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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP again, my mortgage is actually more like 30% take home after taxes, maxing retirement, healthcare, and our car payment (I forgot it automatically goes into a separate credit union account).  We barely take any deductions, so we'll be getting around 12k back on taxes this year, so this also lowers our take home pay. We have a 3 bedroom house, outside the beltway in NoVa, that is about 30-40 min. to both our jobs.  We stretched a bit to be in a good school district because that was really important to us.

I wasn't trying to stir a debate about my housing.  I truly just wanted helpful advice/perspective from other families in the area who make it work with a middle class income.

I love the ideas about toys off Craigslist, signing up for a babysitting sharing service, bulking up on diapers when they are on sale, etc.  Also, a lot of PPs have pointed out that weekend activities change once you have kids.  I imagine we'll be spending more time at home, ordering pizza, going to the park, etc. as opposed to going to concerts and trying new restaurants.  In-home daycare might be worth researching for us or perhaps daycare in the burbs will be cheaper than what my friends closer-in pay.

I'm glad to know there are others out there who make things work in order to have kids![/quote]

Fwiw, I think you're housing expenses are more than fine. You'll be ok and will be able to afford child care. If you have to, cut back on savings, but I bet you can make it work just by trimming the fat in your budget. Your HHI is about the same as what ours was when we had our first baby 3 years ago. I was totally panicked about affording everything, but we cut back on our monthly expenses, refinanced the mortgage, and it all worked out. One tip--we did a nannyshare, which is about the same as infant daycare is in the beginning. However, daycare expenses steadily drop as your child gets older--nanny expenses go up because of raises. If you don't expect to get paid more in the future, I'd go with daycare. Then, you're just looking at one year of really expensive daycare and then it will start to drop.[/quote]

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