Reply to Help me figure out how to better allocate our 300k income.

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]per month:
mortgage - $4,200 (too much).
car - $500 (payment and insurance)
bills/misc. - $800
student loans - $1600
child care for 2 under 2 - $2800
parking - $250
housecleaning - $240
groceries/gas etc. eat up the rest.

It almost feels like no discretionary income, and we both have credit card debt because things feel tight. what can we do about our mortgage? when we bought, I was making more, and have since gone part time. we have only owned for 2 years. would it make any sense to sell?

[/quote]

Well, let me tell you what I did - you take from it what you will. I'll be crucified on this forum for saying this, but I was struggling a bit with cash flow (on the same income), largely because the "little things" had eaten away thousands a month.

First, I worked towards paying off the car - in my case that saved about $700 a month.
Then I ditched cable and went with hulu and netflix, at a cost of $15 bucks a month instead of closer to $120. That saved another $100. 
I ditched our home land line - who uses it anymore - saved another $50 a month. 
I refinanced our mortgage saving another $200 a month. 
I successfully contested our property taxes, saved about $50 a month.
I upped our insurance deductibles on our car insurance - we are not poor and I don't particularly care whether my deductible is $250 or $500 or $1000 - to me car insurance should be for catastrophic loss - but the monthly outlay is quite different - this saved perhaps another $20 a month.
I got rid our housekeeper and decided to do it myself - $250 a month. 
I got rid of our lawn service, saved another $250 a month there. (Yes I was being robbed)
I got a programmable thermostat for our house, saved maybe $20 to $40 a month (surprisingly effective actually). 
I shopped our home owners insurance around and saved another $20 or $30 a month.
I negotiated with maintenance companies (i.e. heating and air) during their low season for a better rate for annual services. Cant remember what I saved, but it was something.
I swapped cars with my spouse who has the much longer commute - almost to baltimore - but had been driving the low-mpg car. Not sure how much diff that made but its something.

All told, I estimate I saved somewhere around $1,500 to $2,000 a month. [/quote]

This is awesome, and along the lines of what I was looking for -- thank you. Yes, obviously, first steps are going to be eliminating the cc debt. The next step is student loans. We are stuck in the lease for a year but plan to buy a cheap car after. I can also start metro/busing it again.[/quote]

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