<prompt> Human: Hello! New to the sub, I have tried to read some old posts and most of the sidebar, and am just looking to bounce this off somebody. We recently had twins and are adjusting to the new daycare budget.I have put together a PFS and a Budget that I think does a decent job of keeping track of all our fixed expenses, but I need to really drill down into variable expenses. Basically, shopping, whether are buying groceries, going to Target, the wholesale club, coffee and lunch out... weve always just tried to not be ridiculous but now we need to do a lot more work in this area. Mint will help me to add all the accounts and then sit back and reivew analyze all of our credit card spending and what categories we are spending on? Diapers Groceries Gas etc? YNAB will be us adding each purchase into the system going forward? Or I suppose if we recreate past months purchase histories?I am not wholly sure of how much detail here is too much detail, but our current takehome is 7,660 per month 4,9752,685, but we do each contribute 10 to 401 K and my wifes check has another 5 going into an ESPP, and if we needed to cut these out completely, we could take home 9,000? taxes would increase a bit without the 401K contributionWe have 3 debt payments. 1,383 mortgage including TI total debt 162,000 3.75126 student loan payment - total debt 10,000 2.625555 car payment on a minivan which we just got because of fitting 3 kids plus gear. Total debt 28,000 at 0 about 50 months of payments leftOther Fixed expenses:263 - Train Parking for me to get to work130 - Cable Phone Internet165 - Electric70 - Water Trash Recyclingand the biggie - 3,785 - Daycare for 3 kids - preschooler and infant twins.This leaves 1,180 for all variable spending - groceries, formula, diapers, clothing, amazon, coffee, buying lunch, etc...We do have savings, prior to the twins arrival and paying this enormous daycare bill, we did attempt to save money every month, though Im sure we also fell into bad habits where we didnt particularly care if we stopped by starbucks when we wanted a coffee...and it is very easy to make excuses about buying lunch out when you feel like you are crunched for time. We typically sleep about 11 PM to 4 AM now with the kids schedule and I leave the house before 7 AM and get home after 7 PM, but I know that these are still just excuses for bad habits like buying lunch out too often. 90,000 cash in the bank.110,000 home equity estimating market value at 110,000 over existing debt177,000 401K - 84K 93K137,000 ROTH IRA - 111K 36KSo we should have positive net worth over 500K, but I am very worried about monthly negative cash flow because I know we are spending over the 1,180 month variable spending that the budget is telling me we have. We have only been in the scenario for about 3 months now, as the twins started at daycare recently. We typically put our spending on credit cards and then pay off the entire balance monthly. Our monthly credit card bills typically exceed 1,180.I greatly appreciate any insight into what I am missing, and will edit accordingly as I can.EDIT1: RE: NANNY I need to look into how much a NANNY is in our area. They are in daycare roughly 7:30 AM to 5:30 PM every day, so thats 10 hours a day, 5 days a week, 50 hours a week. If you assume 200 hours a month it is just less than 19 per hour for 3 kids. If a nanny is less, that could be a viable option. We do not have a big house and space for a live in nanny, though I suppose in a crazy world if it was significantly cheaper we could buy a bigger house but get a live in nanny? That would require a lot of number crunching and what ifs... All things being equal we prefer the school day care as our 3.5 year old is really thriving and doing very well there and we have had nothing but positive experiences with the daycare - which I admit, is pretty yuppieEDIT 2: RE RETIREMENT BONUS:I know I get about a 2 401K match if I put in 6. company has a formula about matching 25 of the employee capped at 6 but in good years increases it above the minimum amount promised. Wifes matching is I think 3 on putting in 6 or 50 of the employee contribution - but we are both putting in 10 right now.Her ESPP account accumulates cash throughout the year and then at the end of the year buys stock at the lower price of Jan 1 or Dec 31 plus gets another 15 off of that price. She puts in 5 of her check towards this and we have sold some shares in the past just to not feel like too many eggs were in the one basket but I think she has almost 25K in the ESPP right now with about 20K that could be sold at this time. BONUSIn filling out the sidebar budgeting worksheet, I realized I wasnt sure where I was accounting for bonus potential. I am eligible for an annual bonus and my wife is eligible for a quarterly bonus that I do not necessarily want to count on in my budget if possible - in case they dont show up. They have historically shown up for the past 5 years though, I feel somewhat confident estimating it at almost 20 of annual pay, unless something really bad happened to the company and it wouldnt show up at all. Mine is up to 30 of pay and hers seems to wildly fluctuate from 0 to 26 depending on quarterly performance of her company, division, parent company... Primarily, we aim to fund the annual ROTH IRA contributions from bonus payouts - ideally we would see quarterly checks of 1,700 and an annual check of 13,500 none of which is guaranteed.  <response>: Have you considered in-home care? A private nanny would certainly come in at less than what you are paying for daycare if you assume 40 hours a week of care. In addition, nanny shares where you and another family use the same nanny in one of your homes can offer even more additional savings although with 3 kids already, you probably could only add on one additional.Really, the child care costs are what is really hurting you, the rest of your numbers dont seem unreasonable. 