Living on 46k in DC near metro area

You don't say where your office is, it's hard to recommend places to live otherwise. You could definitely find cheaper housing elsewhere (Silver Spring, Takoma Park, Petworth, Hyattsville, Columbia Heights, Fort Totten, Brookland, pretty much anywhere in MD south of Capitol Heights).

If you can get out of that car lease or find someone to take it over ... I mean this isn't /r/personalfinance but the lease, gas and insurance is like $4000-5000/year which is like giving yourself a $7000 raise on your pretax salary. Federal employees get free/untaxed mass transit so assuming your position is eligible for the federal transit benefit, the car is an extravagance if it's just going to sit 5-7 days a week.

/r/washingtondc Thread