Are we the only ones struggling financially?

[sugahani]

@sunflower232 If you’re comfortable with it, you can purchase vaccines at a farm store (maybe petco?) and do them yourself. You can’t do rabies yourself though so that only works if you have the 3-year rabies.

 

[sunflower232]

@sugahani I did not know all these vet hacks!

 

[itsgo0d]

@sunflower232 We are about to put baby 2 in daycare in a week and I just stripped our budget to the bones after hyperventilating once I realized how much we spent last year. We have moved out of state/bought a house that needed tons of storage added to it, our HVAC and fridge needed replacement, and we had 2 babies all in 24 months (and our insurance sucks so those were some expensive babies, and I didn’t have any paid leave.) I am committed to spending less than 200/week on groceries (our old grocery spending habits were ridiculous—I’m a newly committed Aldi fan) and only buying the kids clothes at consignment stores (we have a Once Upon a Child near us). If we actually stick to the budget we are just a little over into the red each year, but we are very lucky to have savings to cover it. We also both drive cars with over 100k miles on them so we need to make room in the budget to one of them to die probably. Oh and both of companies had raise freezes last year. Good times.

We also have free state funded prek when our kids turn 4, so I keep reminding myself we are only paying two full daycare bills for 24 months and then we are at least getting a little boost!

But I feel you. And we don’t even have any debt besides our house. I don’t know how other people survive with big car payments and student loans.

 

[kylein]

@sunflower232 Similar situation. We see a financial advisor once a year and she said to expect to go through savings during the daycare years. There’s just no cushion right now

 

[sunflower232]

@kylein Ours said that too, but then comments from others make it sound like they aren’t in the same situation

 

[kylein]

@sunflower232 I agree - I tend to pass by the posts about hiring out to ease the burden. My toddler starts prek and they requested a month tuition that will go to June 2024. I already paid a deposit to secure her spot. So I’m unexpectedly paying two childcare payments for her this month and an infant spot for my son. It’s insanity. Baby had a growth spurt so needed bigger child seats for our cars. It’s wild how quickly the costs add up.

 

[jmorgan10513]

@sunflower232 Daycare costs more than the mortgage. Luckily we qualify for WIC which helps for food. But we both work 50 hours a week on average so it's definitely frustrating.

 

[edithtaylor]

@sunflower232 My husband and i are in this position. It feels like we’re the only ones treading water and our student loans are gonna kill us. We don’t spend extravagantly, we are strategic with money but we had a couple family situations that required our immediate attention and support. None of our friends have had this experience and most had assistance paying down loans if they had any at all.

What kills me is that my grad school loans are what’s left. I definitely wish i’d have gone a different direction for grad school than i did.

 

[sunflower232]

@edithtaylor So hard not to wish you made different choices. I do that alllll the time around past expensive decisions. Soooo not helpful for our mental health. Accept and look forward my friend!

 

[brazilian]

@sunflower232 You are so not alone!

 

[flowera]

@sunflower232 I wouldn’t say we are struggling, but we aren’t thriving right now. We’ve had to spend a lot of money on repairs for cars, the house, tree removal. Like probably 10k in unexpected expenses in the last few months.

 

[sunflower232]

@flowera Ugh gives me a pit in my stomach

 

[rebecca25]

@sunflower232 I just want to say a lot of people will say “my mortgage costs less than my rent so it’s better!”

But rent is the MOST you’ll pay while your mortgage is the least.

On paper Renting may cost more than mortgage (and in your case only slightly) but you can expect to spend about 1-1.5% of your home value in repairs each year. So add that into the cost. For a $500,000 house that’s $5000-7500 a year. Some years will be more and some years less so that’s why they suggest saving 1% for home repairs a year.

 

[susan67]

@sunflower232 Check out the r/personalfinance and r/financial independence Reddit threads. Lots of it may not feel relevant to you, but I always glean some good tips and tricks from others by reading those. You’re not the only one. Good luck!

 

[sunflower232]

@susan67 Thanks! Appreciate the tip and good vibes