Are we the only ones struggling financially?

[sunflower232]

@roarke That’s like us. We took a loan against our 401K last year for the downpayment on our house, and I did an early withdrawal from my IRA for bills this year. It feels embarrassing

 

[jesselynn]

@sunflower232 You are in the thick of it with just buying a house and two kids in daycare! I’m a few years ahead of you with just one in daycare now and been in our house for a few years and we feel comfortable money wise. I’m not crazy budgeting like I was a few years ago, but at the same time inflation is a killer right now so we don’t have a lot of extra cash either.
You started a family and building a foundation for the future- so hang in there!

 

[keifer23]

@sunflower232 I will say, this summer my husband and I have called utility companies, wireless companies, etc. to try and cut some costs or look for savings. For some of our bills/businesses, we've been in business with them for over a decade, so I'm, like, can you help us out somehow?!? Just calling the phone/internet company saved me $20 a month in our bill, so that adds to $144 a year. It's small, but it's something I can put towards paying down another bill or even in savings.

It's a rough time right now to just be an adult, I feel. I have single friends with no kids who've had to cut back just because everything has risen in cost. I do practice gratitude, however, in being able to afford paying the bills and having a mortgage, etc. Although I'm not saving as much as I'd like, I'm happy that I have some savings and have been blessed with two kids, etc.

 

[estrellasolluna8]

@sunflower232 I just had an interesting discussion with several of my colleagues and friends. I’m a medical assistant I make about $23 an hour which is really good for my position. I work in orthopedic surgery with physician assistants and doctors. We all have kids different ages despite what Grey’s Anatomy says we live in normal houses eat food from Aldi and go to Walmart. I actually rent an apartment and the rent is $1255 comparable to a mortgage payment of an average house where I live. Every single one of us is struggling. My PA who put in 70 hours last week, and is married to a derm had to put their son in a normal daycare, and they can barely afford it. Nannies were way too much out of the budget and it’s hard to find a normal steady babysitter here. We literally bring lunches and share, we carpool when we can, and we share our budgeting tips.
I learned a lesson in humility, and that is that no matter what we do at whatever level people are struggling right now. I have student loans, they have student loans. They have a baby and get Costco diapers. I have a 12-year-old who needs a whole set of clothes for the school year this year because she’s super tall.
Yes, there are people in the medical field to make an absurd amount of money and live a life that I can’t imagine but I think for 85% of us, we are really going through the struggle. It reminds me to be supportive, check in and never judge a situation because I literally have no idea. Times are super hard right now when it comes to childcare, bills, working, and food, no matter what you do. We are having to make a really difficult decisions about how to balance, work, motherhood, and trying to keep a roof over our heads.

 

[eldridge]

@sunflower232 We had to replace every major appliance in the house plus HVAC this last year. We screwed up the 0% APR deal and got kicked in the teeth with the catchup APR charges. Summer program for daycare added $600 a month, and I finally caved and asked my mom if she would buy clothes for my kids because I honestly felt like I just couldn't spend any more.

August will be amazing dropping my son's daycare costs, and then I'm counting down to November, when my daughter gets a decreases cost for being 2!

Hang in there, mama!

 

[myles0]

@sunflower232 try to keep your chin up. if you are making your mortgage payments then you're building equity. that's a form of savings. do you have an emergency fund? if not i would try to focus on building that so you can get out of the credit card cycle (easier said than done, i know).

we have 2 in daycare also and pretty much break even financially with no extra put in savings each month. it stresses my husband out that we're not adding to savings but i keep reminding him this is only temporary. my job basically covers daycare and that's it so his income has to pay for everything else.

 

[sica]

@sunflower232 We’re struggling also, barely breaking even after making lifestyle changes and cuts, no more frivolous spending on nice dinners or vacations. I hope things get better but don’t see that happening

 

[itsgo0d]

@sica I like to remind myself that going on vacation with toddlers isn’t something I feel I really want to do anyway, and sure I’d like to go somewhere with my husband alone for a week, but we will do that when the kids are a little older and out of daycare We haven’t been on a vacation since our first was conceived during the first summer of Covid and won’t for a while.

 

[lnored]

@sunflower232 Yo. Solidarity

It’s tough out here. Two incomes, one kid and grandparents are helping us with daycare costs because it’s so so expensive

 

[roxlovesjesus]

@sunflower232 I got a 40% raise when I switched jobs and somehow were still barely getting by. I have no clue what's going on or how to fix this anymore. As soon as my income went up, a bunch of surprise emergency expenses popped up. I guess the timing was good,all things considered, but I feel so defeated

 

[hughdavis]

@roxlovesjesus My advice: look at your money!! Don't guess what's happened. Be sure.

 

[jenijenn]

@sunflower232 I'm getting a promotion at work, which I was really looking forward to because it would give us more breathing room with everything going up. Then I got the lease renewal paperwork for our apartment and they raised our rent $347 a month! And there goes my increase

 

[sunflower232]

@jenijenn UGHHHHH.

 

[gratefulnyc]

@sunflower232 You’re just in the thick of it right now.

 

[katty3333i]

@sunflower232 Yes! Groceries are a huge burden too. Everything seems to have gotten so much more expensive. I know this isn’t what you asked for, but look into insurance for your furnace. We know that our water line could need to be replaced (all our neighbors have had to) so we got insurance through our power company for $10/month. It may not go while we’re here, but we’ll save the $10k upfront cost to replace. I saw they had HVAC insurance too.

 

[krull]

@sunflower232 I feel this so much. We get by, but barely. I'm pregnant with our second and having two kids in daycare is going to be more than our mortgage. The thing that is really killing us though is my husbands student loans. He has predatory loans and the monthly payment is so high it's basically like having a third in daycare. It's awful.

 

[sunflower232]

@krull I’m so sorry! Student loans are the devil.

 

[agiese]

@sunflower232 My father in law recently passed away. He was living with us and helping to pay utitiles. Now it's all on us. And I really don't understand how people do it. I'm looking at part time jobs along with my full time job just so I can save and then also so I can retire comfortably when the time comes plus become debt free but damnit it's hard.

I wish it wasn't like this but inflation has hit us very hard here in my household along with having to pay for my father in laws funeral expenses out of our own pockets. Since he didn't have will either we have to have to pay a lawyer too so we can settle his estate on top of everything else. I totally understand where you are coming from though!!

All of this plus the rise in just about every damn thing and we are paycheck to paycheck right now and it sucks.

 

[tinisha]

@sunflower232 When you say you can't save, do you mean you have no emergency fund? Or that you can't add on to it?

 

[sunflower232]

@tinisha We have an emergency fund, but it’s not enough for if we lost a job let’s say, and every time we start making traction adding to it something happens and we have to take a chunk out.