Since you laid it out, JT, here's how it works out on a normal workers income around here.
You get a paycheck of say $15 per hour for average ($31,000). Out of your $1200 paycheck, 30% is taken out for medical insurance, federal taxes, and state taxes, misc. taxes, social security, etc, leaving you $840 for a paycheck or $1680 for the month. From that, you pay $700 for a house payment, $300 if you can find a car cheap (decent new car so you are not paying an arm and a leg for it to be repaired constantly), and $100 for car insurance. Roughly $100 for heating bill (October through March or April), $80 for electric. Since I live out in the country, I'm not including water and sewage, but have to add the phone bill including long distance for calls to the doctor and grandparents, ect. That totals up to around $80 (probably $15 of that is long distance call charges).
You have to feed your kids and I'm not skimping when it comes to the kids. I'll eat garbage, but I want my kids to eat reasonably healthy. You're looking at roughly $500/month on groceries. The wife does the grocery shopping and takes the kids to school occasionally and needs fuel in her car. You're looking at probably $50 in gas. Now driving to work is a bit more. I spend probably at least $200 in gas getting to work. Also, you have to have a phone, and since I'm not in the city and not including my
So, in total, out of your $1680 monthly income, you are spending around $2050 per month. You also have to save up an additional 1% of that for local taxes as that isn't defered from your paycheck. So add on another tax of 16.80 for expenses of $2066 per month to pay with your $1680 paycheck.
That is why children are being raised without the actual parents and growing up alone, in daycare, or with grandparents. I work a lot of overtime to take up some of that $366 extra that the base income doesn't cover. All that is disregarding any enjoyment like going out to eat now and then, buying toys for the kids, taking the kids to see a movie now and then, or buying them a DVD, having any sort of television as our local broadcasting doesn't reach us, so we have an $80 satellite TV bill, etc. It means no yearly vacation to Disney World at a pop of $5000 like so many of the 2 income families do every year. Really no going anywhere in the summer for fun with the kids because even something that doesn't cost anything costs money to drive there and lunch and dinner for the day.