Stretching a $30,000 income isn’t easy for Brittiany Dillon and her husband. Each month, gas and grocery bills alone eat up their disposable cash.

But when it comes to their two-year-old daughter the couple simply can’t say no.

For both her first and second birthday, the couple threw their daughter a birthday bash that set them back at least $600. Christmas gifts, planned to not exceed $50, somehow hit at least $300.

This article reminds me of a young single mother I know. Parties from Chuck E Cheese to theme parties at her house and it is the same excuse ” I never has this when I was little”. I hate to be devil’s advocate but –your son is only 3 years old. At least wait until he can remember this stuff. Or give him saving bonds or start a little account for his future. It would make a big difference. She never likes to hear me say that but she knows it’s for the better. I never give her bad advice.

I’m not saying don’t give parties but just do not splurge ( her parties flow well into the hundreds). It would have been a little quicker for her to play catch up with her future but she did all this on credit cards so now she not have to catch up but she has to reach a $0 balance with her credit card and then play catch up.

Parents — even those with generous incomes — overspend on birthday gifts, buy homes in the best school districts that leave them house-rich but cash-poor, or pay thousands of dollars in private school tuition while carrying thousands more in credit-card debt. School trips and lavish family vacations take priority over retirement savings.

another good point, everyone has to have that image that they are doing well. I’m not a big advocate of private school because their are still good public schools. But, if you going to live this lifestyle do not do it by living paycheck to paycheck. There is no fun in that.