I know how you feel. I'm retired and I thought I was living on a fixed income, but within the last year, I turned 65. my medical insurance more than tripled and my life insurance doubled leaving my just over two hundred after that. Then I lost the tenants in two of my three rental houses, so in total, I'm down nearly $2000 from last year. And of course, there will be no cost of living increases in my social security for at least two years now. But things are improving slightly. I hope to have a new tenant in one of my houses next month. I sold the other one as a distressed house(It had been trashed)and it has helped having that cash. But I feel that you being young, your situation is worse. I don't have to go to work every day, so I can cut my costs by staying home much of the time and combining trips when I do have to go somewhere. My kids are also grown and living pretty much on their own, so I don't have to worry about them, like a younger couple such as you and your husband. Our one exception,though, today is my wife's birthday. She becomes an official senior citizen today, so we are going to splurge and go out for dinner and perhaps a movie.