Reply to Support a family of 4 on $55k/year

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[quote=Anonymous]This thread caught my eye as I'm leaving my job soon so we'll be down to one income, which is about 63K. We're a family of four, with kids being 1 and 3.

We live in PG County, which has a lower cost of living than NoVa. We've done some expense tracking and budgeting and see that things will be pretty tight. Thankfully we have some savings going into this, so although we're not going to be spending that as part of our our regular budget, its so great that its there for when we need a new roof or sewer line or whatever. Also, having a chunk of savings is a huge improvement over living paycheck to paycheck, as you can buy in bulk and just not get stuck paying the poor person's premium (like check cashing services, convenience stores, etc.)

Our main stroke of financial brilliance was to get a house with a rental space. We bought in 2009, so not pre-bubble, but our rental income covers half the mortgage.

We happen to be the kind of people who have always shopped at Value Village and don't see that as some kind of compromise. We buy new things sometimes too.

We are into eating home-made organic foods and prefer meat and diary to be from grass fed animals. But we still keep our total monthly food costs to around $600.

The kids are going to attend a great public Montessori magnet school from pre-K through 8th grade.

I agree with some other posters who have pointed out that time can be more valuable than money. At least that's what we're going with for the next few years. Wish us luck on making it all work![/quote]

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