I very much enjoyed reading Mr. Money Moustache’s post earlier this week. As I’ve mentioned before, MMM is a married dad in his thirties who retired early. His post on Monday was all about the average middle class person’s spending (which actually seems like upper middle class to me) versus his recommended spending amounts. He even includes a handy table, which contrasts the two types of spending side-by-side.

It was super-helpful to open up Matt’s and my budget for a comparison. Matt and I have worked with a budget for the past four years. Our budget is always changing, depending on our job situations. When we were both working full-time,

Last week, I mentioned that one of my long-term financial goals is to get into real estate as a hobby and a secondary source of income (since I’ll always work primarily in non-profit as my day job). I also mentioned that Matt had no interest in saving up our money for such an endeavor, and it seemed very, very far away since we have about a trillion other things that we need to save for first (the house we’re building, a pool, an orchard, raised garden beds, a couch, a washer/dryer–the list goes on and on). 

But then someone I know (hereto referred to as My Potential Business Partner) read

Phew! September is here. Our monthly budget resets, and we don’t have to scrape by (at least for the first part of the month). 

We reinstated our strict budget halfway through August. It was a particularly rough month because we spent $100 a week on Henry’s swimming lessons, and we essentially paid double in childcare costs. Henry’s authentic Montessori school is now in session (which we had to pay for in May), but they phase in the new children one by one, so he doesn’t start until September 10. 

I know I sound whiny when I talk about our budget. We are extremely fortunate to be able to send