I’m not sure how you budget, and whatever works for you works for you, but 77% of the money that hits your bank account every month going to housing when you’re a grad student is insanity, not “a little higher than sustainable levels”. Especially when there’s a kid in the picture.
According to the US government's definition[0, 1], affordable housing is less than 30% of income. Which type of income it is is up for debate but it seems the general consensus is gross income, though I can't find an authoritative source on that. If it is gross income, then it stands to reason that 77% of net income may actually be fairly close to 40% gross income. And, while 33% above the affordability limit (30% of gross income), it's not terribly outside "a little higher than sustainable levels" -- though that's a very subjective phrase.
Yeah, for a take home income of 2,200 per month in santa cruz, your before tax income would be about 2,666. 1,700 of that is 77% pretax and 64% after tax.
