<prompt> Human: Long time lurker, first time poster. Im embarrassed to even type this hence the throwaway but thought Id give it a shot since this sub has been so helpful to me.Heres our story. My wife and I make a combined 220K but still struggle to live on a budget and save. Here are the reasons I think we are still struggling to turn around our finances:1. We live in an expensive city Washington DC. We love it here, and our salaries have grown as a result, but our 1200 SF home cost 550K, and we have a 3300month mortgage.2. We have 2 small kids. Since we both work, day care has hit our budget. 2600month for both kids. This is actually cheap in DC.3. We still have debt. 10K in consumer debt, which thanks to you all, has been reduced from 25K in about a year. 80K in student loans which are still being paid off.Weve accomplished some good things: paid off our car and will be buying the next one in cash, worked on our 401ks, and started an emergency fund. But for some reason we still live almost paycheck to paycheck and havent been able to maximize our savings. Were using YNAB which has helped, but havent really been able to stick to our budget for a long time. If you all have any suggestions on steps we could take to improve our financial health, it would be greatly appreciated.Sincerely,Embarrassed High Earner  <response>: If you care to bunk up your kids, and have a spare room, maybe you can look into getting an au pair. After program fees and weekly stipend, you are looking around 1600month. This saves you 1,000 a month, plus au pair can teach culture and languages to your kid they might not receive. 