Why do I feel so poor?

The year before we were married, Ms. Bluebird and I made about $300,000 between us. We each were living lives of frugal singlehood. She drove a Saturn. I had a VW. She lived in a 1-bedroom condo. I lived in a 2-bedroom house.

This was back before the invention of the personal finance blog, of course. But if there had been such a thing, we would have been the poster children for prudence and restraint.

Last year, we made a little more than $100,000. While we now only have one house, we have three cars, and two hungry children. What's worse, the actual purchasing power of our $100,000 in pre-nuptual dollars (to make the comparison with our earlier $300,000 income fair) is only $80,645.

Ouch. In inflation adjusted terms, our income has fallen by 73% while the number of people in our family has doubled.

I say it again.

Ouch.