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Laura (23) & Jason (24) | 7/2011
Henry (4/2012) & Eleanor (10/2013)
Visit We are DEBT FREE!
I don't think we'll ever truly be able to increase our standard of living. Any income increases from this point forward will get funnled into paying off SL's, retirement, education, paying off eventual mortgage etc. The only thing that may change is that I'd like to start taking yearly vacations, become a two car family and maybe when it comes time to buy a home we'll be able to afford something a little bigger than I'm currently envisioning. But I'm pretty happy with our standard of living right now and unless our income changes VERY dramatically, it probably won't go up much.
M+A ('08) = Big Dog (7/10) + Little Wolf (1/12) + Tiny Pup (EDD 3/13/15)
I guess we may be in a different situation from most as we've never had debt aside from our mortgage and 0% car payments. That said, our income is more than 4 times as much as it was when we got married 11 years ago and we have struggled with when it's ok to use some of that increase to improve our standard of living and when to use it to increase savings, etc. Granted, 11 years ago we were in college living on beans and rice in a 800 square foot apartment so the first several income increases were just getting to a more comfortable situation.
For us, each time we tried to make sure our decisions were sustainable (wouldn't put us in a bad situation in the future) and we evaluated some future goals against wanting to enjoy the benefits of all of our hard work. For example, after we had our second child we decided to hire someone to clean our house every other week because we decided it was more important to spend that precious time with our kids. We view that as an investment in their future. It's not something we would do if we were in debt but balanced against our income and goals, it makes sense.
That said, we are not and have never been gazelle. We have a goal to have the house paid off before our kids are in college. Anything before that is gravy but we're not killing ourselves over paying off a 0% car payment and a <4% house payment.
I guess it matters on what you mean by standard of living.
For us, increasing the standard of living is the following:
increasing savings for college
hiring a cleaning lady for the house
hiring a landscaper for mowing the lawn
increasing $ for clothes for everyone
increasing $ for dining out/entertainment
At this point, we would do the cleaning/landscaper if DH went back to work to save time (assuming his salary cleared daycare plus those costs). The others are based purely on income - if we had a 5% increase in income, we would put 2% towards retirement, 2% towards saving and 1% towards the monthly budget (clothes, etc).
If you're saving the necessary amount and have paid off your debts (I wouldn't consider mortgage here but that's just me) and you've got room for fun in the budget why wouldn't you add it in? As long as you're doing it with cash and not robbing the necessity categories, I'd say do what you want.
Alyssa, Mom to Sam, (Dec '10, T21) and Maya (June '14)
"Being a mom has made me so tired. But so happy." ~Tina Fey
I guess we've slowly increased our standard of living as our income grew. Shortly after we were married we bought a small 3 bedroom home. For the next 5 years our extra income went into updating a lot of things into the house. We made it ours. Once we had a child, all our extra income went to daycare and a college fund for LO. At that point we also upgraded my car. When LO #2 was born, we upgraded DH's car and then more daycare expenses. Then we felt we outgrew our small home so we weren't actively looking for a new house, just passively looking for a great deal. We found a foreclosure for a great price and jumped on it. So, now ALL our expendable income goes to a new mortgage payment and 2 kids in full-time daycare. We really don't have a lot of fun money, but gradually as the kids phase out of daycare and start school we'll have about $900 more per month in expendable income that we can use other places.
Jennifer Married to Chad 10/5/2002
Camden ~ Nov '08 :: Zander ~ Sep '11 :: Kelso ~ 6/14/14
Ug, great question. Keep in mind I'm a bit bitter right now at my raise this year :) Also keep in mind I never really had debt other than car and mortgage so I didn't really work the BSs all that much.
I've been fortunate to get great raises over the past 5 years, through promotions and moving departments and just doing a great job and being at the right spot at the right time.
It seems like every year it got earmarked for something. One year it went to getting our seperate-from-work IRAs going then again to get them fully funded with a SF, so we spend $11K/year on that and anticipate continuing it. That I was happy with but it didn't really raise our current standard of living, KWIM?
One year it went to ODS's daycare ($8K/year) ~ he's four next month so another 1.5 years of that and then it'll be cut in half for before/after school care.
Another year it went to funding our FFEF ($500/month or $6K per year and I haven't stopped yet though we're at about 4 months now).
Last year's went to offseting DH's pay CUT b/c he wanted to move jobs to be happier, good for him, bad for our budget (to the tune of $8K/year). Another little bit went to upping his retirement since this company offers a match and even with our IRA's I wanted to do a bit more.
Then this year I wanted to earmarked it for the increase in daycare bill I knew would come with our second (and final) child.
So (being naive) I thought that future raises (above COL) would be able to go to fun things, right? We're done at 2 kids, we have our house, retirement is where I want it to be. My raise this year sucked (comparatively). Between SS tax increase (which I support, just saying it hit the budget) and medical increase, it was less than COL. Whereas I was under the pay range/band in past years, now I'm in it, so future raises are quite a bit lower unless I get a promotion (not likely as I've self-mommy-tracked myself for 3-5 years). So, no increased standard of living this year. I was ready for a larger fun/entertainment/travel budget too :( But, we have everything we *need* and that's what I keep in mind.
Jonah born 4/09 @ 34 weeks with Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia CDH Blog
Julia born 9/12 ~ TERMIE!!! Born with Metopic Cranio Synostosis Cranio Blog
At my house, when the cc is paid off (sometime this summer) we will evaluate adding basic cable, increasing clothing allowance and eating steak once in awhile!
This fall, our childcare expense will be reduced by $500/month and I would LOVE a bigger apartment. We have 4 of us in a 2 br/1bth that's about 800sq ft. It's tight, I don't have a closet. We could get a little upgrade for $200/month more. Not sure if we will do that or not, but dreaming about it makes my days a bit brighter!
For us as we've eliminated debt and increased income we've added a few little things. We now have a relatively small eating out budget but it's more than the $0 we used to allocate for that. We have upped our grocery budget quite a bit- from $250/month to $500/month. A lot of that is out of necessity since when we were at $250 DD was an infant and now she's a ravenous toddler who eats twice what I do in a day! lol But partly it's so that I can cook meals I actually WANT to cook and try new recipes and things. If we ate just plain jane basic meals every day I'm sure we could shave about $100 off or so, but we like food- good food- and I love to cook so I'd be unhappy. It's just those little things.
I think we wouldn't dramatically increase our lifestyle until we were 100% debt free, retirement contributions where we want them, on track for house savings and college savings,etc and still having "extra" money. I think at that point I'd be ok with having some bigger luxuries. I think that since we have a very lofty goal of paying cash for our house that it may be until after that point that we loosen up.
We plan to remain at our current standard of living until the mortgage is paid off. Once we are truly debt free, with fully funded retirement and college savings accounts, then we can have as high a standard of living as we can cash flow. With what we currently pay on debt we could hire a maid, a landscaper, drive nice new cars, and take amazing vacations.
We are living like no one else so we can live like no one else...it is just going to take a while to get there.
^Rosemary^, Beatrix,
CD, EBF, ERF, NCB, BLW, 13.1m
"Cute" names belong on puppies, babies grow into adults, name them accordingly!


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Thank you for the financial support and assistance you provided to us. May God continue to bless you in His service. -- E.H.
First United Methodist Church of McKinney is blessed to be in ministry with CLC. We support them with our prayers and financial support as we work together to be of service to the less fortunate. --Alan Heath
Waddill Street Baptist Church sends 70% of our Benevolence Budget to CLC to help those outside our church family. It has proved to be a blessing to our staff and the community who we do not have the resources to properly assess or help. –Jim Blazier
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We just wanted to show our appreciation for helping us with our financial problems. We are very thankful for all the help you have given us. –B.D.
I am very thankful for meeting you (CLC Case Manager) and for your many assistances and the support of "Community Lifeline Center" at this time. My best regards to you and all the wonderful ladies at CLC. –P.S.
When people have to come to agencies for assistance sometimes staff members can be less than friendly, accommodating, or supportive; but Community Lifeline staff has been all of that and have not made me feel additional embarrassment for needing assistance during this difficult time in my family's life. Thank you all. --Client
I have never in my 51 yrs. met such a caring and kind staff as Community Lifeline Center. All are very God sent to help the down and out. --Client
May 7, 2015
Community Lifeline Center is pleased to receive $1,000 from The Allstate Foundation in honor of Allstate Agent Kathy Hall's volunteerism. We are pleased to partner
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May 6, 2015
Recently, the Community Lifeline Center received the following letter, handwritten, from a grateful client: "To The Staff and Helpers, "There is no words to
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May 1, 2015
It's almost Mother's Day. Perhaps your children, grandchildren, or spouse are asking if there's something you would like to make this year's Mother's Day extra
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April 27, 2015
Courtyards Concerts & Cars A tour of four courtyard gardens in the Tucker Hill community in McKinney will benefit the Community Lifeline Center. Tucker Hill, located
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April 24, 2015
On Thursday evening, April 16, Community Lifeline Center supporters attended the improved Empty Bowls event at the MPAC in downtown McKinney. In years past, the
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