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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Well, you don't need $2k per month on care.  You can find that for less.

We bought a really small TH so we could stay at 1/4 gross, now with salary increases it is 1/4 take home.  I regret often that we don't have a SF and a yard, or even a bit bigger TH but can't leave and really, I have a roof over my head so, I try to focus on that.

We don't eat anywhere fancy, cook most nights and bring lunch.  We still struggle with giving up delivery and do spend to have Friday Night pizza or Chinese or Italian.  I try to push for pizza since it's cheaper.

Haircuts at $50 every three months are a splurge.

Stagger kids so only have one in care at a time.

Savings are meager, sad, but enough to cover larger house needs/ emergencies (havoc, water heater, random ER other visits post copay, etc).  I feel really bad reading here, so I try not to.  401k is decent, though, a bright light.

I'd like to go on a vacation.  Once the second is in elem that will happen.

We are cutting cable tv to bring the bill down $50 a month.

Library not bookstores.

I buy clothes and shoes only if necessary.  Same with DH.

[/quote]

We are no slouches, but we could never do this. Our HHI is $160 (non profit + gov't salary). Live in a small 2br condo, but our mortgage + reasonable condo fee is $2800. We got a GREAT deal on our place and don't need a car. Hardly saving for retirement. We don't buy clothes, haven't been on vacation in 4 years, go out to eat 3x/mo. We are not saving money. I haven't bought a new coat in 5 years and I haven't bought new shoes in 2. And we can't wait to have a #2 because I'm old. But guess what, we're doing it anyway. My parents were flat broke when they had my sister and they are very comfortable in retirement. I'm hoping that once the kids are in school we can continue to live frugally and squirrel away tons of money. The cost of living here is really starting to grate on me. [/quote]

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