Current situation:
My income ~$70k pre-tax
Wife's income was ~$30-40k when she was a teacher, has stayed home the past 3+ years once our oldest son was born so she didn't make anything during that time. Currently have an almost 4 year old and 1 year old (both boys). A year ago she started a multi-level marketing business out of the house and it has taken off pretty well for a stay at home mom. She's now consistently making ~$5-6k a month and hopefully that will increase in the future. We are 34 and 32, didn't start saving until about 5-6 years ago I guess.
No debt besides house
House: owe $98k, probably worth ~$130k w/ 5% interest rate. Just make the minimum payments.
~$60k in savings/emergency fund (most of this is invested)
401k, regular and ROTH IRA's: ~$150k
Couple of cars paid for
Not bad, but I'm disappointed in our spending and savings rate. I'm trying to FIRE asap as I don't care much for my job (well, at least on the days my boss is in the office!). You'd think with a monthly income over $10k that we'd be socking it away according to some on this site, but we're having a hard time with it.
Part of it is my wife does have business expenses - throwing parties, mailing thank you notes, giving away product samples, promotional items, conferences etc. Part of it is we've had to increase our spending to keep from killing ourselves with the extra work. She is a stay at home mom but basically has a full-time job now. She works during the boy's naps, in the evenings, early in the morning, on the weekends. We put our oldest in mothers-day-out ($$) so my wife can get some work done. We hire babysitters at least a few times a week so she can get some work done ($$). We have a housekeeper come every 2 weeks since my wife doesn't have time to clean the house anymore ($$). We eat out more since there's times my wife didn't get dinner made ($$). If we tried to do all the housework and the child raising and our jobs, I think we'd probably fall over dead. I try to do some housework when the boys are in bed, but I only have so much energy by that point in the evening. The house is a wreck on most days, it depresses my wife and I but it is what it is. I'm still taking care of the lawn myself, and we're trying our best to keep up with the laundry ourselves.
Our boys are also eating everything under the sun and the grocery bill is driving me insane! I don't pay up for the natural foods, but my wife prefers them.
Are there any other folks out there that are succeeding under similar scenarios? I feel like we could honestly use a housekeeper weekly, as well as a weekly laundry person, but I'm just tired of spending so much. I'd like to be saving $5k a month, but it seems like we're only saving $1-2k. I know our lives are the most time-consuming when the kids are little, and we weren't really seeking a job for my wife yet, but it just kind of fell into our lap and we're going with it for now. Life feels really busy and I'd be ok with it if we were getting something out it (like lots of $$ so that I can FIRE quickly), unfortunately I feel like we're spinning our wheels and only getting a little. We are definitely saving more with her job, just not as much as we'd like...