It is possible to live off of one income in today’s age!
It’s possible even with a big family.
It’s even possible with while paying off debt.
Today, I want to share some creative ways that we live off of one income. We have 6 kids and have lived off of one income pretty much since we got married 14 years ago.
We even paid off $80,000 of debt in 2.5 years living off of one income.
I am going to share what was pivotal for us and what can happen for you as well if living off of one income is something you desire.
TOP TIP FOR NEWLYWEDS FIRST
My top tip for a newlywed couple is to live off of one income and save the other person’s income from the very beginning.
We lived with a family while I was getting my masters and this is something they did and it set their financial future up for success. Once they had kids and she wanted to stay home, there was no need to adjust their standard of living to make it happen.
This is not something Matt and I were able to do. We were only married for 1.5 years before having kids and my husband was in school during that time.
So from the start, we were living off of one income.
WHY THE JUMP TO STAYING HOME IS SO HARD
People tend to start out their marriage as dual income, no kids. They set up their lives and standard of living with two incomes. Then, when they start having kids and the mom wants to stay home, they have to minimize their lifestyle and adjust to one income.
That is very hard to do. Not impossible, but very hard.
It is much easier to set up your life together on one income so that you don’t have to cramp your lifestyle when you want to stay home with your babies.
GET ON THE SAME PAGE WITH YOUR HUSBAND
WEEKLY MEETINGS
My husband and I have a weekly meeting to make sure we are on the same page with life, time, and money.
BUDGET EFFICIENTLY
We like to use Everydollar to budget our finances. With the Premium version, it connects to our bank account so we can just drag and drop the transactions into the correct category in our spending plan.
WE ARE BOTH COMMITTED LIVING OFF OF ONE INCOME
My husband and I both understand the importance of what I am doing at home.
Matt has never made me feel bad for not bringing in an income.
I do bring in a little bit of money with Youtube and my blog now, but that money does not go towards our bills. My side hustle money goes towards fun extras for our family.
Here is a blog post I did all about how to get on the same page with your spouse.
GET A SIDE HUSTLE
Getting a side hustle is a great way to stay on one main income for all of your big bills, while using your extra income for the fun, extra things for your family.
At one point, I was painting and flipping furniture as a side hustle.
- Virtual assistant jobs
- Bake bread and sell it
- Paint furniture and sell it
- Make art and sell it
There are so many fun ways to bring in a little extra money in your free time!
We are living in a great time to be a stay at home mom because there are endless ways to make money from home. I even wrote another blog post all about side hustles that can be done while being present with kids at home.
THE UNFORTUNATE CYCLE
- I need money
- So I work
- I am miserable doing something I don’t even like and want to be with my kids
- I quit working
- But then I need money again and the cycle continues
This cycle can be broken!
You have to change your mindset to think “I am going to do WHATEVER it takes to live off of one income”
BUY USED
I do everything I can to buy used clothes. When I have kids that are really little, especially girls, there are so many cute, good quality clothes at consignment shops.
KEEP CLOTHES MINIMAL
I don’t buy a lot of clothes for my kids.
It is absolutely overwhelming to have a lot of clothes.
I got good at taking care of the clothes so that they last a long time and can be passed down.
Learning how to get stains out, washing things on cold, and hang drying has helped clothes go so much further. I give all my top tips on taking clothes for the long haul here!
HAND-ME-DOWNS
If you have someone in your life willing to pass clothes down to you, that can save so much money.
I just went through a bunch of bins of clothes a friend gave to me because she was done with them. I did not keep all of the clothes, I took what I needed and passed the rest to another mom who could use them.
My friend who gave me the clothes was just happy that they were going to good use.
Typically, when moms are done having kids, they want to purge and get their space back. It’s a bonus if the decluttering blesses another mom. If you want to declutter, here are my 7 tips.
SPENDING MORE FOR QUALITY IS SOMETIMES WORTH IT
When I do buy clothes, I like to buy quality things because it just lasts longer.
I don’t buy these things full price, but I search for them used or on sale.
If I ever buy clothes at a place like Costco or Target, they don’t hold up the same as something from JCrew.
If you get a better fabric and know how to take care of it and get stains out, you get better clothes and you can pass them down.
COOK FROM SCRATCH
Cooking from scratch has a ton of benefits:
- Your family is going to get sick less because it is so much better for our health to eat scratch made food.
- You have the opportunity to create special connection moments and meals that our families enjoy
- It saves SO much money
Pre made meals, pre made sides, and eating out adds up so quickly.
CHOOSE GROCERY PICKUP
If you are like me and are prone to impulse buys in the store, choosing grocery pickup rather than going into the store might make a big difference in your spending.
PLANNING LUNCHES AHEAD
Packing lunches at the beginning of the week helps minimize the last minute stress of figuring out what to feed the kids. When there isn’t something prepped or planned, going out sounds like a much easier plan in the moment.
I homeschool my kids, so we mostly eat leftovers and I do not have to prepare much ahead of time which saves me a lot of stress. I love this taco soup recipe – it’s so nourishing, yummy and cheap!
JUST BUY WHAT YOU NEED
For years, I did not shop at Costco because buying in bulk felt like I was blowing my grocery budget right away.
Sometimes buying in bulk is strategic, but if you are not able to parse it out and it’s getting eaten in just a couple days, buying in bulk might not be the best idea.
DOWNGRADING PHONE PLANS
An iPhone is really fun, but it’s over $1,000! I got rid of my iPhone and am using a Lightphone for multiple reasons, but one is that it is much cheaper. This post talks all about switching from an iPhone.
These mega phone plan companies like Verizon and AT&T are expensive and you’re basically renting your phone from them.
My husband switched to Visible and spends $25 a month for unlimited data.
We buy our phones outright rather than rolling the cost into a monthly payment where you’re locked in.
CUT SUBSCRIPTIONS
The average American spends between $200-$400 a month on subscriptions. A lot of the subscriptions aren’t even being used, they just forgot to cancel them.
Being ruthless about these will make a difference.
Maybe just take a break from a subscription that you really like.
You can make a timeframe for your family to not have streaming services for a year and then add one back when you have a little more wiggle room in your budget.
AVOID FINANCING THINGS
One of the easiest ways to enslave yourself into working is by financing things.
Cars, appliances, HVAC, clothes.
Save yourself the trouble and avoid debt.
It’s terrible to feel like you want to stay home with your babies, but you have a lot of debt, so you feel like you have to work. Here are 5 ways to get out of debt fast so you can be freed!
WE CUT UP OUR CREDIT CARDS
I am not saying you need to cut up your credit cards.
But for my husband and I, we felt like if there was an emergency, we would get really gritty to figure it out.
A statistic of Americans with credit cards is that they add over $1,000 of debt to themselves each year. Credit card interest rates are through the roof, so this is just overwhelming and we wanted to stay far away from it.
WE BUMPED UP OUR SAVINGS
Not having a credit card removed the safety net from under us. This motivated us to be really serious with our savings.
If something breaks, we want to pull from our savings rather than swiping a credit card and getting ourselves into debt.
GIVE YOURSELF A HARD RESET
This might not apply to you and it might only have to happen once. But if you really want to stay home and there is just no way financially, consider moving to a cheaper place.
If all of your bills require two incomes to pay them, what can go?
- You can sell a car.
- You can sell both cars if you have two and buy one cheaper, used car.
- You can downsize.
- You can move to a cheaper area.
- You can sell a bunch of stuff.
You can do whatever needs to be done to shrink your standard of living to match what the one income can cover.
MAKE A GOAL:
Do whatever needs to be done for the next 6 months so that you can live off of one income.
This will be the hardest reset, but the most life changing reset.
What is really terrible is continually living barely above water and feeling like you hate your life because you want to be living off of one income and feeling totally helpless.
Maybe this one hard reset is what will set you free.
LIMIT INPUT FROM PEOPLE WHO HAVE DIFFERENT GOALS
You may want to limit input from anyone in your life who is making you feel like you need to “keep up with the Joneses”, or like being a homemaker is a strain, or is just making you feel less than because you live off of one income.
It is totally possible to live off of one income.
Yes, it is a sacrifice.
But if you are so passionate about living off of one income and feel called to stay home with your kids, there are so many creative ways to make it happen.
FREE RESOURCE:
Here is the weekly couples meeting guide that my husband and I go through each week to keep us on the same page and working towards the same family goals.
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