Reply to What is your income to allow one parent to stay at home?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We live very centrally in DC on about $95k. Two kids, one car, don't typically splurge except that we eat out way too much and go on at least two full week or longer vacations each year, plus multiple weekend trips. Vacation overseas at least every other year.[/quote]

can you post your budget (at least for big ticket items)?[/quote]

You are being trolled. They inherited a house or something. [/quote]

No I am not and no I didn't.  There is nothing in this question that insists that you have to have bought your home in the past year or two and paid over the top for it.

[b]Mortgage is $1400[/b]
We spend about $1000 a month on groceries and eating out
About $40 a month on gas, car is owned outright has very little maintenance costs but other car costs insurance etc are probably a little over $1k a year
About $150 on water/gas/electric
About $95 on cell phones
About $50 on TV subscriptions (no cable)
About $0-$80 on child care (kids are 4 and 7 in school and don't do aftercare, but do get babysitter for occasional date night)
A couple of hundred a month on household costs including repairs etc
We save $18k-$22k a year for retirement (before tax) and a couple of thousand on college savings.  Also donate about $1k per year.
Don't spend much on clothes -- use thrift stores and buy in sales, but probably $1k per year max for kids clothes and shoes, mainly.
We spend too much on vacations, I'm a little afraid to tally that up, but we stay use points and stay with family where possible.  [/quote]

Well this is how you can manage.  Purchase a home today and increase that amount to 3,500 plus and now you'll require two spouses working.  Now of course you could purchase a less expensive home, but the point is a 1,400 mortgage is the main reason you can afford to stay home on such a low salary!  [/quote]

No, the point, my dear, is to answer the question.  You too could buy a house for a similar amount of money than I did and have a similar budget than I did.  When I bought, most people were too snobby to buy in my neighborhood (and a fixer upper at that), just as you are too snobby to buy for $300k now.  those houses exist within DC even now.  Or close by.  But if you’re hung up on a fully renovated single family home in upper NW you’re out of luck. I'd be buying in Mount Rainier or Hyattsville if I was in that situation now.  And you'll come back with some excuse why that isn't practical to which I will say that I've been saying this on DCUM for at least 8years and been told "but I don't have a time machine" while readers lament their misfortune for not getting the prices that we did years ago.  Well, if you'd listened to me back in 2000, or even 2012 you'd have hundreds of thousands in equity even now. When I bought I thought, "if only I'd been in the market two or five years ago I'd have a cheaper house".[/quote]

Exactly. Living in Hyattsville today is exactly like living in Bethesda in 2000. And look at all the fixer ups in bethesda that lay fallow, it's a damn shame.  [/quote]

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