| Short answer: the "hack" is to set a monthly budget and stick to it religiously. In theory, if your savings account pays 2% and your loans charge 10%, you should put all your money into paying your debt. On the other hand, unless you have a very stable job you'd better have savings of at least 6 months worth of expenses. You probably don't really need most of your home improvements. Unless you have serious problems like water leaks, you can always postpone those improvements to after you've paid your debts. 35% of your net income for mortgage is on the high side (average in US is about 33% of gross income). But it's probably not too bad for a family of 4 with only 1 income. http://money.cnn.com/2005/08/26/pf/expert/ask_expert/index.h... Your main problem might be in those 45% worth of "other" expenses. You need to break this down into something like: a) essential recurrent expenses (food, commuting, school-related, etc). These shouldn't change much from month to month. And assuming your partner can cook, you shouldn't be spending too much on food. b) non-essential recurrent expenses (cable, second car gas and maintenance, gym, etc). Rank those expenses in order of importance and start cutting them out. c) non-essential one-off expenses (eating out, trips, buying gadgets, etc). Only do these if they fit in your budget in that month (or trimester, etc). |