House Hacking With High Personal Expenses

[Knoell Palmer]

Hey Everybody! I'm stuck in a situation and I wanted to get you guys' advice.My girlfriend and  I would love to get started house hacking with a duplex. The issue is that when we run our numbers as if the other unit is vacant and we are responsible for the complete mortgage , we always find ourselves spending nearly as much as we earn when we include expenses that are irrelevant to real estate (car note, phone bill, insurance etc.). I do believe that we can find properties that will cash flow. My only issue is that I wouldn't want to be living paycheck to paycheck while doing something like fixing up a unit or in search of filling a vacancy. What do people typically do in this situation? It's also important for me to note that we have reduced our expenses about as much as they can be reduced. Any advice is greatly appreciated .