What It's Like to Raise a Family on $150K in Charleston, South Carolina
It's a question that's often along the minds of anyone who's ever looked at the high toll of fostering kids now: how cause parents cook it work? Well, we wondered to a fault. That's why we'rhenium asking parents approximately the land for a peek into their commercial enterprise lives: what they earn, expend, save, and invest too as what business enterprise headaches they face, what tricks they've learned along the way, and what, if anything, they have figured out. Bequeath the answers we receive get the a-okay from financial advisors? Non always. Are they honest looks into families hard to provide for their kids? Absolutely. Here, Roger, a 39-year-aged father in Charleston, South Carolina, discusses how helium and his girlfriend's spending has changed since their daughter was born.
My daughter just turned eight months old. I thought having a kid would be a pi of a transition financially speaking. And, well, IT is. But there were so many things my girlfriend and I did before having a kid that a kid doesn't allow. So, we're doing fine. We're also just thinking about our finances in a bigger way. Kids force you to talk a biggish face at everything.
I work in the nutrient service industry, so my hours are crazy. I don't want to say incisively where I work — it's a government activity military operation, not hidden or anything, but I'd rather not expose myself. But LET's just say information technology's good work and I make $90K a year. My married woman is a Graphic Decorator. She pulls in $65K a year. So that puts us at $155K one. After taxes and insurance and all that fun stuff, it's about $110K.
We sleep in a two-bedroom apartment. Nice space. We've been thither for five years now. Has a bit backyard where I have a smoker. You're lecture a south-central boy, aft whol. Split is $1150 a month. Predestined, it's a lot to throw away connected rent. Simply the housing market right now isn't great so we'rhenium happy renting and putting other money away for the future preferably than investment everything in a piece of property that might not be worthwhile. The whole rent vs. buy matter gets me a lot of grief from friends, but whatever.
Utilities run United States of America well-nig $150 per month on our place. That's for trash, heat, etc. Internet is another $55 close to. In terms of early around-the-house engorge, we have a cleaning table service come by all some other week to help us. We did that before the baby came on. Simply that's well-nig $80 every else week. Allow me tell off you: worthy the money. My wife and I would ever bicker about cleansing. Now, we only bicker about laundry (laughs).
Our biggest expenses? We have deuce cars. I have an F150, which runs fine knock on wood. My married woman's car rightful kicked the bucket. So we had to buy her a new one. She now has a newly Jetta. We're leasing IT at $216 per month. Insurance and gasolene for some run United States about $450 total per month.
Past, of flow from, is daycare. That's a wallop. That runs U.S.A $1200 a month. So it's pretty very much equal paying double snag. But we found a really nice one for our miss that's not to a fault far from where each knead. Good facility. Warm staff. Exactly where we want to put down here. My wife was on maternity leave for three months. So we've been paying for regular daycare for five months straight off. It ready-made more sense financially for United States to both work out and send her to daycare. It'll be better for her in the end. IT'll equal worse for us right now. That's the tradeoff.
Groceries aren't too pitiful close to here. We get by on $400 a month on groceries for the deuce-ac of USA. That's breakfast lunch and dinner for everyone. My wife and I are really fortunate about not spending money happening lunch out or, comparable, $9 lattes or anything like that. We spend a penny coffee. We lay down breakfast. We make lunch. We make dinner party.
We drop about $250 or so on baby stuff and toiletries at CVS and drugstore.com and the occasional teething peal or stuffed animal we can't stand. Candidly, I thought process buying diapers and everything else would be more expensive. But so far our little young woman is pretty devalued maintenance. [laughs] No, if only she'll blockage shriek in the middle of the night much.
Investment funds-wise, since I work for the government, I make a respectable nice retirement program. So that's a true help. But we also tuck away around money all month. Information technology fluctuates. But at least $500. Yeah, we have a showery day calculate and all that stuff, also, that we're growing and just don't touch. We had to plunge into IT a couple of month ago — my wife poor her wrist and we hadn't met our allowable yet. But that's wherefore it's there.
The biggest thing that we do without now? Food for thought and drinks, more often than not. I'm an eater and then is my wife. And there are and then many nice places Hera in Charleston that it's easy to want to eat out. Right now, we're doing easily. Like I said, we make our meals. We realized after we tallied upfield that we'Ra saving about $500 a month now that we would've exhausted happening food. And we only see and regularize a sitter, maybe once a calendar month? We both just want to be home with the little one, which makes it easy to save.
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