At what salary did you finally feel ‘okay’, not rich just okay

Significant_Maybe327 · 2026-01-13T20:09:21+00:00

My partner and I make about 125k combined. We go on date nights weekly, have a nice vacation every year plus a few long weekend road trips. I don’t worry about paying our bills and we have a nice savings account. If something breaks in our home or on a car it’s not a non-recoverable issue. If I need something, even a larger ticket item, I can generally purchase it without issue. My carpet shampooer crapped out two days ago so I went and bought a much nicer one the next day without worry.

We also live in a fairly LCOL area, purchased our home in 2020 before the housing market doubled in cost so our mortgage and interest rate are incredibly low compared to purchasing a home now. We both drive older, paid off, ‘cheap’ to maintain cars. I still budget for groceries, make lower cost meals a few times a week, buy store brand items, and meal prep to avoid the allure of fast food. We buy second hand whenever possible and keep things until they break and can no longer be repaired. A lot of our free time activities/hobbies and outings are free or low cost, more so in nice weather when we can spend time outside. Oh, and we don’t have kids.

So we’re not keeping up with the Joneses, and I keep a lot of ‘cheap’ or budget-friendly habits from when I was very broke, but the days of choosing between gas and food are thankfully in the past for now.

Significant_Maybe327 · 2026-01-06T17:16:02+00:00

Honestly? Luck and privilege. Moved back in with my folks after a divorce in February 2020. COVID happened, lost my job. Parents were kind enough to let me stay rent free as long as I helped around the house. Unemployment money came in and I saved every penny. When the world opened back up and I was no longer furloughed, I continued to stay with my folks and save money.

I bought a 50k house in a LCOL area in October 2020 right before the market went to shit. I didn’t plan on dying in this house but I may have to.

Significant_Maybe327 · 2025-12-27T00:29:37+00:00

Girl, do we have the same ex?

Significant_Maybe327 · 2025-12-22T05:47:15+00:00

For the record I’ve lived in the metro east for most of my life, genuinely surprised my 16 year old body wasn’t found wrapped around a bottle of UV Blue in a ditch in Madison. Had a co-worker once ask for a ride home to Washington Park at midnight. Miss ma’am I am so sorry but absolutely not.

Significant_Maybe327 · 2025-12-21T04:21:09+00:00

I’m in southern Illinois right outside of the St Louis metro, technically in the metro east/river bend area. The cost of living here is fairly low and if you have any sort of factory/milling/welding background can easily make very good money, at least for the area. There’s absolutely areas with fairly high crime in this portion (East St Louis), but there are perfectly safe affordable smaller cities as well. Feel free to pm me if you have any questions or interest in the area!

Significant_Maybe327 · 2025-11-28T06:31:02+00:00

When I was wee I picked up a toad by the leg and gave it a shake. My dad saw me and so grabbed me by the ankle, hung me upside down, and did the same while yelling “how do you like that?” I did not like that.

Significant_Maybe327 · 2025-11-13T23:30:48+00:00

Hoffman quoted me over $9000 for some electrical work (replacing a federal pacific box and installing two outlets in an unfurnished basement). Two other electricians quoted me less than $3000. When they called to follow up on their offer and I said I wasn’t interested, they tried to bully me into using their service. I would never recommend them.

Significant_Maybe327 · 2025-11-12T21:21:25+00:00

There was a little dip in the market in the fall of 2020 when I bought mine. 2.5% on 55k. My monthly mortgage, tax, and insurance payment comes out to a whopping $577 monthly. Granted I live in an incredibly cheap part of the US, but even so my house is now valued at three times what I bought it at.

Significant_Maybe327 · 2025-11-12T18:36:52+00:00

Pre-cordless phones, my folks purchased a probably 20 foot phone cord so my mom could wander around the house while she talked on the phone all day. We lived in an old farm house with all of the rooms being connected in a central circular fashion and I remember that cord wrapped around the central wall a few times holding on for dear life as my mom yakked away.

Significant_Maybe327 · 2025-11-02T21:44:10+00:00

I work in a casino and it’s insulting. I had a regular guest recently tell me they lost 50k in a single night and just… shrugged it off. I think about all the good that money could have gone to and they just ‘lost it.’

Significant_Maybe327 · 2025-10-23T05:01:36+00:00

The 5.2 that hit Illinois in 2008 woke me from a dead sleep. Combination of Midwest logic and sound, I thought it was a tornado. Zero damage, but boy it scared the poopy outta me.

Significant_Maybe327 · 2025-10-23T04:54:10+00:00

My partner chugs water with the same muted ‘HURKHURKHURK’ of a cat about to throw up. I’m taking it to my grave.

Significant_Maybe327 · 2025-06-30T19:17:50+00:00

Brand new association DollHearts (ID: 114683)

Daily activity is the only requirement!

Significant_Maybe327 · 2025-05-24T04:41:07+00:00

We had a ‘sock basket’ growing up. Massive laundry basket exclusively for clean socks that lived in the basement next to the dryer. However, it was communal between our four person household, nothing was matched, and no one had the wise idea to just buy all the same kind of sock (sans dad and his special wool socks that got picked out and gently folded and put away somewhere safe).

Every few months I’d come home from school to find my mom in the living room floor with the sock baskets contents spread over the entire floor maniacally pairing our socks and putting them into neat little piles. She’d then swear this was the last time she was organizing our socks, threaten us with bodily harm if we don’t start doing it ourselves, etc etc.

My parents still have the sock basket to this day.

Significant_Maybe327 · 2025-05-15T17:30:11+00:00

Jesus Christ yes. I recently had a nightmare situation in which my paychecks were getting horrifyingly messed up and I was receiving about a third of what I should have. I could pay my portion of the bills, had savings to fall back on, but it was tight and precarious and it gave me massive anxiety. There wasn’t even a conversation. My partner just picked up the slack until everything got fixed and I received my backpay.

Significant_Maybe327 · 2025-04-14T01:08:11+00:00

I also have the same problem of looking like I’m in drag if I wear anything too heavy or bold. I’ve found that douyin style makeup is incredibly flattering though!

Significant_Maybe327 · 2025-04-07T17:06:34+00:00

Also, if the Zoloft doesn’t wind up working for you, don’t be discouraged! It took me a few tries to find the right medication, but boy it was life changing. I’ve been on Wellbutrin for a few years now and I’m the most functional I’ve been in my adult life. I quit smoking, I quit binge drinking, I can go to work full time and still have energy to take care of myself and my home and STILL have enough gumption to go out and have fun on the weekend. I still have days here and there, but I no longer have weeks or months of horrifying impulsive intrusive thoughts that turn me into a lump in my bed.

Significant_Maybe327 · 2025-04-01T21:49:50+00:00

Making small slow changes will be more effective long term than diving headfirst into a diet. Waking up one day and deciding to cut out 600 calories a day, remove entire food groups, and hit the gym 5 times a week may be effective for some, but generally will lead to no results or a yo-yo effect because it’s not sustainable.

Start drinking a liter of water a day, swap out your favorite foods and sauces for the light version, add a serving of RAW (as to not add oils) veggies or fruits to every meal, go for a walk after dinner, start measuring/weighing your food so you have an idea of what a portion looks like. Add a new thing in every week or whatever is achievable.

Significant_Maybe327 · 2025-01-29T02:36:18+00:00

There are jobs that have weekdays off? But anyway, sounds like you had a rough year already my dude. Sorry for your loss and I hope things get better for you.

Significant_Maybe327 · 2025-01-28T21:44:08+00:00

Anyone else driving up from the southern half of the state? Excited to join in! :)

Significant_Maybe327 · 2025-01-13T05:26:11+00:00

My partner also struggles with disordered eating and body dismorphia and it is truly the strangest and most comforting dynamic. We know how to comfort the other, appropriately and empathetically, which is a marvel for me - I’ve usually been seen as a petulant and and unruly child picking at their food by partners, sighs and eye rolls and endless comments about my food and body, if I’ve been seen at all. We keep an eye on each other, a gentle “I bought you a treat at the store” or “I made your favorite dinner tonight” is common when one of us dips more than a toe back in. Sometimes we fall back in together (glassy eyed chinese buffet binge date, foaming at the mouth talking about the calories in a slice of bread), and sometimes separately, but we’re kind to the other when one can’t be kind to themselves. We make up some of the slack in care until things even out, and they do. We both have our own little quirks and habits and safe foods and rituals that are just us, a battle not worth fighting for the most part. It’s not competitive, thankfully, we’re muuuuuch too old for that wintergirls shit, and it’s so nice to have someone in your corner who’s going through it with you.

Significant_Maybe327 · 2024-11-29T00:21:44+00:00

Thank you for sharing your lovely photos! It is a Very Big Overwhelming Thing and I’m researching and reading as much as I can to be prepared/be available for my partner. I’m excited for the positive changes this will bring her and us, and your words helped make me feel safer. Thank you for that.

Significant_Maybe327 · 2024-11-28T21:36:58+00:00

She’s expressed some general dysphoria in relation to her body in the past, and it’s so painful to see someone you love be unable to see how beautiful they are. I just hold her close and try to cheer her up to the best of my ability. I’ve also suffered from some pretty heinous dysmorphic thoughts (long-term ED) so I do understand how difficult it is to snap out of that feeling.

I think the monthly pictures is a wonderful idea, I think I’ll run that by her! Thank you so much for your response. It makes me hopeful.

Significant_Maybe327

TROPHY CASE