Monthly cost - Family of 4

Ours is quite similar to yours and we are only expecting baby #1 shortly! This has a lot to do with our loans and stuff though. We have consciously made the choice to (at the moment) have an expensive house in a good suburb as at the time being we can afford to do this(we think this will be a good investment in the long term). In a few years we plan to sell it and buy a bigger house in a cheaper suburb and drastically reduce our loans. The rest of our costs are quite similar to yours though.

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I think the big variables here are mortgage / rent costs, childcare costs and motor vehicle costs.

All the other stuff is quite similar for everyone.

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Maybe not electricity. We spend about $900 a quarter on it, much less in summer. Never worked out how to get it lower, yet I see all these people with teeny tiny electricity bills and I wish I had those :(
Our mortgage is $600 a month, will get lower if we can find a buyer for our current house. We spend about $2500 a month for a family of 5.

True Rumpledlf, I forgot about electricity. I wish our mortgage was $600 per month!!