Reply to Shocked: Our bare-bones monthly cost of living is 5K after taxes! What's yours?

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[quote=Anonymous]I think we're talking about different things by bare bones.

One is what choices you make in an effort to be frugal or save money.  In my situation, there are certain things I'm not willing to cut to be frugal.  I pay for my middle schooler to play sports, because I think he's happier and healthier, and I feel safer to have him busy after school rather than home alone.  I pay for summer camp for the same reason.  Others buy organic food, or visit relatives in a distant place, or drive to work to save the extra hour public transportation would save them.  All of these things are totally reasonable choices.  In the same vein, if you're a partner in a law firm, then paying the $2,000 a month health insurance, rather than putting that money into savings makes total sense.

The second is what you would be willing to cut to be able to stay home.  I know for me, I could easiy cut the camp and sports if I was home full time.  Would I be willing to?  Maybe, not sure, if that was the only cut I needed to make.  However, as a single mom I'd also need to cut out the great school district we're in, and food on the table, and heat and all sorts of things I consider much more important than having a SAHP for a middle schooler who is in school all day. In that sense, if you have great health insurance, would you cut that in order to be home?

The third is what you can make do on in a crisis.  We rent, so in a real financial crisis, we could move to a cheaper school district.  I could do without a car (it would be a pain) my kid could do without the sports.  If I was paying $2,000 for health insurance, and didn't have chronic medical needs, and my salary dropped to nothing -- I'd find a new plan or see if I could get my kid on state healthcare of something.  [/quote]

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