@sunflower232 Solidarity.
Both make good incomes, mortgage is way reasonable (bought in 2016, refinanced at 3%) own both cars outright. Really scaled back eating out when we had our first kid… and covid made it a habit.
But
Fucking daycare costs are astronomical. Our second starts next week. To prepare my husband and I both got new jobs to help bring in more income. Tightened up elsewhere, and dialed back 401k funding from where I’d like to be. With the goal of increasing our rainy day fund before that second daycare bill hit and it became impossible. Got a few house fixes done before baby to get ready…
Then the whole HVAC broke: 10k gone, and then a pressure valve broke, and with that they found a leak: 5k gone.
So here we are with less in savings and daycare just announced a 12% increase starting in September. We aren’t swimming in debt, just can’t catch a break to get ahead despite us trying our best to prepare.