30 and have about $200K saved there, mostly in ROTH form.  I'm hoping to keep contributing the same amount, but I guess we could cut that temporarily if needed.

Thanks to the PP who suggested that kid costs will increase as they get older.  Is it appropriate to assume that the increased food, activities, and clothing costs will offset the elimination of daycare?

And home maintenance... that could be a lot, for a SFH.  Is it appropriate to budget $500/month knowing that it will be lumpy?  For a lot of it, my DH and FIL are very handy, but it will be things like new HVAC or roof (both new in this house) that will be expensive when they hit.  [/quote]

Kid costs for elementary ages kids are the cost of food, clothing (esp. sneakers get expensive ($75+) once they're out of little kid sizes--around 2nd/3rd grade), aftercare (about $250/month per kid), and summer camps (figure $350-500/week for 9am -5pm camp per kid x 10 weeks per summer (minus any weeks you vacation)).  Then there's the cost of activities.  Piano or other instrument lessons are $30/lesson.  Gymnastics/ice skating type stuff is also about $30-35/session (or week).  Rec sports are $100/season/kid.  But if your kid ends up wanting to do any sort of travel sport then it's about $3/K a year minimum.  I never thought we'd be in this position but then my daughter turned out to be obsessed with (and good at) soccer and so here we are.  So if your kid gets serious about any sport (swimming, soccer, ice hockey, lacrosse, gymnastics, ice skating, etc) expect to budget $3-5K/year.  
 [/quote]

The cost for summer care quoted is high.  While I haven't surveyed every county in the area, FFX Co., for example, is $255 per week for the first kid and $220 per week for the second at your income level.  That's half of the high range quoted by PP.

http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/ofc/saccsummerfee.htm[/quote]

yes, it's the quote is higher than some county camp options.  But all the private camps (sports, arts and crafts, etc) in DC run $350-500/week.  It's not always easy to tell your kid, "hey you can't do XX camp that all your friends are doing, we can only afford the county option".   In our DC neighborhood ALL my kids' (I have 3) friends do the camps run by the local schools etc, and they're all $350-500K, minimum. (some even more).  [/quote]

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