I currently live in Wayne, NJ. Sure the cost of living there is higher than other places but it's a nice town and has a good school system for the kids. There are some very expensive parts of Northern NJ. However, there are some towns that are more affordable.

In my situation, my wife has two sons from her first marriage. Under NJ custody law, she must stay within a certain radius of her ex unless he consents otherwise. We wanted to move to the Poconos but he wouldn't consent to that. We settled on Wayne and we like it there a lot. It's also not a long drive to EWR from there either.