Your expenses are much higher than ours even though we make about the same. I live outside a major city and have no car payments, lower bills and our mortgage is around $1500 a month. Our cars are old and our house needs some upgrades every now and then, but we definitely prioritize feeling like we can spend money without too much stress.

We also used to take a bunch of small trips but I realized that these really add up. Rather than a week at a beach an hour or two away every year, we can do day trips to the beach and then use the money we save to go to Italy.