Reply to How does your family survive making under 200k hhi

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We are a frugal people.  All four of our parents grew up during the depression and came of age during the rationing of WWII.  With the exception of a house and occasionally a car, we buy when we have the money (pay as you go).

We wash our shirts (only use dry cleaners a few times a year).  We don't do Starbucks.  We don't buy lunch more than once a week.  We eat real food prepared at home.  We keep our thermostat at 68' in the winter and 74' in the summer.  We did the non sexy stuff to our house first (insulated, roof, efficient heating and Air conditioning).  We drive cars until they die, but take care of them so they don't die prematurely.  We fix things, reuse things then recycle them.  We buy high quality clothes that last and not tons of them ( we have a regular closet- no walk in).  We mow our own lawn.  We do get an every other week housecleaner.  We plan our errands.  We plan our purchases.  We tithe. We don't go to concerts or plays (except local free or nearly free ones). We use the library weekly.  We clean our own gutters.  We go to family for summer vacations most years (have a bigger vacation every 2-4 years- use VBRO type of places).  We use DH's frequent flyer miles when we fly (which is not often).  We host potlucks.  DH has a smart phone from work, but the DCs and I have a pay as you go phones that cost $100/year each.  We have purchased couches, beds and mattresses, but most of our other furniture is "inherited" (I call it 'early attic').  We have done renovations to our house once we have saved up the money.  We wash and reuse our zip lock bags.  We use cloths napkins and dish towels instead of paper in the kitchen.  We use rags for cleaning instead of paper towels.  From the get go, we set our expenses off of one salary and saved as much as we could.

Little things add up.  It isn't just the Starbucks habit- it is 12-24 Starbuck type habits.   [/quote]

I'm the $185k income from earlier. We do almost all of the same things. And still live paycheck to paycheck! Mortgage is $2800/month, student loans $600. We pay off our credit cards every month (about $3,000 including gas and groceries). It's soo frustrating.[/quote]

PP here.  Get Quicken (or whatever) and see where it is going.  We spend around $1000 a month on food/bathroom stuff/household cleaning stuff for a family of four (2 teenage boys), this includes weekly take out on Fridays.  ~$200 a month for gas.  Our credit card bill (pay off every month and use for cash flow) is ~2k a month.

Our mortgage ( loan, extra payment, taxes and insurance) is ~$2500 per month.  No student loans, but we pay around $500 per month for kids stuff that other people do not have (SN children need therapies and they are not cheap- used to spend close to $1k a month).  No daycare (teenagers), but orchestra trips and summer camps run high $$ at this age.  Both have jobs, so they make their own spending money.  We save 20% of gross income in retirement/college savings vehicles/designated accounts. We also donate ~7% of our gross.

Early on, I figured out the more money I made the more I spent.   So, we "pretend" we make less by putting a higher % in savings first thing- then we "pretend" it isn't there.  If it isn't there, we don't spend it.  We all used to live on much less when we were in college or just after, we tried to keep those spending habits by "artificially" lowering our income.[/quote]

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