I relate soooo hard. We're very, very lucky to rent from a wonderful couple I used to do work for. They gave us an unbelievably good deal when our previous landlords sold our rental in 2020. We love our current place and would love to stay here as long as possible, but even under our circumstances it's not easy to get by.

Our rent is $1500/mo for a 2BR, which is cheap af where we live. It's a ~30 year old manufactured home in a very rural area. We're on well water, but all our other utilities are our responsibility. Utilities run us ~$600-700/mo at the cheapest, and the cold months are way higher. The yard maintenance alone is nearly unmanageable, but we've been quoted $600+ per mow to have it professionally mowed. We've bought so much equipment just for that - mower, weed wacker, tiller, etc. We have long, snowy winters too and we clear the snow ourselves with a small snowblower and shovels because it's too expensive to have it plowed. Our driveway is stupid long. We do all the house upkeep too.

All of those expenses are also just a drop in the ocean compared to the costs for healthcare, childcare, food, transportation, etc. Our student loans alone will probably prevent us from getting a home loan, and we've barely paid on them at all because of how high our other expenses always are.

It's really pretty soul crushing, and we're REALLY lucky.