dh takes home after 401k and health insurance about 2400.00 a month that is working 10 hour days. but at times thru the year they go down to 8 hour days that then brings our take home down to1700.00 so those times really suck. luckily we pay cash for our used cars have no cell phones ect. so it is a struggle since we are soon to be a family of 5 and will have 2 in diapers(my just 2 year old has no intrest in the toilet ugg) and over the last 11 years aquired alot of debt but we are working on that....i think cost of living in areas are a factory as well someplaces cost more to live then where we live in iowa.

Go to the library and get Financial Peace by Dave Ramsey. If, by chance, you have seen my other posts you will see I have become a Dave Ramsey fan(atic). It will change your way of thinking about your finances. If you can I would even recommend taking his Financial Peace University course (dh and I are in it now). Tell you what - feel free to ask me any questions and I will try to answer. PM me if you want.

I'm SAHM but we fall in the 4k-5k a month.

Same here Ember!

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Mommy to Jade (5/01), Brynn (2/03), Kylee (12/06) , Big sister to Ryan (4/99)

http://hechtrov.blogspot.com/

I'm a SAHM here in Northern VA where the salaries are high but the housing prices are higher! We are in the over 5K catagory and we live frugally but comfortably. If we want to go out to eat we do (but I will use a coupon! ) and I don't have to nickel and dime myself but I can't go out and blow money. I buy alot of stuff used on Craigslist. We are starting to get seriously saving for retirement and college. We homeschool so I will not be working for another 18 years. I don't have to worry about dh losing his job b/c he gets job offers every week and is in high demand. When we were in the Army (me a sahm with only one child) we made hardly anything like 15,000 a year, now we (I say we I mean dh) make around $140,000 and it's crazy how our life really hasn't changed much. Our mortgage is $3700 a month and two car payments now back then we didn't have to pay housing and we only had one cheap old car.
You spend what you make is my opinion! Just keep a money journal to help you figure out where you can cut back.

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A woman is like a teabag. You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water.-Eleanor Roosevelt

Dh & I both work full time & I get social security...so all totaled we bring home around a little over almost $7000. But, we do have our bankruptcy that we're paying off along with other bills & our mortgage. Daycare isn't cheap either. So, all & all, we also live paycheck to paycheck mostly. Sometimes we have extra money but we're not so good about saving it. That's one thing I wish we could do is build up a savings account.

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We just barely fit in the $3-4000 range (after 401K). I am a SAHM and we live in Maryland - one of the more expensive parts of the country. I definitely feel like we live paycheck to paycheck, but we are lucky in that we do have some savings and my husband gets bonuses every quarter (which definitely helps when times get a little tough and we have unexpected expenses - like now!). We are able save a bit for our kids college funds. We do own our own home - but we were lucky and got in before the price of housing shot up so high - and we have two cars (but just one car payment).

All in all I'm learning that whatever we need, God will provide it one way or another so things always seem to turn out okay.

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Stephanie
Mom to: Caleb (8/03), Ian (9/05), & Lucas (11/08)

it is always amazing to me that so many people live paycheck to paycheck. we do too. i am a SAHM, and we bring in about 2,000. We have no car payments (although we could use a new USED car, but don't know where the $$ would come from), and our mortgage is manageable. Our biggest factor right now is the adoption loan we took out that we are still paying on. That should be done in a matter of months, but we are also STILL paying off the debt we incurred as a result of infertility treatments (just crazy, y'all!). We are slowly getting that paid off but VERY slowly-that will take awhile! The good news is that we have not incurred any new debt for years. No car payments, no new credit debt (we pay off one card every month!), and budget, budget, budget!!

We're in the 3-4 range, but it's just the 2 of us. We save a lot, I shop carefully, hit sales. Grew up pretty poor with my mom (she worked at McDonald's, cleaned offices at night or worked 5am shifts at a bakery). My dad & stepmonster lived the fancy millionaire life. So now we're comfortable, but I'm careful with my money because of how my mom raised me. We do take vacation every year, but also save a lot, pay of the credit card every month, etc.

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DH and I both work full-time and we are a little over the $5,000. Daycare is $190/wk, but the new daycare will be $170/wk and ALOT closer to home and will be even cheaper with DS starts Kindergarten in September. Both vehicles are paid off and we basicly just have our living expenses each month. I have always said that if DH made my money and still got his family benefits, I would be SAHM. I work for small trade association (working on 18 years!) so the family benefits would be outrageous and where my DH works at the local hospital they are cheap, but so is his pay! We could save more, but I feel that we should enjoy life as we live. I do bargain shop, but we both have expensive toys/hobbies. It also depends on the economy where you live to how expensive everything is.