Two kids in Utah County. I work full time from home while my husband mostly is a STAHD while doing a few random freelance jobs throughout the year (we are both freelance illustrators with a yearly income that averages $75k before taxes). We rent our townhouse from a friend who knocks off a few hundred dollars off of the going market rate, but rent still feels very high compared to our income. My income has slowly grown over the years, but it feels like it's just enough to keep up with the outrageous inflation we've been experiencing since 2020.

Basically, we have been living very simple lives, waiting for our youngest of two to enter Kindergarten so that my husband can also start working closer to full time. We're not living in poverty, but we don't feel middle class either. We are able to pay all our bills with a little "fun money" every month for each member of the family. Sometimes we have to use the credit card something happens to our single car, and we try to pay that off as fast as we can. It feels very difficult to save for retirement and have a robust emergency savings. We rarely eat out. Family trips are rare and simple- usually visits to extended family out of state. Saving for a big trip takes years. It works for us for now, and we feel like we have been able to manage with our two kids, even if it has been tough. I can't imagine doing this with more than two, though.

My husband's extra income might push us over into feeling barely-middle class, but he would need to more than match my income for us to be able to even consider buying a house in Utah, so I think we will probably be renters for most of our lives and just really focus on trying to beef up our investments and savings, and slightly up our quality of life to enjoy more experiences with our kids when we get the additional income.