What sucks most about that type of question is that everyone's circumstanced differ soo much. Not having car or house payments means we can live for less than our friends.
What sucks most about that type of question is that everyone's circumstanced differ soo much. Not having car or house payments means we can live for less than our friends.
Not to be a nosy noserton, but how do you not have a house payment?
That would be soooooooooo nice
Warning
No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
LCOL, savings, and living incredibly frugally make it possible to live (currently) at well under what DH normally makes. He has an interview on Wed, so hopefully my answer will change if you ask this in another week or so.
What sucks most about that type of question is that everyone's circumstanced differ soo much. Not having car or house payments means we can live for less than our friends.
While this is true, overall, I think people will be able to see that the majority of people who SAH, at least on this board, are not living on less than the average family income, which for the US is around $50K.
What sucks most about that type of question is that everyone's circumstanced differ soo much. Not having car or house payments means we can live for less than our friends.
While this is true, overall, I think people will be able to see that the majority of people who SAH, at least on this board, are not living on less than the average family income, which for the US is around $50K.
I fall into the minority. DH makes about $20K in his current job. This is also after he was unemployed for 16 months when neither of us worked.
What sucks most about that type of question is that everyone's circumstanced differ soo much. Not having car or house payments means we can live for less than our friends.
While this is true, overall, I think people will be able to see that the majority of people who SAH, at least on this board, are not living on less than the average family income, which for the US is around $50K.
I fall into the minority. DH makes about $20K in his current job. This is also after he was unemployed for 16 months when neither of us worked.
And no, we're not on welfare.
That's amazing that a family can survive on that income in some places in this country without assistance. I live in a higher COL area and I never lived anywhere else, so that's fascinating to me.
What sucks most about that type of question is that everyone's circumstanced differ soo much. Not having car or house payments means we can live for less than our friends.
While this is true, overall, I think people will be able to see that the majority of people who SAH, at least on this board, are not living on less than the average family income, which for the US is around $50K.
I fall into the minority. DH makes about $20K in his current job. This is also after he was unemployed for 16 months when neither of us worked.
And no, we're not on welfare.
That's amazing that a family can survive on that income in some places in this country without assistance. I live in a higher COL area and I never lived anywhere else, so that's fascinating to me.
For us, it's living within our means. It would cost X amount of dollars to have three kids in daycare and I would likely find a job that isn't in my field and not make much.
Like I said earlier, DH is not in his current field. He got laid off from his job because of the economy and found the first thing that fit his personality... 16 months later. We were on unemployment for that time, but this new job pays less than what we were making... go figure.
Hopefully, he'll get this job and get back up to where we are used to. Even then, we live at around $40,000.
What sucks most about that type of question is that everyone's circumstanced differ soo much. Not having car or house payments means we can live for less than our friends.
While this is true, overall, I think people will be able to see that the majority of people who SAH, at least on this board, are not living on less than the average family income, which for the US is around $50K.
I fall into the minority. DH makes about $20K in his current job. This is also after he was unemployed for 16 months when neither of us worked.
And no, we're not on welfare.
My question is how do you get health care? DH was out of work 2 times for a year each time and that was a huge expense.
What sucks most about that type of question is that everyone's circumstanced differ soo much. Not having car or house payments means we can live for less than our friends.
While this is true, overall, I think people will be able to see that the majority of people who SAH, at least on this board, are not living on less than the average family income, which for the US is around $50K.
I fall into the minority. DH makes about $20K in his current job. This is also after he was unemployed for 16 months when neither of us worked.
And no, we're not on welfare.
That's amazing that a family can survive on that income in some places in this country without assistance. I live in a higher COL area and I never lived anywhere else, so that's fascinating to me.
For us, it's living within our means. It would cost X amount of dollars to have three kids in daycare and I would likely find a job that isn't in my field and not make much.
Like I said earlier, DH is not in his current field. He got laid off from his job because of the economy and found the first thing that fit his personality... 16 months later. We were on unemployment for that time, but this new job pays less than what we were making... go figure.
Hopefully, he'll get this job and get back up to where we are used to. Even then, we live at around $40,000.
Yeah, but even here you no matter how tight you lived, you just couldn't survive with 1 income. You could probably find a 2BR apartment for $500-600, but if you wanted to be somewhere reasonably safe it's $900 (if you got extremely lucky) and up. Even if you did no cable/internet/activities, just getting to work, eating, electricity, heat and water would eat more than a $20k income on the tightest of budgets. Of course, this is a higher COL area so not really comparable.
I always daydream about moving somewhere with a LCOL. It would be so nice-living in a higher COL area is so overrated (although being right by the ocean has its perks). With DH's job he could transfer for the same pay, so we'd live really well. Right now the benefits of living close to family who help tremendously just aren't worth it.
What sucks most about that type of question is that everyone's circumstanced differ soo much. Not having car or house payments means we can live for less than our friends.
While this is true, overall, I think people will be able to see that the majority of people who SAH, at least on this board, are not living on less than the average family income, which for the US is around $50K.
I fall into the minority. DH makes about $20K in his current job. This is also after he was unemployed for 16 months when neither of us worked.
And no, we're not on welfare.
That's amazing that a family can survive on that income in some places in this country without assistance. I live in a higher COL area and I never lived anywhere else, so that's fascinating to me.
For us, it's living within our means. It would cost X amount of dollars to have three kids in daycare and I would likely find a job that isn't in my field and not make much.
Like I said earlier, DH is not in his current field. He got laid off from his job because of the economy and found the first thing that fit his personality... 16 months later. We were on unemployment for that time, but this new job pays less than what we were making... go figure.
Hopefully, he'll get this job and get back up to where we are used to. Even then, we live at around $40,000.
Yeah, but even here you no matter how tight you lived, you just couldn't survive with 1 income. You could probably find a 2BR apartment for $500-600, but if you wanted to be somewhere reasonably safe it's $900 (if you got extremely lucky) and up. Even if you did no cable/internet/activities, just getting to work, eating, electricity, heat and water would eat more than a $20k income on the tightest of budgets. Of course, this is a higher COL area so not really comparable.
I always daydream about moving somewhere with a LCOL. It would be so nice-living in a higher COL area is so overrated (although being right by the ocean has its perks). With DH's job he could transfer for the same pay, so we'd live really well. Right now the benefits of living close to family who help tremendously just aren't worth it.
Oh, yeah, I wasn't generalizing that for everyone. That's just us. We couldn't live in just about anywhere else. Luckily, we're in safe area and close to Chicago, so we're not sacrificing by living in the country or something. KWIM?
What sucks most about that type of question is that everyone's circumstanced differ soo much. Not having car or house payments means we can live for less than our friends.
While this is true, overall, I think people will be able to see that the majority of people who SAH, at least on this board, are not living on less than the average family income, which for the US is around $50K.
I fall into the minority. DH makes about $20K in his current job. This is also after he was unemployed for 16 months when neither of us worked.
And no, we're not on welfare.
That's amazing that a family can survive on that income in some places in this country without assistance. I live in a higher COL area and I never lived anywhere else, so that's fascinating to me.
For us, it's living within our means. It would cost X amount of dollars to have three kids in daycare and I would likely find a job that isn't in my field and not make much.
Like I said earlier, DH is not in his current field. He got laid off from his job because of the economy and found the first thing that fit his personality... 16 months later. We were on unemployment for that time, but this new job pays less than what we were making... go figure.
Hopefully, he'll get this job and get back up to where we are used to. Even then, we live at around $40,000.
Yeah, but even here you no matter how tight you lived, you just couldn't survive with 1 income. You could probably find a 2BR apartment for $500-600, but if you wanted to be somewhere reasonably safe it's $900 (if you got extremely lucky) and up. Even if you did no cable/internet/activities, just getting to work, eating, electricity, heat and water would eat more than a $20k income on the tightest of budgets. Of course, this is a higher COL area so not really comparable.
I always daydream about moving somewhere with a LCOL. It would be so nice-living in a higher COL area is so overrated (although being right by the ocean has its perks). With DH's job he could transfer for the same pay, so we'd live really well. Right now the benefits of living close to family who help tremendously just aren't worth it.
Oh, yeah, I wasn't generalizing that for everyone. That's just us. We couldn't live in just about anywhere else. Luckily, we're in safe area and close to Chicago, so we're not sacrificing by living in the country or something. KWIM?
Oh-I know that you meant it worked where you live and not necessarily everywhere else. It's even crazier to me that you live near a big city. I was assuming you lived in the middle of Montana or something...haha.
What sucks most about that type of question is that everyone's circumstanced differ soo much. Not having car or house payments means we can live for less than our friends.
While this is true, overall, I think people will be able to see that the majority of people who SAH, at least on this board, are not living on less than the average family income, which for the US is around $50K.
I fall into the minority. DH makes about $20K in his current job. This is also after he was unemployed for 16 months when neither of us worked.
And no, we're not on welfare.
That's amazing that a family can survive on that income in some places in this country without assistance. I live in a higher COL area and I never lived anywhere else, so that's fascinating to me.
For us, it's living within our means. It would cost X amount of dollars to have three kids in daycare and I would likely find a job that isn't in my field and not make much.
Like I said earlier, DH is not in his current field. He got laid off from his job because of the economy and found the first thing that fit his personality... 16 months later. We were on unemployment for that time, but this new job pays less than what we were making... go figure.
Hopefully, he'll get this job and get back up to where we are used to. Even then, we live at around $40,000.
Yeah, but even here you no matter how tight you lived, you just couldn't survive with 1 income. You could probably find a 2BR apartment for $500-600, but if you wanted to be somewhere reasonably safe it's $900 (if you got extremely lucky) and up. Even if you did no cable/internet/activities, just getting to work, eating, electricity, heat and water would eat more than a $20k income on the tightest of budgets. Of course, this is a higher COL area so not really comparable.
I always daydream about moving somewhere with a LCOL. It would be so nice-living in a higher COL area is so overrated (although being right by the ocean has its perks). With DH's job he could transfer for the same pay, so we'd live really well. Right now the benefits of living close to family who help tremendously just aren't worth it.
Oh, yeah, I wasn't generalizing that for everyone. That's just us. We couldn't live in just about anywhere else. Luckily, we're in safe area and close to Chicago, so we're not sacrificing by living in the country or something. KWIM?
Oh-I know that you meant it worked where you live and not necessarily everywhere else. It's even crazier to me that you live near a big city. I was assuming you lived in the middle of Montana or something...haha.
What sucks most about that type of question is that everyone's circumstanced differ soo much. Not having car or house payments means we can live for less than our friends.
While this is true, overall, I think people will be able to see that the majority of people who SAH, at least on this board, are not living on less than the average family income, which for the US is around $50K.
I fall into the minority. DH makes about $20K in his current job. This is also after he was unemployed for 16 months when neither of us worked.
And no, we're not on welfare.
My question is how do you get health care? DH was out of work 2 times for a year each time and that was a huge expense.
DH and I are uninsured. The kids have state insurance for the time being. I'm not proud of it, but it's not something that would affect me SAH. We're also on WIC. Those are the two areas we get assistance from. I'm not sure if that's flammable or not, but it's temporary and we qualify for it.
We lived at around 20k when DH first got out of the military and started his new job (this was in '07 - we're doing much better now). We drove our old, paid off cars - both were economy cars so gas wasn't too bad to work. Rent was 450, so pretty cheap. No cable, no cell phones, only had basic internet and home phone, only put like 20 bucks/mo in his 401k. Didn't eat out at all - lots of pasta dishes! We didn't shop - our household stuff was mostly hand me downs or things we'd had already. We were living paycheck to paycheck though and had no savings. If an emergency hit, we'd have been screwed. I think we pulled a couple payday loans for small things - like changing the engine on my car once. I don't recommend it, but we did manage to take care of ourselves without help from family/govt.
His job paid for insurance (govt employee), and we allocated enough to FSA to cover my prescription meds and copays.
What sucks the most about this question is that it is asked a LOT because apparently nobody even scrolls back to check it out. This board isn't that busy so it's not even hard to find.
And to be honest, I've stopped answering them because they're practically daily and my answer hasn't/doesn't change.
My DH's income is not high and we live in a HCOL area. When we started getting serious he went to school for another career. He now contributes nothing to health insurance and has no co-pays. It is a huge help because that is a big chunk of many people's paycheck. I'll say we're fortunate, but not lucky. It took a lot of planning and some sacrifice to get the security we needed to be in this position.
TTC since September '08
After 2 m/c - lap for stage 3-4 endo
Oct '09 Bravelle w/Ovidrel trigger - iui on 11/07
What sucks most about that type of question is that everyone's circumstanced differ soo much. Not having car or house payments means we can live for less than our friends.
Not to be a nosy noserton, but how do you not have a house payment?
That would be soooooooooo nice
We no longer have a mortgage either. It's been paid off for around 5 years now, mostly because MH really needed to no feel beholden to it. He's made a pretty good salary so he decided to fully pay I off. Now we really have to figure out how to budget better and save more money with the other bills. We're horrible where that is concerned.
I think we need a FAQ section like some of the other boards have. We're on the lower end of the income scale, but I honestly don't really notice a whole lot of lifestyle changes that we've had to make and we actually save more money now. I figured out what I would have to be making to break even with two kids in daycare and the other expenses I had and it was the same as what I was making at my old job.
What sucks most about that type of question is that everyone's circumstanced differ soo much. Not having car or house payments means we can live for less than our friends.
Not to be a nosy noserton, but how do you not have a house payment?
That would be soooooooooo nice
I live in my grandma's house, which my mom owns and is on the same property. So, no rent, but living next door to parents. I really want to have a house of my own before the next kid.
It always baffles me some of the sacrifices people make to stay home. No insurance, living with or near parents, no cable?
I'd rather work and put the kids in daycare!
Me too! I love them but I'd go mentally insane living with my parents. Although it is nice that we bought a house 10 minutes away and can drop DS off if DH and I want a night out.
I could never sacrifice cable. I don't watch 10 hours of tv a day or anything, but I dont know how people live without it. I'd die without Showtime and Dexter! I also couldn't imagine living on such a tight budget that we couldn't go out and do thngs on the weekends, get a weekend away when need be, go buy a few hundred dollars worth of clothes without worrying about the budget, etc. Not that I knock people who do-I just cant imagine myself making those sacrifices.
Buying a smaller house, buying groceries on sale and not having $120 cell phone plans I don't mind giving up, but not much else. I guess we all do have different priorities.
What sucks most about that type of question is that everyone's circumstanced differ soo much. Not having car or house payments means we can live for less than our friends.
While this is true, overall, I think people will be able to see that the majority of people who SAH, at least on this board, are not living on less than the average family income, which for the US is around $50K.
I fall into the minority. DH makes about $20K in his current job. This is also after he was unemployed for 16 months when neither of us worked.
And no, we're not on welfare.
My question is how do you get health care? DH was out of work 2 times for a year each time and that was a huge expense.
DH and I are uninsured. The kids have state insurance for the time being. I'm not proud of it, but it's not something that would affect me SAH. We're also on WIC. Those are the two areas we get assistance from. I'm not sure if that's flammable or not, but it's temporary and we qualify for it.
Have you researched getting on a private insurance plan? Although they don't cover much, they are pretty low cost and it's probably good to have something in case something catastrophic happens.
It always baffles me some of the sacrifices people make to stay home. No insurance, living with or near parents, no cable?
I'd rather work and put the kids in daycare!
Me too! I love them but I'd go mentally insane living with my parents. Although it is nice that we bought a house 10 minutes away and can drop DS off if DH and I want a night out.
I could never sacrifice cable. I don't watch 10 hours of tv a day or anything, but I dont know how people live without it. I'd die without Showtime and Dexter! I also couldn't imagine living on such a tight budget that we couldn't go out and do thngs on the weekends, get a weekend away when need be, go buy a few hundred dollars worth of clothes without worrying about the budget, etc. Not that I knock people who do-I just cant imagine myself making those sacrifices.
Buying a smaller house, buying groceries on sale and not having $120 cell phone plans I don't mind giving up, but not much else. I guess we all do have different priorities.
Not having cable is hard, let me tell you!!!! We actually can afford cable, but when we moved into our current home we made the decision to go with a digital converter box (ie free t.v.) because we are saving up to pay cash in full for a house. The converter box is nice because it's free, but it cuts in and out when there's a storm or when a train goes by..lol!
I am a HUGE t.v. junkie (embarrassed to admit) and I freaking love TLC, Discovery, Discovery Health, A&E, HGTV... and I seriously miss them daily, no joke. But it will be so worth it when we don't have a mortgage or rent! I can't wait! And I already told Dh that we WILL have cable! lol
You're assuming that we have no insurance because I SAH. That's not the case. The circumstances we're in are temporary. I was SAH when DH was working and we had insurance. NBD.
You're assuming that we have no insurance because I SAH. That's not the case. The circumstances we're in are temporary. I was SAH when DH was working and we had insurance. NBD.
Well...if you got a job then you might have insurance. And maybe then you wouldn't have to use state health care for the kids or use WIC.
Maybe not. I don't know what kind of job you could get. But I would get a job before accepting any sort of state aid or going without health insurance.
Warning
No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
What sucks most about that type of question is that everyone's circumstanced differ soo much. Not having car or house payments means we can live for less than our friends.
While this is true, overall, I think people will be able to see that the majority of people who SAH, at least on this board, are not living on less than the average family income, which for the US is around $50K.
I fall into the minority. DH makes about $20K in his current job. This is also after he was unemployed for 16 months when neither of us worked.
And no, we're not on welfare.
That's amazing that a family can survive on that income in some places in this country without assistance. I live in a higher COL area and I never lived anywhere else, so that's fascinating to me.
we make about the 20000 as well. its fairly easy to live off this much. it pays all our bills and we have enough extra
but dh is army so we get BAH (which is housing money) based on where we live and it isnt factored into your income. where we live now the bah is about 1200 which will get you a decent apartment and also help pay for gas. but we live on post so we never see that money because they take it out.
I answered with what we were making pre-job loss. We will see where we fall when he finally finds something new.
If he had put the money where I allocated it though, we would not need as high a salary because our student loans and his car loan jack up what our monthly expenses are...it is interesting to see how this poll shakes out though.
We used to live in a very "well to do" area and I always wanted to go door to door taking a poll of jobs - there just are not that many fortune 500 company CEOs, doctors, and lawyers in such a small geographic area! Really really wanted to do it on more than one occassion.
Seriously! Now I'm going to spend the rest of the day dreaming about what I could do if DH made that income. Lucky b!tches. lol!
What sucks most about that type of question is that everyone's circumstanced differ soo much. Not having car or house payments means we can live for less than our friends.
While this is true, overall, I think people will be able to see that the majority of people who SAH, at least on this board, are not living on less than the average family income, which for the US is around $50K.
I fall into the minority. DH makes about $20K in his current job. This is a lso after he was unemployed for 16 months when neither of us worked.
And no, we're not on welfare.
That's amazing that a family can survive on that income in some places in this country without assistance. I live in a higher COL area and I never lived anywhere else, so that's fascinating to me.
For us, it's living within our means. It would cost X amount of dollars to have three kids in daycare and I would likely find a job that isn't in my field and not make much.
Like I said earlier, DH is not in his current field. He got laid off from his job because of the economy and found the first thing that fit his personality... 16 months later. We were on unemployment for that time, but this new job pays less than what we were making... go figure.
Hopefully, he'll get this job and get back up to where we are used to. Even then, we live at around $40,000.
Yeah, but even here you no matter how tight you lived, you just couldn't survive with 1 income. You could probably find a 2BR apartment for $500-600, but if you wanted to be somewhere reasonably safe it's $900 (if you got extremely lucky) and up. Even if you did no cable/internet/activities, just getting to work, eating, electricity, heat and water would eat more than a $20k income on the tightest of budgets. Of course, this is a higher COL area so not really comparable.
I always daydream about moving somewhere with a LCOL. It would be so nice-living in a higher COL area is so overrated (although being right by the ocean has its perks). With DH's job he could transfer for the same pay, so we'd live really well. Right now the benefits of living close to family who help tremendously just aren't worth it.
Oh, yeah, I wasn't generalizing that for everyone. That's just us. We couldn't live in just about anywhere else. Luckily, we're in safe area and close to Chicago, so we're not sacrificing by living in the country or something. KWIM?
Are you north of the city? How close? I have no idea how you do it because in the areas we have lived in the last few years even a studio apartent runs $650 plus, groceries are expensive, and there is no negotiating on utilities (i.e. no choice of companies)...I cannot imagine living on that!
I could never just do without insurance either. But "not being able to live" without cable is the reason we never had it hooked up when we moved. It was serious withdrawal for a while but now we don't miss it at all.
TTC since September '08
After 2 m/c - lap for stage 3-4 endo
Oct '09 Bravelle w/Ovidrel trigger - iui on 11/07
Not having cable is hard, let me tell you!!!! We actually can afford cable, but when we moved into our current home we made the decision to go with a digital converter box (ie free t.v.) because we are saving up to pay cash in full for a house. The converter box is nice because it's free, but it cuts in and out when there's a storm or when a train goes by..lol!
I am a HUGE t.v. junkie (embarrassed to admit) and I freaking love TLC, Discovery, Discovery Health, A&E, HGTV... and I seriously miss them daily, no joke. But it will be so worth it when we don't have a mortgage or rent! I can't wait! And I already told Dh that we WILL have cable! lol
Not having cable is NO BIG DEAL. We CAN afford cable (and premium cable, not just basic cable) but choose not to. We are 4 YEARS without cable and to be honest, haven't missed it.
We do Netflix and if there's a show we like (Dexter, Mad Men, etc.) we just watch it when it comes out on DVD.
Also, if you really want to watch a show that badly while it's airing, you can just watch pretty much anything on hulu the next day........
And just to add, I WAS a TV junkie, but I really and truly don't miss it. It may explain why I have more time for The Nest though! LOL!
Mommy to Barbara 11/8/05, Elisabeth 5/13/07, Loukas 12/23/08 and Lazarus 09/25/12
Not having cable is NO BIG DEAL. We CAN afford cable (and premium cable, not just basic cable) but choose not to. We are 4 YEARS without cable and to be honest, haven't missed it.
We do Netflix and if there's a show we like (Dexter, Mad Men, etc.) we just watch it when it comes out on DVD.
Also, if you really want to watch a show that badly while it's airing, you can just watch pretty much anything on hulu the next day........
And just to add, I WAS a TV junkie, but I really and truly don't miss it. It may explain why I have more time for The Nest though! LOL!
I was thinking the same thing. We don't have cable because we weren't able to use it like responsible adults (this was pre-kids). At first I missed it, but it is really easy to watch anything I want, and there is no more flipping through channels to find something. That being said, I really wouldn't want to be in a situation where $10/wk was going to make or break me.
Re: Clicky poll: Income because I am tired of the "how do you do it question"
Not to be a nosy noserton, but how do you not have a house payment?
That would be soooooooooo nice
While this is true, overall, I think people will be able to see that the majority of people who SAH, at least on this board, are not living on less than the average family income, which for the US is around $50K.
I fall into the minority. DH makes about $20K in his current job. This is also after he was unemployed for 16 months when neither of us worked.
And no, we're not on welfare.
Dear people who voted $250k or higher-I hate you.
I wanna know what their DH does!
hahaha. ditto
That's amazing that a family can survive on that income in some places in this country without assistance. I live in a higher COL area and I never lived anywhere else, so that's fascinating to me.
Seriously! Now I'm going to spend the rest of the day dreaming about what I could do if DH made that income. Lucky b!tches. lol!
For us, it's living within our means. It would cost X amount of dollars to have three kids in daycare and I would likely find a job that isn't in my field and not make much.
Like I said earlier, DH is not in his current field. He got laid off from his job because of the economy and found the first thing that fit his personality... 16 months later. We were on unemployment for that time, but this new job pays less than what we were making... go figure.
Hopefully, he'll get this job and get back up to where we are used to. Even then, we live at around $40,000.
My question is how do you get health care? DH was out of work 2 times for a year each time and that was a huge expense.
Yeah, but even here you no matter how tight you lived, you just couldn't survive with 1 income. You could probably find a 2BR apartment for $500-600, but if you wanted to be somewhere reasonably safe it's $900 (if you got extremely lucky) and up. Even if you did no cable/internet/activities, just getting to work, eating, electricity, heat and water would eat more than a $20k income on the tightest of budgets. Of course, this is a higher COL area so not really comparable.
I always daydream about moving somewhere with a LCOL. It would be so nice-living in a higher COL area is so overrated (although being right by the ocean has its perks). With DH's job he could transfer for the same pay, so we'd live really well. Right now the benefits of living close to family who help tremendously just aren't worth it.
Oh, yeah, I wasn't generalizing that for everyone. That's just us. We couldn't live in just about anywhere else. Luckily, we're in safe area and close to Chicago, so we're not sacrificing by living in the country or something. KWIM?
Oh-I know that you meant it worked where you live and not necessarily everywhere else. It's even crazier to me that you live near a big city. I was assuming you lived in the middle of Montana or something...haha.
Oh-I know that you meant it worked where you live and not necessarily everywhere else. It's even crazier to me that you live near a big city. I was assuming you lived in the middle of Montana or something...haha.
DH and I are uninsured. The kids have state insurance for the time being. I'm not proud of it, but it's not something that would affect me SAH. We're also on WIC. Those are the two areas we get assistance from. I'm not sure if that's flammable or not, but it's temporary and we qualify for it.
We lived at around 20k when DH first got out of the military and started his new job (this was in '07 - we're doing much better now). We drove our old, paid off cars - both were economy cars so gas wasn't too bad to work. Rent was 450, so pretty cheap. No cable, no cell phones, only had basic internet and home phone, only put like 20 bucks/mo in his 401k. Didn't eat out at all - lots of pasta dishes! We didn't shop - our household stuff was mostly hand me downs or things we'd had already. We were living paycheck to paycheck though and had no savings. If an emergency hit, we'd have been screwed. I think we pulled a couple payday loans for small things - like changing the engine on my car once. I don't recommend it, but we did manage to take care of ourselves without help from family/govt.
His job paid for insurance (govt employee), and we allocated enough to FSA to cover my prescription meds and copays.
What sucks the most about this question is that it is asked a LOT because apparently nobody even scrolls back to check it out. This board isn't that busy so it's not even hard to find.
And to be honest, I've stopped answering them because they're practically daily and my answer hasn't/doesn't change.
DD#1~8/17/96------DS~10/24/05
I live in my grandma's house, which my mom owns and is on the same property. So, no rent, but living next door to parents. I really want to have a house of my own before the next kid.
It always baffles me some of the sacrifices people make to stay home. No insurance, living with or near parents, no cable?
I'd rather work and put the kids in daycare!
Me too! I love them but I'd go mentally insane living with my parents. Although it is nice that we bought a house 10 minutes away and can drop DS off if DH and I want a night out.
I could never sacrifice cable. I don't watch 10 hours of tv a day or anything, but I dont know how people live without it. I'd die without Showtime and Dexter! I also couldn't imagine living on such a tight budget that we couldn't go out and do thngs on the weekends, get a weekend away when need be, go buy a few hundred dollars worth of clothes without worrying about the budget, etc. Not that I knock people who do-I just cant imagine myself making those sacrifices.
Buying a smaller house, buying groceries on sale and not having $120 cell phone plans I don't mind giving up, but not much else. I guess we all do have different priorities.
We make in the higher amount...but we just bought a new house and have a car payment. plus we live in a more expensive area.
I think it comes down to everyone lives with in their means. There are months when I say "we're broke"
Have you researched getting on a private insurance plan? Although they don't cover much, they are pretty low cost and it's probably good to have something in case something catastrophic happens.
Agree! not having insurance in NOT an option, I know some mothers that live this way just to stay home and I see them suffer so much because of it.
Agree! not having insurance in NOT an option, I know some mothers that live this way just to stay home and I see them suffer so much because of it.
Not having cable is hard, let me tell you!!!! We actually can afford cable, but when we moved into our current home we made the decision to go with a digital converter box (ie free t.v.) because we are saving up to pay cash in full for a house. The converter box is nice because it's free, but it cuts in and out when there's a storm or when a train goes by..lol!
I am a HUGE t.v. junkie (embarrassed to admit) and I freaking love TLC, Discovery, Discovery Health, A&E, HGTV... and I seriously miss them daily, no joke. But it will be so worth it when we don't have a mortgage or rent! I can't wait! And I already told Dh that we WILL have cable! lol
Well...if you got a job then you might have insurance. And maybe then you wouldn't have to use state health care for the kids or use WIC.
Maybe not. I don't know what kind of job you could get. But I would get a job before accepting any sort of state aid or going without health insurance.
we make about the 20000 as well. its fairly easy to live off this much. it pays all our bills and we have enough extra
but dh is army so we get BAH (which is housing money) based on where we live and it isnt factored into your income. where we live now the bah is about 1200 which will get you a decent apartment and also help pay for gas. but we live on post so we never see that money because they take it out.
I answered with what we were making pre-job loss. We will see where we fall when he finally finds something new.
If he had put the money where I allocated it though, we would not need as high a salary because our student loans and his car loan jack up what our monthly expenses are...it is interesting to see how this poll shakes out though.
Not having cable is NO BIG DEAL. We CAN afford cable (and premium cable, not just basic cable) but choose not to. We are 4 YEARS without cable and to be honest, haven't missed it.
We do Netflix and if there's a show we like (Dexter, Mad Men, etc.) we just watch it when it comes out on DVD.
Also, if you really want to watch a show that badly while it's airing, you can just watch pretty much anything on hulu the next day........
And just to add, I WAS a TV junkie, but I really and truly don't miss it. It may explain why I have more time for The Nest though! LOL!
I was thinking the same thing. We don't have cable because we weren't able to use it like responsible adults (this was pre-kids). At first I missed it, but it is really easy to watch anything I want, and there is no more flipping through channels to find something. That being said, I really wouldn't want to be in a situation where $10/wk was going to make or break me.