<prompt> Human: This is going to be long, but I figure if Im going to ask, I should probably lay all the info out there.The background: My husband 32 and I 31 had our first baby in May. Weve been married 8 years and waited a good while to be financially ready, paying off credit card debt and stashing away at least an emergency fund. We would have liked the emergency fund to have been bigger, but we want a few kids and were not getting any younger, so we couldnt wait forever. We both work for a large private university. Hes been here 9 years, and Ive been here 4. Both jobs are stable, or so we thought. When I was 8 months pregnant, the leadership in his department changed suddenly, and he was told to start looking for something else. The new boss wanted to bring in his own guy. I went into labor early shortly after that. He wisely decided to also take 12 weeks of FMLA with me, since he had a ton of vacationsick time built up, and he spent a lot of that time looking for and interviewing for other jobs. He was hired by another department within the university, which was great so that he didnt lose his seniority or the awesome benefits the university provides us, but it was a 6k pay cut. This is a really big hit to our finances, but we knew this was better than waiting for him to be laid off, so he took it. Hes been in this new position for a month.So, now, a breakdown of our finances... My salary is 37,329, of which I take home 920 biweekly, after taxes and benefit deductions I pay 200 biweekly for health insurance premiums for myself and the baby. I have some health issues, so I pay more for the low-deductible plan. She spent a month in the NICU, so I put her on with me, for the lower deductibleout-of-pocket max as well. I may move her to her daddys higher deductible plan for next year - not sure whats smart with an infant. His salary is 48,535, of which he takes home 1350 biweekly, after taxes and benefit deductions He pays a measly 40 biweekly for his higher-deductible health insurance premiums. Lucky healthy bastard..So, with 2 pay periods per month, we bring home approximately 4500, on which we must live and pay our bills.Our monthly bills: mortgage w escrow 1200 daycare 700 cell phone bill 140 car payment 354 electricity 150 on average my student loans 179 cable internet 145 car insurance 290 watertrash pickup 65All of this totals 3223, which leaves us with 1227 for the month.I use and love Mint. For our budget, I have the following set, in addition to the above... groceries 400 100 per week; groceries is the label, but it encompasses more than just food, as this is our weekly Walmart trip, where we buy groceries, but also household items, toiletries, diapers, etc gas 200 we commute from 25 miles away daily; this obviously fluctuates with the price of gas everything else 400 100 per week; this is the catch-all for miscellaneous spending - eating out rare, pet supplies we have an insulin-dependent diabetic dog, oil changes and other vehicle needs, clothing and other shopping rare, misc baby needs, haircuts, gifts, etc, etcNow were down to 227 for the month. This is pretty much always sucked up by the everything else budget, when we inevitably go over. I should probably just go ahead and adjust the everything else budget to 600, to reflect reality, but I always tell myself that well be super careful, and then unavoidable things come up that prevent that.As you can see, we are barely breaking even. Thankfully, the only debt we have other than our mortgage is my student loans and his car, both with interest rates around 6. I was mistaken. The student loans are 6. The car loan is 4.19 interest; not sure if this makes a difference regarding the suggestions to refinance... If we could pay those off and free ourselves of that 533month combined burden, it would make a big difference for us. Wed be able to save more money faster. The balance on my students loans is 6700 and the balance on his car is 8700. 15k of debt that, if we could find a way to pay off, would give us a decent amount of breathing room, and allow us to save more, faster. Maybe even take our little girl on vacation once a year. Dare to dream!Other possibly relevant info... We have 1565 in a savings account, as our emergency fund right now. Obviously, wed like to increase that. It was at 8k before the baby, but we had to pay 2500 for myself and also for the baby, for our hospital billsout-of-pocket max, and then we had to live without my paycheck for most of my maternity leave. The university gives us both 8 contribution to 401k accounts. We have around 42k combined right now. After he took the pay cut we stopped our own contributions of 100 per month each, as we knew we had to figure out our new budget first. But the 8 continues for us both. We have an excellent interest rate on our house 3.375 I think, so we dont need to refinance. I have setup a savings account for the baby, as I wanted to start early, even if deposits are small. Right now, I just put in 1 for everyday since shes been born, so at the start of each month, Ill transfer 30 or 31. Obviously, wed like to eventually be able to contribute more.So, there it is. Thats everything I can think of. Ill give more detail if its needed, just ask. If anybody can identify ways we can save, and pay down the 2 debts to free up that money monthly, Id love to hear it. The only thing I can identify is possibly cutting cable. We dont want the baby watching TV for a while anyway, so were already talking about doing that. But the 70-80month still doesnt make enough of a dent.Thanks in advance for your time, if you made it all the way through this novel. I know these details arent exciting. But it would make such a big difference in our lives if somebody smarter than us took a look and pointed out something we dont knowsee.EDIT: I cant thank you guys enough for the thoughtful evaluations of our situation and these ideas on ways to save. In my mind, its a game now, to see just how much we can reduce our expenses, and Im all pumped up! Ive written down every single suggestion and Im so excited to go home tonight and talk to my husband about all of these and get started. I knew Id be glad I posted here. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!Assistant: use a more detailed budget. youre hemorrhaging money somewhere and not aware of it. for example: unavoidable things come up that prevent that.those unavoidable things need to be in the budget. also, do you two get a big tax refund each year? if so, adjust your paperwork to get a smaller refund if youre getting, say, 3000 tax refund each year thats an overpayment of 250month. you could possibly use that cash each month rather than giving an interest free loan to the IRSHuman: I guess the biggest reason I havent setup a more detailed budget for those miscellaneous expenses is because so many of them are unforeseen. I feel like the point of a budget is to do it ahead of time, but if husband goes and gets a haircut, or the baby suddenly needs new clothes, etc, and I go budget that after the fact, its not really saving me from spending anything, you know? Maybe I need help in seeing this differently...?  <response>: haircuts and kids clothing need to be in the budget. These are reoccurring expenses. 