2018 has been a crazy year for us in terms of expenses and career decisions, and our February goal to TTC is nearly here.

Everyone talks about how expensive a baby is, which is scary, since we are only 7 months into home ownership and are still growing in our careers. We try to be fiscally responsible, but is our budget realistic?

Currently 34% of our take home pay goes to our mortgage.
Another 12% goes to utilities, transportation & insurance
4% goes to student loans
13% goes to groceries, entertainment /restaurants and personal spending
25% goes to savings
4% goes to helping a family member

The remainder ends up unallocated as a slush fund / cushion. We also do not count my husbands commission in our budget. If he makes his full monthly commission, our take home income is increased by 31%.

We are both expecting raises in the new year which will help, but I still can't help but be nervous about the cost of a baby. We plan to budget $1000 a month for a baby (our family will likely be our source of free childcare). We would reduce our savings and slush fund slightly to allow for this baby budget. Again, commissions are not counted.

Is our spending out of whack? We have a 6 month emergency fund set aside, but have pretty much depleted our other savings purchasing and renovating our home earlier this year. We just started saving again last month, and I think that's what making me nervous.