Income:
$2,700 After Tax
ETA: I am one internship away from finishing an AS degree in Web Design. I paid cash for all of the school, so no debt there!
IMHO, your income is your biggest opportunity for improvement! To help your fellow mustachians, what does your husband do for a living? Are you both working full-time at the moment, or have you been part-time while finishing your degree? Regardless of degrees, education, current situation, you guys are in a great position to double your income or more with a little bit of hustle.
Can you share more about your area and strategy to make money with your AS in web design? These would be my recommendations:
1. Learn the ins and outs of designing and creating websites on the Wordpress platform. The genesis framework and most of the elegant themes are very in demand right now.
2. Squarespace is a little more DIY, but would be a great platform to build cheaper websites that would still allow you to make great margin.
3. Do your best to learn about online marketing. There is a lot of money to be made providing those services as a complement to your web design abilities. Read up on inbound marketing, content marketing, SEO, etc. moz.com is a great place to start if you're new to all that.
4. Depending on where you live, working in house as a web designer probably won't pay near as good as going out on your own. I would suggest getting a job in industry that provides a better income than you currently make, but start building websites on the side to increase income and get the feel for running your own gig. Much better long term potential IMO.
Expenses:
Housing Expenses
Mortgage: $500 (Includes insurance & taxes & $30 additional principle)
Propane: $100
Trash: $20
Water: $50
Electricity: $200 (Average)
Other
Car Insurance: $100
Phone: $60
Food & Household: $300 (Go over a little usually)
Car Fuel: $300
Lunches $60
Tithes: $270
Savings: $500 (ish)
Suggestions on expenses:
1. Utilities at $370/month combined seems very high. Do you live in an older, drafty house by chance? See this post from MMM for help in this area.
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/10/15/when-energy-saving-becomes-an-emergency/2. Is your car insurance the state minimum and liability only? Ours is a little above the state minimum, liability only on a mid 2000s sedan, we're both 28, and only pay $27/month. I think you could save at least $25 a month if you shop around.
3. Phone = $60/month. Is that for two cell phones? One cell phone? House phone? We have Republic Wireless and it works fine even though the Sprint coverage around here isn't the best. Total for our 2 phones is $23/month including tax.
4. Car Fuel - from my other post, I imagine you could save a good chunk of fuel money each month if you sold the Jeep and kept the two smaller, more fuel efficient cars. Any opportunity for you two to ride together? What about splitting expenses with a co-worker to commute together?
5. Food and household + lunches = $360 (probably closer to $400 considering you put that you usually go over a little bit). Weird stuff comes up for misc items around the house, but if you become really focused I'm sure you could cut this total by $50 or so each month (more if you want it bad enough).
Overall, you guys are in great shape because you're young, already live cheaply, and sound like your on the same page financially. IMHO it is much more advantageous to focus on increasing income as your expenses are already pretty good by mustachian standards.
Best to you guys as you continue to move towards FI!