<prompt> Human: Throw away account because personal info.Ill start by saying Im the sole worker in our family - we looked at having my wife work, but with 3 children, 2 under the age of 3 1 and 2 years old respectively, she would end up barely covering childcare expenses, while someone else pretty much raises the kids.Check starts with taking out 45 check for medical insurance for myself. Each check comes to 1625 2 weeks.Rent: 1100 Townhome apartment in HoustonElectric Water: 200Car Payment: 365Gas: 320Tolls: 55 2.80day M-F, saves me about that in gas when I dont use the tollwayCar Renters insurance: 185Cell: 145 Just got out of Sprint with no ETF and went to VZW, ended up saving about 50month.Internet netflix music service Spotify: 75Groceries: 600Credit monitoring: 15Eating out: 80 We literally eat at the same place every Sunday morning for a breakfast buffet: 20 gets all 5 of us all you can eat breakfast, lasting us until dinner until we need to eat again. With three kids, thats an AMAZING price.After everything is said and done, this leaves us with ALMOST 100 to handle household stuff, clothes Goodwill!, other things that come up.This paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle is driving me mad, and my company is about to switch it up farther by taking another 50 out of every check for health insurance - which I have to have, as Im a T1 diabetic, and without it my prescriptions are 2800 month yes, you read that right, but with insurance I only pay the cost of the insurance itself. My wife and I can never afford to do anything. Any changes here you guys can see that Im not implementing?A couple notes: The rent is what it is because of where we live: theres 5 of us in a 4 bedroom townhome in a nice part of town, and our credit sucks, so getting a house for cheaper isnt necessarily an option. We pay our gas tolls on one credit card 300 limit, we max it and carry a 100 balance, use it for those bills, and pay 200 every 2 weeks, and our groceries on another 500 limit, we pay 300 to it every 2 weeks and have a minimum balance of 200 after paying. I hope this makes sense - I can elaborate if needed. I work a solid 25 miles from our apartment, and thats why the gas tolls are what they are.Assistant: Car Payment: 365Gas: 320Tolls: 55 2.80day M-F, saves me about that in gas when I dont use the tollwayI work a solid 25 miles from our apartment, and thats why the gas tolls are what they are.So youre driving 250 miles per week roughly, tofrom work. This isnt a lot, yet youre spending 320 in gas. Just what kind of car are you driving here? Most modest 4-6 cylinder cars are going to get 300 miles out of a full tank of gas, so youre spending a tank a week to get to work. Your transportation costs are killing you. My back of the napkin math says youre spending 890-900ish a month just to drive your car. Thats absurd. Youre spending nearly 28 of your take home on this. Thats one huge reason why you dont have any money leftover...Cell: 145 Just got out of Sprint with no ETF and went to VZW, ended up saving about 50month.Why is this so high if your wife stays at home? I understand she might need a cell phone, but two people should not be paying nearly 145 for cell service these days.Groceries: 600This is very high IMO. A family of 5 with two very young children should easily be able to do better than this and still eat well.Credit monitoring: 15Why are you paying for this?Human: I drive a Mitsubishi Endeavor, and we also have a large econoline Ford van paid off. We need the room, what with 3 kids, 2 in car seats. The endeavor gets about 18mpg. Van is terrible on mileage, but it was a gift, and lets my wife get around when Im at work and she has all the kids. I get about 300-325 miles in a tank and fill up once a week. Do you have a suggestion on a cell carrier? I might still be able to get out of what I have, but between us we use about 8 gb of data... Mainly me for my job. Tons of emails. Im in IT. For groceries, we spend 150week, which just gets us enough to last. We only buy generic, use a savings card, etc, but my kids eat like horses. Any suggestions there? See above for the credit monitoring.  <response>: I drive a Mitsubishi Endeavor, and we also have a large econoline Ford van paid off.Do you really need an suv with a car payment AND a van thats already paid off? I would sell the SUV, pick up a cheaper and more fuel efficient compact car for commuting, and keep the van for when you need to transport the kids. The endeavor gets about 18mpg. Van is terrible on mileage, but it was a gift, and lets my wife get around when Im at work and she has all the kids. I get about 300-325 miles in a tank and fill up once a week.To be honest, the endeavor has terrible mileage too, especially considering you commute up to 325miweek. If you were to sell your endeavor and get a small commuter car with 35mpg, for example, you would cut your gas bill in half AND save yourself a car payment. Based on the numbers you gave earlier, this would equate to about 365160 525mo in savings. You will also probably save some on insurance with an older, cheaper car. Do you have a suggestion on a cell carrier? I might still be able to get out of what I have, but between us we use about 8 gb of data... Mainly me for my job. Tons of emails. Im in IT.According to Verizons data usage calculator, you would need about 75MB of data per month to cover 250 text-only emails PER DAY. What kind how many emails could you possibly be sending that require 8GBmo??? This seems outrageous, but perhaps Im missing something.. Do you never have WiFi access? For groceries, we spend 150week, which just gets us enough to last. We only buy generic, use a savings card, etc, but my kids eat like horses. Any suggestions there?I dont have the best advice for this as I spend a bit extra to eat mostly fresh meat vegetables..EDIT: Added a couple more comments, as I was originally on mobile.. 