It's not easy making ends meat around here when you are barely on the median.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:pp here: there is not many places I am willing to cut back. Frankly, with the cancer, I probably will not be here that long, and I have a seven figure life insurance policy.

So sorry, PP.

This is what riles me up about DCUM. There's so much focus in shallow stuff like a high HHI and beauty/fashion when people have real problems.

Yeah nobody should care about clothes because people die.

You do realize that it is this poster's HHI that will keep his family secure after he dies? Spare us the faux indignation.

Anonymous wrote:pp here: there is not many places I am willing to cut back. Frankly, with the cancer, I probably will not be here that long, and I have a seven figure life insurance policy.

So sorry, PP.

This is what riles me up about DCUM. There's so much focus in shallow stuff like a high HHI and beauty/fashion when people have real problems.

Agree with others. You need to write down exactly what you are spending. It's the little amounts that add up $10 here, $20 there, $5 over there....

Do you get a large tax refund? If so, adjust your withholding so you get more in your account every month.

pp here: there is not many places I am willing to cut back. Frankly, with the cancer, I probably will not be here that long, and I have a seven figure life insurance policy.

HHI 160K here...same position...I public schools, smaller mortgage, but a lot of medical bills. DW is a SAHM, so there is potential for about 30K more per year (I am maxed out in my field)...

No money left over...minimal savings for college. I do have a healthy 401k, and only one kid. If DD goes in state, she we should be fine.

as for my expenses:

I eat lunch at the cafeteria...
About half cooked, half takeout (I am the cook, and am often tired after work).
We pay 160 a month for 3 smart phones: (DD is 12)
No daycare expenses
Minimal entertaining...
Clothing...not sure. most of it is for growing DD, probably 500/year for her.
Cars: two car payments on a Subaru and a VW....drive about 14000/year total.
Activities...not too much, right now, usually religious school, and one sport.
Gifts, about $200 per year...(birthday & Hanukkah). This year, will be higher with Bat Mitzvah.
Vacations, about 2 -3k/year. We used to spend a lot more...but that is not an option.

Other big expenses:
Mortgage: 2K/mo
Ulitities 150/mo
Cable/internet: 160/month, but I use the internet for work
Medical: about 750/month (I can not cut that back and live....most of it is for cancer treatments)
Life Insurance (not dropping that): about 200/month.

Start recording all spending then you can see where it goes.

Do you bring your lunch or eat out?
Do you cook from whole foods or do you buy processed prepackaged things?
Do you and your spouse pay for full on expensive smart phones?
Daycare costs?
How much are your medical bills?
How much do you spend on going out for dinner? Or bringing in?
DO you entertain?
How much do you spend on clothing/shoes? $500 per year per person? $1000?
How much do you drive per week?
In how many activities are your children enrolled?
How much do you spend on gifts? Birthday? Holidays?
Vacations?

Without a budget, we can only guess.

That said here's what I did -

Refinance (saved $100)
Paid off cars ($700 a month, I know you've done this already)
Upped my deductibles since I have cash for small repairs ($50 a month)
Cut cable ($120+ a mo)
Cut yard guy ($250 a month)
Turned up/down heating/ac ($10 to $100 a month)
Renegotiated my home owners ($20 a month)
Dropped to one cell ($100 mo)

I found it was the small things that were death by thousand cuts.

Mint.com is frequently recommended on here as a way to track where the money is going.

OP, you need to provide more details. How much do you spend on groceries? Kid activities? 401K?

take-home is about 8K (which seems like a LOT to me -- where the heck does it all go?). This is after we put some $$ in 401K. We pay for various kid activities (music lessons, sports etc); everyone (including one child) take public transportation; prescription meds add up to about $150 a month. I need to take a good look, with a calculator, to see where it's going. This is ridiculous.

Yeah I don't understand this either. Our HHI is 100k. We rent at 2000k/month and live quite comfortably. We have one child.

I'm sorry, OP, but you have to be fooling yourself here. 3K isn't a terribly high mortgage even on less of a salary. With two kids in public school I can't see how you're not saving. We make 90K, mortgage of 1.5K, and we save monthly for retirement and college (not much, but $500 total). Please post your take-home and your expenses so we can get a better sense of what's going on.

either we are doing something seriously wrong, or it's become impossible to live on a moderate income in this city. Our HHI is 160K (I know, it's ridiculous to even call it moderate but that's what it seems in this area). Mortgage etc 3K (high, I know, but we are not moving). Two paid-off old cars. Two kids in public schools. Minimal cable. Minimal college savings plan. Some medical bills. Don't really buy clothes (or rarely, and nothing extravagant). don't go out to eat very much, and when we do, it's to pretty cheap restaurants. We do spend a lot of $$ on groceries, but that's the only indulgence. After I paid all the bills (coming due on the first), we literally have nothing left for the next week until the next bi-weekly payment comes. It's so frustrating, and I honestly don't even know where to start trimming.