How Much Does a Family of Four Really Need to Earn in Sheboygan?

If you’re raising two kids in Sheboygan and just trying to keep the lights on, the math points to a hard truth:

A typical family of four here needs to gross around $100,000–$105,000 a year just to cover conservative basics — with no savings, no vacations, and no debt payments.

Below is a simple, Sheboygan-specific breakdown using current numbers and modest assumptions.

The family we’re talking about

To keep this honest and concrete, here’s the example:

Two working adults in Sheboygan
Two kids (one in elementary school, one in daycare / 4K)
Renting a modest 3-bedroom place
Two older, paid-off cars
Marketplace health insurance (ACA)
No student loans, no credit card debt, no fancy extras

What it costs each month in Sheboygan

Housing (rent + renter’s insurance): ~ $1,500 / month

Average rent across all units in Sheboygan is around $1,150–$1,175. Zillow+1
Recent data shows a 3-bedroom rental running roughly $1,470–$1,800. Apartments.com+1
Using $1,500 assumes you’re below the high end, but not in a tiny place.

Utilities (power, heat, water, trash): ~ $300 / month

Wisconsin households average around a hundred-plus for electricity, plus gas, water, and trash. Wikipedia
$300/month is a realistic year-round average for a modest rental in our climate.

Internet and phones: ~ $200 / month

Basic home internet and two decent cell lines (not premium, not rock-bottom).

Groceries + household supplies: ~ $1,150 / month

USDA’s Thrifty Food Plan (the “bare minimum” healthy diet) puts a family of four around $900–$1,000/month for food at home in 2024–2025. Food and Nutrition Service+2USDA Food and Nutrition Service+2
Add paper towels, toilet paper, cleaning supplies, soap, shampoo, laundry detergent, and you’re easily at about $1,150/month even with careful shopping.

Transportation (two older cars, paid off): ~ $600 / month

Gas and routine maintenance: about $250–$350
Insurance for two vehicles: about $150–$220
Average repairs (brakes, tires, the random $900 surprise at the shop) spread over the year: about $75–$150
Rounded: $600/month just to keep two not-new cars on the road.

Health insurance premiums: ~ $1,100 / month (for now)

With the enhanced ACA premium tax credits, many working-class families pay somewhere in the mid-hundreds to low thousands per month for Marketplace coverage. KFF+1
Using $1,100/month is a conservative, middle-of-the-road estimate for a Sheboygan family of four on the Marketplace.

Important: Those enhanced ACA subsidies are scheduled to expire at the end of 2025 if Congress does nothing. KFF and other analysts estimate premiums would rise by around 75%–114% on average without them. AP News+4KFF+4Center on Budget and Policy Priorities+4
If that happens, this one line item could jump by hundreds of dollars per month.

Out-of-pocket medical and dental: ~ $200 / month

Co-pays, prescriptions, occasional urgent care, fillings, glasses, contacts, and the beginning of brace money for one kid — averaged over the year.

Childcare and after-school: ~ $1,100 / month

Statewide, center-based care for a 4-year-old in Wisconsin averages about $11,128 a year (~$930/month). Tootris
Sheboygan County’s own 2025 child care rate sheet shows licensed group weekly rates that line up in that range once you annualize them. ccrrfoxvalley.org
Add after-school / summer coverage for the older kid and you’re realistically around $1,000–$1,300/month. We split the middle at $1,100.

School costs and kids’ activities: ~ $200 / month

Even “free” public school costs money:

Supplies, field trips, fees, yearbooks
One basic sport or club per kid, plus gear that has to be replaced

Spread over the year, $200/month is a conservative, not extravagant number.

Clothing and shoes: ~ $200 / month

Two growing kids plus Wisconsin winters (coats, boots, snow pants, gloves).
Work clothes and shoes for the adults.
$200/month is lean but realistic.

Subscriptions and memberships: ~ $60 / month

A couple of streaming services
Maybe a kids’ app or cloud storage plan
Maybe Amazon or a warehouse club, but at the “we keep this tight” level

Holidays and birthdays: ~ $80 / month

Modest gifts for the kids
Christmas/holiday spending
Gifts for kids’ friends’ parties
Over the year, $80/month is already on the careful side.

Licenses, fees, basic travel, pet food, small home repairs: ~ $250 / month

Rolled together here:

Vehicle registration and driver’s license renewals
5.5% sales tax in Sheboygan on most non-grocery purchases (5% state + 0.5% county). Avalara+1
One low-budget in-state trip or grandparent visit per year
One basic dog or cat (food, annual vet visit, no fancy grooming)
Small home fixes and replacements (microwave dies, shovel breaks, new lamp)

The monthly total

Add all of that up:

Housing: $1,500
Utilities: $300
Internet/phones: $200
Groceries/household: $1,150
Transportation: $600
Health insurance premiums: $1,100
Medical/dental out-of-pocket: $200
Childcare/after-school: $1,100
School + kids’ activities: $200
Clothing: $200
Subscriptions/memberships: $60
Holidays/birthdays: $80
Licenses/fees/travel/pet/home repairs: $250

Total monthly spending (no savings, no debt, no big luxuries):
≈ $6,940 / month

That’s about $83,280 per year in after-tax money that has to leave the household just to keep this hypothetical Sheboygan family afloat.

What gross income does it take to cover that?

Once you factor in:

Federal income tax
Wisconsin income tax (roughly 4–5% effective for many working-class families) Wikipedia
Social Security and Medicare (7.65% of wages)

It is very normal for a two-earner Wisconsin household in this range to lose something like 20% of gross pay to taxes and payroll deductions before the money hits the checking account.

To net about $83,000/year, you need roughly:

$100,000–$105,000/year in gross household income

That’s roughly two full-time jobs each paying in the neighborhood of $24–$25/hour, year-round.

And remember:

There is no retirement savings in this picture.
There is no college savings.
There is no emergency fund.
There is no car payment (we assumed older paid-off cars).
There is no student loan payment and no credit card payment.

This is just bills, kids, and existing obligations.

If ACA subsidies do expire and premiums jump hundreds of dollars a month for Marketplace families, this “make-ends-meet” number goes higher.

Why this matters for Sheboygan

When you look at it this way, a lot of everyday local realities start to make sense:

Families working retail, manufacturing, construction, food service, and care jobs often patch together multiple incomes just to hit numbers like these.
Raises that sound decent on paper don’t go very far once rent, daycare, and health care move up each year.
Many people don’t have room in this budget for savings, so one layoff, injury, or big repair can push them into debt quickly.

This isn’t about chasing luxury. It’s about what it actually costs in 2025–2026 to raise two kids in Sheboygan and stay current on the basics.

What do you see in your own budget?

If you’re a Sheboygan-area parent:

Does this feel high, low, or about right for your family?
What line item hurts the most in your real life — rent, daycare, health care, groceries, something else?
Have you already had to cut things you think should be normal for kids (sports, music, summer camps) just to keep up?

Share your experience in the comments so neighbors, local leaders, and businesses can see what real families are dealing with.

If you know someone who’s struggling with these same numbers, share this article with them.