We Made $23,571 in One Month Working 23 Days Combined

From February 13 to March 13, Monica and I brought home $23,571 after taxes. I worked 10 days and Monica worked 13 days.

Here is where every dollar went, and why this month was not a normal one.

These numbers are from March 2026, when this was first written. Pay changes every year, so check current rates in Map My Pay.

Our year-to-date earnings

Here is what our year-to-date pay looked like, as of 2025:

Combined, we work about 32 hours a week. That’s less than one full-time nurse. We are on track to clear over $175,000 combined this year in take-home pay, not gross.

This didn’t happen by accident. Before we moved to Sacramento, I spent months building spreadsheets and comparing cities. I did the math on take-home pay after taxes and housing. There was no tool that showed me those numbers, so we built one. That tool is Map My Pay.

How we worked this month

The checks this month included some work from the pay period before. Here is what we worked:

• Jason: 10 days. I work 5 days every two weeks.
• Monica: 13 days. She works per diem, and her weeks went 3 days, then 6, then 4.

The big hits this month

This was not a normal month. Four costs blew up our budget.

1. Travel and lifestyle: $6,926

This was not a vacation. Monica’s mom was on a flight from JFK to Doha when the plane had to turn around mid-flight because of a crisis in the region. We had to rebook everything.

Then we chose to fly our daughter home from college for spring break. That flight is normally $250 to $300. We paid $500 because we wanted her home with us.

Our son’s 5th birthday was also coming up, and he loves Legoland. We have no family in Sacramento. So we flew his grandma and cousins in from Georgia and the Bay Area so he could celebrate with them.

2. Auto repair: $3,500

I thought we were going in for an oil change and brake pads, maybe $400. Both front control arms on our Volvo XC90 had failed. The bill was $3,200 for repairs alone. Our total for auto and transport this month was $3,925.

3. Lodging: $1,519

This covered a Lake Tahoe trip and two hotel rooms at Legoland for six people.

4. Fun and games: $986

We got Legoland tickets from Costco Travel. They were three-day hopper passes at $119 each.

Our regular monthly costs

• Housing, all in: about $4,500 a month. That covers our mortgage of $1,958 and a HELOC of about $1,366 with a rate that can change. It also covers home insurance, HOA dues and property taxes. Our mortgage rate is 3.37%.
• Food and dining: $2,143. That is $1,067 for groceries and $868 for restaurants, mostly from our Lake Tahoe trip.
• Insurance: $3,060 for life insurance with a disability rider. We don’t pay for health insurance. It comes through my job.
• Child care: $1,402 for our son’s pre-K. We need it to work and run the business.
• Bills: $758 for phone, gas, power and water.
• Shopping: $1,080. That includes gifts for family events, baby showers and birthdays.
• Pets: $69
• Health and wellness: $405 for haircuts and a $70 a month gym plan we barely use.

The bottom line

• Normal month: we spend about $9,500
• This month: we spent about $21,500 because of the emergency travel, the car repair and the birthday
• Saved this month: about $2,000

Without the $3,500 car repair and $6,900 in family travel, we would have saved over $10,000 this month.

Why this matters

We can handle a $3,500 car repair without blinking. We can fly family in for birthdays and deal with travel emergencies. We still build wealth while we do it. That is what happens when you move to a city where the math works.

In Sacramento:

• We work part-time hours, about 32 a week combined.
• We own a home with a 3.37% interest rate.
• We have safe nurse-to-patient ratios.
• We’re on track for $220,000 in take-home pay this year.
• We have time with our son.

We spent $21,500 this month on surprises, travel and a party, and we still saved money.

Knowing your numbers is the best protection you have. That means knowing where your money goes and what you could earn somewhere else. To see more of our numbers, read how we earned $274K as nurses working under 35 hours a week and why we put our move back to NYC on hold.

Written by Jason, RN. I went from $37 an hour in New York to $143 an hour in California and paid off $128K of debt in under a year. I share our numbers in the Nurses to Riches newsletter and on YouTube.