In this area, an apartment in a neighborhood where the murder rate is somewhere less than Baltimore’s costs as much as we’re paying in a mortgage.
Actually, that’s one reason we’d like to flee this area - so we CAN live in a decent neighborhood on one salary.
And I do say in my article that there are some circumstances where daycare is unavoidable. But it should be a goal to avoid it. Sounds like you share that goal. Peace and best wishes.