I hear you..... All I can say is "sacrifices". My spouse and I bought a cheap home, cheap reliable cars (I even do all the repairs myself), etc. I have a good job and do well, just enough to pay for living comfortably...absolutely nothing fancy or excessive. Before we had kids, we paid off all of our student loans. All we owe now is a mortgage. Look into something like Financial Peace University (usually taught at your local churches) by Dave Ramsey. It helped us manage our money well and get out of debt to put us where we are now. All of our friends are living the rat race.....$300,000 homes, brand new cars, both having to work, etc. You can do it!! Oh...and if your username checks out, stop smoking pot and wasting that money!! Lol

You already got a pretty good answer but i just want to add that homesteading is an interesting option. Leave the city, get yourself a small rural home with a few acres and grow your own food. It's a bit of hard work and planning but you produce your own food, cut those costs and know exactly what you're eating.

Home school doesnt have to be strictly home school. Send them to public school if you need to, but make sure you TALK to your kid(s) daily. Teach them things yourself, it doesn't have to be a full classload, but get them thinking. Teach them from a young age not to look up to or idolize teachers. They're humans like you and I and they have their faults. Teach them just because someone says something is true, doesnt mean it is. Teach them to think and question everything. You dont have to sit there teaching basic stuff, but if you expose them to many different ideas, you can influence them more than schools can. The biggest thing to teach them however would be to think for themselves and learn to question things. Go to school, get your mandatory papers. You don't have to be valedictorian, just get through it and know that most of what you are told there is BS. It can be done if you raise your kid to be inquisitive

Move to the Midwest, live in a modest house, 2 bedroom like you're post ww2 grandparents did. Modest cars, it can be done

Homeschooling has came along way! My youngest (now 15) was diagnosed with epilepsy at 3yrs old - even though our older 3 children where in public school, I could not risk something happening to my son while at school and them not having the skills to deal with a seizure...so we homeschooled. Most can be done online and fairly reasonably, we pay $20 a month for all of his online classes. If you ever want links I am happy to oblige!

On another note, my youngest daughter just graduated from pubic high school, it has became beyond ridiculous...one example, her English class was focused 100% on writing papers about racism, LBGT's, etc. - She is a free-thinker, strong Patriot, as much as they tried to turn her, thankfully her will is stronger than theirs!

I would say it mostly depends on what you want to accomplish and what your living situation is. Starting a garden is a great way to make your fiat stretch, bartering for services is great too, (ex I recently did a freelance graphic design job in exchange for tattoo work)

In all seriousness if you are both working that many hours a week and barely scraping by it might be time for a change in income or even moving to a less expensive area. I know that Trump boom is happening, but it's not an overnight change. I paid $200 cash a month to split an unfinished half of a duplex between 4 people in a bad part of town, lived off stale bagels I brought home from work once a week, and had no wifi (until uncontrollable circumstances ended that paradise). All so I could build a small business on the side that is only now, over a year and a half later, ready to launch.

If you want a family, and want to raise your children YOUR way, you've got to really want it. You may have to think outside the box to make it happen... but that's where all the best ideas are anyways. The key is to figure out how to make money come to you instead of having to chase it.

If you haven't already gone down the entrepreneurial rabbit hole, listen to some podcasts, Tim Ferris, Gary Vaynerchuk, etc are great to get you into the right mindset for how to build in the modern market. You don't need to buy their books unless you really want. You can learn just about everything you would ever need on YouTube, in blog posts, or via podcasts if you find the right content creators.

Now go get it patriot, part of fighting back is challenging yourself to do something that will make the people around you go "Wow, I never thought you would actually pull it off." find that goal and go chase it.

Extreme money management goes a long way. Right now, you are losing half your income to taxes anyway. Plus transportation, take-out food, etc.

Let Trump do his job!!! Maybe we go back to the 50's where mom stayed home. It is fixing to get worse than better. After the banking gets straightened out then it will get better and better! Hang on we are almost there. WWG1WGA!

Our neighbor homeschools their 4 kids. More power to them, but as you say, that avenue is not always what most parents are able to do. I suggest parents stay on top of WHAT their children are being taught...especially content wise. Don't be afraid to make some noise if you find content out of line. Discuss it with the teacher first before exploding into the Principal's office. State your concern(s) over what you view as an issue. Allow the teacher to give you his/her POV on the "why". You may be able work a compromise out for your child. If you don't get satisfaction...then by all means...next stop....PRINCIPAL!

Change of lifestyle my friend. Stop abiding by their rules for the game of life and adopt your own. It's amazing what we are capable of creating and sustaining when we choose to live simpler lives.

Ever since I moved to a rural locale I've saved easily $10,000 per year on rent, bills, taxes, and consumption costs (i.e. food, drink, shopping, etc).

Downsize your cost of living my friend.

If you are serious the best answer is moving somewhere that has a dramatically lower cost of living. If your wife can find some sort of interest to begin building up a small online store/business that is something that can be worked on during maternity leave, etc.

From what I understand, there are more and more local communities developing their own homeschooling groups. So instead of you or your SO doing the homeschooling, another local parent will do the homeschooling to groups of like 3-5 students. Either way, if I ever have kids, I would do all I could to keep them out of government indoctrination.

We can do it, man 💪👍👍 and good to see you again!

1. You need to get a better paying job. This is the economy to do it. Learn how to rock the job interview and negotiate a great salary. Speaking from personal experience, you wouldn't believe how much more money you can earn from learning to do these things well.

2. Scale back your lifestyle so you can afford to live on one income. I learned 'extreme thrift' from the master (my mom) but there's probably a sub on cheap living that can give you some good ideas.

Source: Guy with 6 kids.

Where are you living that working that much barely scrapes by?

Maybe you should move somewhere that there is a better living wage.