how do you do it?

katesheldon · March 2011

To all you SAHM I was wondering how you and your DH do it financially? im at a job that i hate and don't make much money. After we pay for daycare adn my gas getting to and from work I only bring in 750-800 a month. Which is both of our car payments, but still doesn't seem like that much when Im away from LO ALL DAY LONG! I was wondering how you did it and if you have any tips on how you get all the bills paid and groceries, diapers, formula, and gas on one income. Do you work from home at all?

Shozzies · March 2011

Well to start we don't have any car payments. Our cars are paid off. We don't have cable. We use prepaid cell phones for emergencies mostly instead of expensive cell plans. I subscribe to a bunch of different baby magazines to get diaper codes for Amazon to save on diapers. I use coupons and visit coupon blogs to bring down our grocery costs. I also plan our meals and have several meatless meals throughout the week. I work a few hours each week as an auditor around DH's schedule and also mystery shop. We planned for me to SAH which required buying older vehicles, moving to a LCOL city, living off one income for a while and saving my income, buying fuel efficient vehicles, etc. I comparison shop a lot and buy clothing second hand or on clearance. I really like slickdeals.net and I have saved a lot of money by deals I've found through that website especially for Christmas gifts. We don't use credit cards.

littlemermaid · March 2011

From the day we got married we based all major expenses on just one income(husband's) and we banked all of mine in anticipation that I decided to stay home once we had kids. So we were already living off of one income by the time we had children. In your case, do you keep track of every single penny spent. A visual of where all the money goes is step one. Then you can make adjustments to the household spending. Then do a trial basis of just living off of your husband's income to see how much it impacts your lifestyle and budget. Maybe just pay daycare from your income since that is the expense that would go away if you stayed home and bank the rest in an account that is not used to pay bills.

littlemermaid · March 2011

There is also a FAQ section in the header of our board that has helpful threads in it.

katesheldon · March 2011

Wow! That was very informative! Thank you very much! Where do you find coupon blogs and coupons besides the usual websites and what meatless meals do you make? Also, I have been looking into becoming a mystery shopper how do you get into that too? Everything I have found is like a scam. Thanks so much!

Shozzies · March 2011

I love Mint.com to track spending. You can link all of your accounts and make a budget.

Shozzies · March 2011

Sorry for the wall of text. For some reason it's not letting me put in paragraphs. For mystery shopping, check out mysteryshop.org to find legit companies. I've used ICCDS.com, Marketforceshopper.com, and beyondhello.com. The pay is not great, but it can help with our entertainment budget for free movies and free dinners and some of the mystery shops are for places I already go like the grocery store or the mall we frequent. I like moneysavingmom.com for couponing. There are links at the top to blogs that specialize in just about every store you can think of. I follow a few of the linked blogs for the local grocery stores. Also coupons.com, redplum.com, and smartsource.com have printable coupons. Check out your local grocery's website. Many of them have coupon programs on their websites and some upload directly to your shoppers card. Sign up for emails or mailing lists to stores, restaurants, and other places you go a lot. A lot of them send out coupons or have promotions just for signing up. There are also websites to find happy hour specials or kids eat free specials for when your LO is a little older. Instead of going on vacations, we have been looking at doing several closer to home day activities. Also if you have a visitors information center, try going there for coupons for restaurants and other activities aimed for tourists.

HarrietNJMommy · March 2011

Ditto the PP in checking out the FAQ's.

Most of us are in one of these boats:

1. Work from home - these women had their jobs pre-kids and negotiated to work from home. MOST of them MUST provide childcare during the hours that they work.

2. Full time SAHM - DH's make enough money for them to stay home without any major sacrifices (like cutting cable bills, selling cars, major couponing, etc.)

3. Full time SAHM with major sacrifices: moving to a new home (smaller), lower cost of living area, major downgrading (cars, cable, travel, etc.)

4. Part-time SAHM - those that work part time or different shifts from their DH so that they can make ends meet.

GL!

Shozzies · March 2011

Most legit work from home jobs come from previous positions or specialized career fields. They also usually require childcare when working. I think there are a few people who watch other children during the day. I thought about watching another child, but it wasn't worth it for me.

ToBeMrsT · March 2011

Our only debt is our mortgage and it's only 21% of dh's take home pay. That leaves all the rest of our money to pay for everything else.

We paid off both of our cars before we had kids and took out a very modest mortgage compared to a lot of people we know.

brooketini · March 2011

We have no car payments (we always buy used and drive them for a long time), don't use credit cards, and live within our means. For us, there is no 'secret', we're just lucky that DH makes enough for us to live on. Before I became a sahm, we started putting a huge chunk of my paychecks into savings each month to get us in the habit of living on less. It's not always easy, and there have been some lean times (DH owns his own business, so our income can fluctuate) I babysat my nieces for a while to bring in some extra cash, so you could look into at-home childcare as an option to add income.

BeachM · March 2011

littlemermaid:
From the day we got married we based all major expenses on just one income(husband's) and we banked all of mine in anticipation that I decided to stay home once we had kids. So we were already living off of one income by the time we had children.

This is what we did as well.

Noelle1219 · March 2011

Before we met, I had saved up a lot of money as a result of being financially smart, paying for cars and my masters degree in cash, no credit card debt, low rent living w my best friends, etc. My hubby had no debt, student loans either so when we got married and 1 month later decided to have a baby, it was very easy for me to stay home. We put down 20% on our mortgage (just bought our home this past summer) which brings our monthly expenses down to a very low amount. I am a very smart shopper, use coupons, and don't really do anything in excess. We pay our bills in full each month and are sensible. We still go out to dinner once a week, go on vacations, and out w friends regularly. We don't touch our savings ever though. However, hubby's income will be going up significantly in the next 2 years so this is temporary living for now. If I had to live w this income in order to stay home w my kids, I would do it easily though even if I had to make sacrifices!

istalkgeeks · March 2011

My income was never factored into any of our bills. We always used it to pay for high ticket things like vacations, our wedding, and saved the rest. My DH purchased our home on his income prior to us meeting and the rest of the bills were budgeted on his income.

My DH drives a car with a car payment, but it was not purchased until I finished paying off my car. When I paid mine off, we replaced his old car.

We have no credit card debt. We have 2 mortgages (for our home and his condo), one car payment, and I have a small student loan.

I breastfeed, so I don't have the recurring formula expense. I cloth diaper, so I don't have any additional expense after the initial cloth diaper purchase.

By nature, we are just frugal people. Even on one income we are banking large savings. We don't eat out a ton. We cook at home and don't buy prepackaged goods. We watch for sales on things we use often. We use Amazon to buy bulk goods (toilet paper, coffee, deodorant) instead of buying in-store. We reuse and repurpose things.

I don't work from home and I have no intentions of returning to work.

Alexandra*sMom · March 2011

Just paid off our van - so no more care payments.

No formula either. We splurge on cable with all the sports channels. We eat out probably once a week. We live in a low cost of living area, so our 2600 sq ft house was 150k. I plan all my meals and shop for only those, so grocery shopping is typically about 500 a month including diapers, pull ups, toilet paper, paper towels, etc.

nicleep · March 2011

We struggle but I do work 20 hours a week (on weekends so DH has the kiddos adn no daycare) so that helps. We do not have carpayments. I coupon like a mad woman. We don't have cable (we use netflix). We don't have credit cards so no interest or living beyond our means. We have what we need and rarely have 'extra' money for anything (although if I know something is coming up like a birthday I can save for a few months to throw a party etc) but we both agree it's worth it until all the kids are in school

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