...but as I got raises and bonuses plus my wife got a job at a mall food kiosk while going to school full time it got better. We worked very hard and my wife became the budget nazi for a while.

One difference is that for a year or more we were eating out about once per month and I brown bagged bologna sandwiches for lunch. My broke kids eat out 2 or 3 times a week and eat fast food for lunch almost every day plus buy a morning coffee drink every morning.

BTW - I really did buy bologna and bread on a Gulf card at a local EZ Mart when things got thin at the end of the month.