Reply to Does anyone here live very well on very little?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We live well on 110 a year.  Family of 3, living in the city to keep commute costs down in a neighborhood that many would not have considered when we bought, but is now gaining in popularity.  This is what makes our mortgage low enough to manage, but we had no way of knowing this would happen when we bought.  We swing private school, and max the one 401k we have access to (I work part time, from home) and college savings are ok.  We do all the typical things to keep expenses low, but can still chose the costo organic chicken and whole foods organic broccoli, while using Giant for everything else.  One small economical car and three "vacations" a year.  2 are to visit family, so, you know, but one is just us, for fun.  When we travel internationally, we only visit family once.  There are trade offs, but we feel remarkably fortunate every day and know others struggle to make it on much less.  [/quote]

Do you get significant financial aid at the private school? Otherwise, how do you swing that with three vacations and maxing 401k, and presumably some liquid saving? TIA![/quote]

No financial aid, school is BY FAR the biggest line item in our budget.  3 vacations sounds like alot, but there isn't a lot of money going there, that's what I meant when I referenced family.  Mostly car trips, staying with family (they live in pretty cool places though, and we reciprocate) and doing new things there.  The one fun trip a year varies based on what other expenses have cropped up.  One year it was skiing,  sometimes it's camping.  We leverage points and miles to make these things happen.  We do alot of things outdoors that are mostly free.

Before we had kids we were diligent savers and built up our retirement funds and a solid cash cushion, which is what allows me to sleep at night because at the end of the year there is very little left over.   We also started saving for college before we actually had a kid.

And, we are just fortunate.  We both have job security, haven't had any major medical issues or large periods of unemployment, get solid benefits so our health care costs are moderate, our mortgage is low, especially for this area and we haven't yet had to support our parents, though they are also not able to help us.  Also we both left college with manageable debt that was paid off quickly.  We were able to work and do grad school at the same time, so no loss of income.  Essentially, we had a good start, that many don't have.  Sorry, long answer.  [/quote]

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