<prompt> Human: Hey everyone. I see a lot of threads on here about people who make decent to great salaries and basically recommend living like you make 30kyear.Well, my SO and I actually make about 35kyear each. The advice most people recommend about being frugal is what we HAVE to do, except we cant save up to 70 of our salary like youd read on early retirement blogs and stuff. Id like to hear from fellow PFers in the same bracket or close to the same. How are things going? Any tips you could share for those of us who dont make 70k!Basic advice Id give is dont live above your means, plan ahead for EVERY expense, maintain a budgetuse a budget tool, and contribute anything you can to retirement. You may not be able to max out everything like others, but something is better than nothing!EDIT: Im not looking for advice, just wanted to start some good conversations and see how we all handle this situation differently and from different backgrounds. EDIT 2: thats 35k before tax, sorry I didnt specify but Id appreciate it if others would specify so we are all on the same page. EDIT 3: Thanks for responding everyone! Lots of good conversations.Assistant: Depends. You never gave a rough budget and your debts. 70k with no debt at all is easy. 70k with 200k student loans between you and large car payments and some medical bills is another story.Human: Im not looking for advice, just wondering how others do it and what their situations are like. I saw a thread here recently about how PF can be very extreme, either people doing well or people who need lots of help. I personally have no debt, but my SO has about 50k. We read a lot about what people recommend doing, but a lot of these people make a good amount of money with no debt and recommend living like you make a salary that we literally make.I wanted to start a thread where people making similar salaries could talk. Not looking for advice really, but perhaps I went about this wrong. Recommendations?  <response>: My first job after undergrad I made 35.5K. Year after that, I got a new job, 37.5. Now I have some new responsibilities and I make a bit more than that.The biggest thing I did to cut expenses was live with roommates. Have not ever lived alone at this point; I would have liked to but paying debt was more important. 