It's hard because it seems not th groceries that do you in. It's the mortgage, loans and kids. I have no advice. We didn't have kids until we made more and didn't have student debt.

Anonymous wrote:Friend of mine feeds her family for free on Harris teeter coupons. They only buy meat.

I would like to hear more about this. Free, really?

Can you post your budget OP?

130 k is a huge amount of money. More than 99 percent of the population of the world live on, and more than 80 percent of the population of the region live on.

What is your budget"

No kids. Huge savings

Do one of the "buy nothing" months. Eat from your pantry / frig, go as long as you can without buying extra food, toiletries, etc.. for that month. Even if you only do this a couple of months a year, the savings add up.

First, we used all my salary to pay off student loans when we got married. Took 2 years to knock out 70K in student loans. We kept mortgage low (145K ish and then down to 0) before we had kids or shortly thereafter.

We pay cash for cars and pay off credit cards every month.

I think the key is that we got rid of some expenses before we had kids and then we kept housing costs low by living in THs or SFHs that we could afford without a mtg or with a smaller mtg. Essentially we delayed making more expenses (i.e. kids) until we were solidly above water with other debts.

Anonymous wrote:Easy, have a low mortgage under $2000 a month, watch what you spend, older paid off cars, no student loans.

Right. Guess you didn't read the OP.

Easy, have a low mortgage under $2000 a month, watch what you spend, older paid off cars, no student loans.

Being that $130 is $50k more than I earn now, I'd have no problem making ends meet on that salary.

BTW, the little things add up.

We're on 100-120K depending on the year, and previously were on 80K, with two children and a mortgage.

We buy unprocessed food, cook from scratch, rarely go out, and never to expensive restaurants. For other stuff, we buy used but quality things from Craiglist and eBay and thrift stores, but not much of anything beyond what we need. Our house is a very small, which helps cut down on energy costs and sheer amount of stuff, since it wouldn't fit anyway!

We do go on international trips, since our families are overseas. Not every year, and our belt-tightening is partly to afford them.

Forgot to add - family of three.

Friend of mine feeds her family for free on Harris teeter coupons. They only buy meat.

We've been living paycheck to paycheck for years. When our student loans are paid off in a couple years, then life will be so much less stressful.

Can't complain, though. It's still enough money to pay the bills, just not much else.

We have two kids, a mortgage, student loans, and retirement to think about. We might start pulling in another 60 to 70k when I finish my grad degree and go back to work in a few months. However, I don't feel like it will get much better since it will all go to daycare, student loans, and retirement.

How do you cut costs? We don't go on vacation or buy anything extravagant.