<prompt> Human: Sorry this may be a little long. One year ago my husband and I were both working full time, paying off debt and setting aside some savings. We had a daughter of 7 in grade school and 1 year old in daycare...and I was pregnant unexpectedly with my 3rd yes we were not too careful given the many years of trying for our 2nd...Im now on an IUD. With the high cost of child care, we made the financial decision for me to come back to work part time. Without going into too much detail our monthly expenses are about 5200 not including daycare. We are pretty frugal people but we live in a pretty expensive area with high utilities and high cost of homes, have one car payment, and still have student loans. Weve cut out most extra expenses except satellite tv which my husband wants to keep and about 50-70 per month in alcohol...I like my wine and my husband drinks a beer every night. All meals at home except we all go out to dinner once per month or order out. I pay 200 extra per month on student loans as I would like to get them both paid off in the next 4 years. My husband takes home 4000 per month and I take home 160 per month in my paycheck. The low pay check is for deductions coming out for healthcare, taxes, 401k, dental,eye care,parking, flexible spending accounts and childcare my total yearly deductions from my pay at this time are about 36000 per year I do get reimbursed for flexible spending at about 400 per month. So our total take home, is 4560 per month. I have also been picking up extra work on the weekends here and there for an average of 12 hours per month which nets me about 320 per month but Im not including because its not guaranteed work but does look like these extra hours will be available through the end of April or longer. We get little influxs of money with tax refunds--pretty big this year since I was being taxed at my full time rate for the first half of the year. And my husband and I both get 3 week pay periods twice per year, which I dont count as regular income. In addition my husband takes home a 2000 bonus per year and I a 1000 per year. So any extra money that comes in gets thrown into a savings account and withdrawn as needed. I also saved up about 5000 in a separate account which I try not to touch and havent had to in the past 5 months in this situation.Now heres the numbers if I had continued to work full time. I wouldve been grossing an extra 2000 per month but only netting about 500 per month subtracting 33 for taxes and 401k take outs, an extra 600 for day care and 120 per month in childcare for my school aged child who averages 2 days off per month, and I counted 200 less per month for being phased out for the child tax credit.This whole deficit situation is temporary as my now 2 year old will be starting preschool in the fall so we have about 7 months left in this situation and then will have only one in day care.I have to say I have been loving the part time life and having more time to spend with my kids and I think my husband benefits too as he has to contribute much less to housework and I dont feel as stressed at work as I can schedule doctors appointments and such on my days off and not worry about leaving early etc. But I am worried that I am not providing my kids with a financially secure future and that one disaster could ruin us. Do you think I made the right decision going from full time to part time? Would you do anything different?Edit: Thanks for the objective comments all. I think I do need to take a closer look at savings on day to day things like internet,phone, booze, and cable. Im not ready to take the step to full time m-f yet but Im going to talk to my boss and see if I can pick up even more hours on weekends so I can maximize the additional take home income. When I get down to only one in daycare I will ask to go back full time again. I think its just more cost effective for me to work hours on weekends right now with the high cost of child care...im signing off to head into work.Update: well based on some advice from folks ive made the following actions:First expenditures:I am switching to ting cell phone service. Its actually going to cost us 200 upfront with a early breakup penalty with ATT and new cells but will save us in the order 50-70 per month. Based on our typical usage the bill should be more in the line of 40-50.Im dropping satellite and bundling u-verse internet and cable which will save us 50 per month.Im holding off on donating to my kids 529 for now. Ive saved about 12 grand for them so far but I guess its just silly to put money towards their college when I havent even paid off mine. I had cut way back but now will eliminate altogether for the time being. Ill ask family to donate as gifts instead. Save 50Im going limit alcohol to 20 by sticking to one 12 pack per month with spouse, but well probably stick to our once per month Dennisfriendly trip with the family. This will save us 30-40 per month.I checked on some different car insurance companies and it turns out Im paying too much for this too. This will save me 25 per monthIm trying to figure out how to cut back on groceries over at frugal. I shop sales and cut coupons already but I also am spending too much on stuff I know my family likes so pick up when not on sale. Im spending 2.00 per day on pureed foods for the little one so Im going to start making some and put it into rotation to reduce it to 1.00 per day... This will save me 20 alone. Im already on generic diapers but still spending 100 per month...gonna do the big potty training push to save but I wont count savings till I get this done. Im going to aim to reduce by 100 the first month or by 25trip. Will see how goes and then see if I can do more.If I scale back on paying student loans for 7 months this would save me 200 per month.Total savings:400New total monthly expenditures 6100IncomeWhen I went to do my taxes last night i discovered we were withholding way too much from our paychecks with never adjusting for new family member and reduced tax rate as part timer. Im getting a 6500 refund come February. Based on my calculations for the coming year, Im adjusting my withholding to give us 300 per month. The refund will shore up my current liquid savings acct to 8500 with an emergency savings of 5000 for a total of 13500. I must confess Im really tempted to throw most of it towards student loans but Im gonna hold off till September when my day care expenses go down. My boss told me that theres a hiring freeze and some people leaving so it looks like I could pick up extra work on weekends for many months. Im counting this as additional income for now as 320 per month.Total increase in take home income: 620 per monthTotal income: 6520 per month.So that actually leaves me a 400 surplus if I can fully implement changes. So I think I may still send extra to the student loans and then cut back if I lose we hours. Getting those off my back would be a huge weight lifted.So thanks for all the suggestions. I think I was in a state of paralyzed panic and couldnt think clearly about what to do. Assistant: Can you please provide us a readable layout of your budget: Total Expenses 11ty- Expense 1- Expense 2Total Debt 11ty- Debt 1 Interest Rate 1- Debt 2 Interest Rate 2Total Income 11ty after taxes- Income 1- Income 2---I cant read your story and keep track of all the numbers at the same time. However, I can read your story THEN look at the numbers, or vice versa. Having pretty much no information, I can still guess that you are paying too much on rentmortgage and possibly your vehicles as well. Also wondering why you have kids when you havent even been able to pay off your student loans. It basically means that you havent been able to pay for your own adult life up to this point, but you think you can afford to take on a whole nother person. the past is the past, that line is more for anyone reading whos thinking about having kids but hasnt even paid off their student debt yet so dont take it personallyHuman: Sorry my battery died and I lost my almost done response. Im gonna split it up this time.Expenses 6500 per monthMortgage with taxes 1883Childcare 1280Grocery 880 includes diapers formula and cleaning suppliesCar loan plus ins 650Student loan 750Gas 150Utilities 450Car tax averaged 80Misc 80. Includes haircuts shoes car or home repairs, or misc expense that comes upCell and internet 140 basic service no data no textSatellite 80Dining outbooze 100529 50Assistant: I dont know much about childcare expensesetc but Ill comment on what I do know about. You are paying an awful lot for the car. 730 a month not including gas? 890 a month including gas? This is a huge burden on your budget, sell the 35,000 car and get a 7,000 car instead. Your grocery bill can come down. Im sure its tougher with children diapersformula, but your kids are young and dont eat much. This can easily come down a few hundred a month. Check out the unit cost when choosing brandsitems. Are there certain things you can buy in bulk? Look at what is making your grocery bills so expensive. Everyone is knocking your booze consumption, I too would try to find less expensive alternatives. You guys are running at a deficit here. Paying too much for cell phones and internet. Check out alternatives. You may need to switch providers for both to get a better introductory rate, or even cancel for a month or two to get a new customer discount, but look into this. satellite TV: Why are you specifically getting satellite tv? together thats 220 a month for internettvtwo phones. Look into bundling your internetTV for a better rate. If there are specific things your husband wants to watch, check out rcordcutters for some alternatives. All this being said, I dont think it is a bad idea to be at home with your children during their young years, there is much more than just money consideration in this decision. I DO think you guys can get better on the budget without feeling it too much. Running at such a large deficit isnt healthy, and its not really warranted either in your situation. Best of luck.Human: I bought a 27000 car almost 2 years ago and to be honest Im really kicking myself for it now bc this could be the difference in our budget. I pay 500 month for the loan. My old car was a beater that had died so I bought in desperation with no trade in. I looked it up on Kelly blue book and I have the 1500 in value over my loan. Do you think I should ditch it and buy something else. I have 5000 in a savings but I would probably have to drain it to get something reliable. That makes me nervous.  <response>: To answer both posts.. The cell phones are dependent on how much you would be saving per month. For new cell phones - check ebay. If you are using non-data dumb phones, I was just looking today and you can get a brand new flip phone that just needs a sim card for 40. It depends on how much you care about having a fancy phone. I am currently looking at switching from Verizon to Tmobile as we speak.. er type For the car, I cant make the decision for you, but definitely weigh your options. Look at less expensive cars and what they would cost you. See how much you could sell your car for. It sounds like you are planning on returning to work in a few years, so maybe put 1500 down and finance the rest for now? I belong to a credit union and was able to get a 1.99 loan with 0 down. This way you could lower your payment significantly and not dip into your savings. rough calculations but a 6k loan at this rate would be 100 a month for 5 years. I always do the maximum term to keep minimum payments to a minimum in hard times, but I have the option to pay extra if I want When considering your options for the car, just remember that everything in the past all the money youve dumped into your current car in the past two years is a sunk cost, which means it doesnt matter. If you had put 100k into this car, the only facts that matter are you can possibly sell it for a 1500 gain over the remaining loan. If you do ditch it, DO NOT trade it in. Sell it private party. This will get you the most for it, and the dealer cant use it as a bargaining chip. dealers will often use the amount they are giving you for the trade in as a slop to cover up the shitty deal they are giving you on the car itself Getting a less expensive car will probably lower your insurance cost as well. If you get the vin from a potential car you can ask your insurance company to give you a quote on the potential new car.If you have any other questions Id be happy to help however I can. Just remember, the more specific you are, the easier it is to help ie. years left on the loan, model of car, etc. 