Quote:
Originally Posted by dansamy
Rico, we have three children. All of whom were born pre-term. We have expenses that normal children would not have incurred. In addition, we have the normal expenses: school uniforms, insurance, child care (for three, mind you), groceries for five, gasoline for 2 commuters which is now over $100 a week. Yes, we made bad choices along the way that made things worse. I am not in favor of the government stepping in to fix any of the errors we've made along the way. It will take us two more years to become debt-free. Then, yes, we will have a better "standard of living" where the budget isn't so tight. Two years after that, we should be building/buying a house. (And birthday cake is an exaggeration on my part. We really can't afford the latest video game system and 6 new games every Christmas. However, if the government bought all my groceries, including those birthday cakes, we certainly could afford those types of things.)
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No doubt the child care is taking a huge chunk of what's coming in every week. I remember reading somewhere that by the time you deduct for the extra child care expenses, the commuting costs, and the wardrobe costs, many two income families barely break even on what the second income brings into the home. Even so, both of you working will pay off come retirement time, since you both will have SS, plus any retirement plan you put together on your own. Also, I hear you on those video games!! Good grief! Them things are high! I get my son a new game every now and then, but it's always from Game Stop because they sell games used. Some of them can be bought for only $10 too. We could probably qualify for food stamps, but we were alread on them for around three years, and I told my wife I am sick of having to spill my guts to some caseworker to get a few hundred dollars of food stamps. We eat a lot better quality food off of them anyhow, because we are very careful about what we buy now.