When my husband and I first got married, reducing our monthly expenses was not a priority.
We were newlyweds with two good-paying jobs. We bought what we wanted, when we wanted, including two new cars, a new house and nice things to fill the house.
And we also had a six-figure debt bill to match.
Two weeks after we moved into our new house, I took a test that passed with two pink lines. We were pregnant, and with the joys of expecting a baby came the realization that I wanted to stay at home after the baby was born.
Which in turn meant one good-paying job was going to disappear. Paychecks would drop drastically while the bills kept coming. Unless we made some extreme changes in our home, our debt level would continue to climb.
My husband and I sat down and talked about how we could live off his income alone AND pay off our debt. It boiled down to one daunting task: cutting our monthly expenses in half.
We were ruthless, leaving no bill or expense unturned. In the end, we found a way to cut our monthly expenses in half AND start setting aside money towards an emergency fund.
Here’s how we did it and how you can possibly cut your monthly expenses in half too.
How We Cut Our Monthly Expenses in Half
1. Examine the Current Monthly Expenses
First and foremost, see where your money is going. If you don’t know what you are spending your money on, you won’t know where to cut expenses.
Leave no stone unturned, no purchase unaccounted for. Print off bank statements, credit card statements, dig up receipts, old bills, even open the checkbook you may rarely use – whatever you can get your hands on. Use it all to help you write down every single thing you’re responsible for every month.
Just being aware of what your current monthly expenses are is a huge step, and all of these line items are essentially now items in your household budget.
Related: Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck – The Household Budget
2. Cut the Obvious Monthly Expenses
Once you know where your money is going, it’s time to start cutting – starting with the monthly expenses that are not needed.
For us, some of these monthly expenses were in areas we grossly over spent, like dining out and groceries.
- Dining out went from $600 to just $80 each month. Everything food related that was not part of our monthly grocery shopping trip came out of this, but we were still able to have weekly date nights (splitting fajitas and savoring free chips and salsa) and sharing a cup of coffee together a couple of times each month.
- The grocery budget – which didn’t exist really – became fixed at $400. Shopping once a month and planning our meals helped us when we initially created our grocery budget.
In this process of writing down our monthly expenses, we realized that we were paying for two separate cell phones. What made this just plain silly was that we were with Verizon Wireless back then (before we switched to Republic Wireless) and any minutes you used to call “friends and family” were free. And guess where the majority of our minutes were going? To each other!
We combined the accounts into one, made sure that our calls to each other didn’t count towards our monthly minutes and then took an average of how many minutes we used each month. That total came out to be less than the lowest plan available, and switching to that plan saved us $90.
We knew that cable wasn’t necessary, but it was a small token of entertainment that we enjoyed. But to keep it, we had to reduce the cost.
After shopping around for better prices, we switched from the cable company to satellite service AND reduced the plan to bare minimum. This saved us another $50 each month. (We ended up cancelling satellite service altogether about a year later.)
What type of monthly expenses are you paying for that simply aren’t needed?
- Old memberships that you no longer need or use?
- House cleaning or dry cleaning for anything other than what’s absolutely a must?
- Clothing/Gifts/”Miscellaneous” Items
Review your monthly expenses line by line and ask whether or not it’s needed, and cut it if the answer is no!
Related: 3 Tips to Reduce the Cost of Eating Out/5 Ways to Save Big on Electricity
3. Cut Even More Monthly Expenses
We had made some serious progress at this point. Just about any family would be cheering to “find” an extra $1000 each month! But for our goal of being able to live on just my husband’s income, it wasn’t enough.
We had to cut our monthly expenses even more, and we had to get creative.
One of the ideas we had was to trade in our cars. It might sound counter-intuitive to do this, but it meant lower monthly payments – which was the short term goal. Just by trading in our two cars, we saved $380 each month.
Another reason for trading our cars though, was to choose models that were more efficient with gas. We also determined exactly how much gas my husband needed to go to and from work for the month AND the amount of gas needed for the family car each month for typical errands and such. Then we “fixed” the gas budget at $100 for the month, saving at least $50.
Since we needed the internet for a small business I was running at the time, we couldn’t cancel it. But since we didn’t stream anything or watch movies, we could lower the speed without effecting what we needed the internet for.
I noticed that some of our neighbors had smaller trash cans, and since we weren’t making that much trash with just the two of us, I called the waste management company and asked if we could have a smaller trash can.
I learned that not only did the smaller trash cans cost less each month, but that a recycle bin was free. This meant we could increase our recycling each month AND lower our trash. This saved us $20!
Here are a few other ideas that might help you think of creative ways to save:
- Once you save enough in an emergency fund, increase the deductible of car insurance to lower the premium.
- Contact your energy provider and see if they have plans that allow you to pay a bill each month that’s equal to the average bill over the past year. This didn’t lower the bill, but it helped to make it consistent each month.
- Although controversial for many (and a very hard decision for us to make), we found a new loving home for one of our pets. He was a puppy (8 weeks old) destined to be a very big dog, and the money needed every month to care for him just wasn’t there. We found him a new home with a family who lived on a farm – who happened to be a co-worker!
In the end, all of these changes helped us reach our goal. We cut our monthly expenses by 50% and we were able to live off of just my husband’s income!
Related: 9 Creative Ways to Save on Water/How to Save 15% on Water with a DIY Water Displacement System
The Biggest Hurdle
It’s important to realize that the biggest hurdle we had to overcome wasn’t number-related. It was our mindset.
We thought we “deserved” nice things because we made nice money. But we didn’t really own any of it and felt chained to the bills that came in every month.
Once we wrapped our heads around the bigger goal, and getting over our egos, cutting our monthly expenses and living with the aftermath from that became easier.
- It was not glamorous trading in a luxury SUV for a compact sedan.
- It wasn’t easy postponing errands or appointments because there wasn’t enough gas.
- It was sometimes embarrassing to offer an inexpensive homemade gift in lieu of a more costly store-bought item.
But in the end, our sacrifice was worth it. In 2 1/2 years, we paid off our debt and saved enough for a small emergency fund!
You are right that it is controversial to give up a pet! I could never think of giving up one of my dogs as a means to save money! I believe our pets are family members and to do that is just unthinkable! They have feelings too! There are other ways to save money, and I bet that dog didn’t cost the $80 a month in date nights you spent. I may not get more pets since I don’t have the budget to do so right now, but there is no way I would give one up to save a few bucks a month!! I love your blog but that just leaves a bad impression for me that you would do that.
If a dog is a member of the family, it deserves the utmost care. We adopted a small dog years after I left my job (when we could afford it), and he is expensive! I promised myself that I would not have a dog if I couldn’t give him proper care. His expenses include: good dog food, monthly flea and tick and heartworm preventative, annual vet checkup, pet insurance, treats, boarding when we travel.
And he weighs 13 pounds. A large dog would cost more. I am an animal lover and sometimes the loving thing to do is make a tough decision to ensure the dog gets the best care. I don’t think that’s controversial or selfish.
Thank you Jennifer!
Hi Cindy! It is controversial, but giving up a pet was just one of the many tough decisions we made at the time in order to put our family first. In hindsight, we shouldn’t have gotten him in the first place. But we also shouldn’t have bought a house nor two new cars… We only had him a few weeks and had been treating him for Parvo, so we were already spending a lot of money ($1200+) just to treat him to be well – money that we didn’t have. In God’s perfect timing, I had a co-worker (who lived on a farm) who was looking for a new pet at the time, so we are certain he went to a good home. As harsh as this may sound (and despite the fact that I love them!), but my family comes before animals.
I agree with the pet thing . We dont have one because of costs.. giving one up you alresdy had would be hard ..but this is all about making hard choices to better your family in tje LONG RUN
I too agree. Waiting for my 14 yr old dog to pass. Got the dog for the kids but they are off doing there own thing now. Shes a good dog and I love her. Never had a dog before this one. Its expensive and limits our ability to travel. Shes 45 lbs and grumpy at times. Likes to growl at people when she doesn’t want to be bothered. Yes you did the right thing giving it to a home were she could be well taken care of and grow into there family. The vet tells me my dog looks good and could last several more years. My luck right
Why not just change the type of pet?
A dog is really expensive (with all the vet cost, and meat meals etc.)! Whereas fishes are really cheap to have pets!
The need at the time was to cut expenses, and even switching to another pet was still an expense… tank, fish, food… it all adds up and we needed a balance of zero!
the puppy was 8 weeks old, usually puppies stay with their mothers till they are 8 weeks old. But maybe this puppy left its mother at 6 weeks old. So at most they had the puppy for 2 weeks, how attached can you get in 2 weeks?
sorry I think you are taking this personally, its not you or your dogs and you cant hold them to your standards.
They found a loving home for the puppy – on a farm which is a lot bigger and nicer for the puppy than a house/apartment / whatever they were staying in.
Ugh, animal nuts. Good lord. If they found the puppy a good home, then all is well with the world. Pets are not humans. They are animals.
Giving up your dog so that he/she gets better care might be controversial but is noble. I commend her and her husband for having the mind to do what’s best for the dog.
People get sappy over dogs. “Dogs are people to.” Is basically what they are saying. I get a kick over the people who worship their dogs.
I have a theory about dogs. It needs to have a purpose; herd, guard, pull sled, hunt, sniff drugs, etc. If it has no purpose IT NEEDS TO BE GOOD TO SMALL CHILDREN! If none of the above, it’s no different than a chicken that no longer lays, a cow that doesn’t produce milk etc. It gets taken out back and done away with.
I’m not bothered at all that you’d give up your dog. We have had our dog for ten years and I wouldn’t give her up today. However, you stated yours was a puppy. If we’d just gotten ours and realized it was a more of a financial burden than we realized, finding a new home seems perfectly responsible. For the 10-15 years that you own a dog it CAN be a huge expense and it’s important to know that from the start.
Thank you Laura!
I was earning more than my husband when I quit to be a stay at home mom. It was a huge adjustment. We made a lot of the same decisions you did. Since I was a very light cell phone user, I got away with switching from a plan to prepaid and spending $100 per year on minutes. We reduced our restaurant budget to zero, but we used a rewards credit card to pay bills, so we would get gift cards to eat out periodically.
Hi Jennifer! Looking back, we should have cut out the restaurant budget more or even entirely, but obviously we were new to the budgeting idea. 🙂 Smart thinking on the rewards card to pay bills!! If we could have used our credit responsibly, that would have worked nice for us!
This was a very helpful and encouraging post for me. I became the stay at home parent back in 2008 (my great paying job was bought out on my maternity leave and my position was eliminated) We had to learn the hard way fo way some years, but now, we know where every dollar goes. We utilized lots of great free budgeting tools and apps, and recently found another way to cut down on our food costs (a farmer’s market connected to a restaurant sells produce and meats for cheap!) The only expense that we haven’t been able to knock down considerably would be cell phone bill. (We have our elderly and widowed parents on our plan) Great tips and I will see what else I can do!
I’m so glad it was helpful Allison!!
We have been through the same type of ‘cut our budget drastically’ type of mode the last several years but for very different reasons. I already stay home with 4 kids and we already live on one income. My husband works for the federal government so not a lot of opportunity for a large pay increase. Our goal was to pay cash for our dream house! We looked at it from 2 angles, cutting everything to bare bones and increasing monthly income through non-conventional ways. We have sold a lot of items from our home that were just not really being used, the kids have done odd chores for neighbors and grandparents’ neighbors like cleaning gutters, cleaning flower beds after winter, large dusting jobs, etc. We also as a family cut grass one or two evenings a week and on Saturdays. My kids are 10-15 so they are big enough to do a lot of the work even if my husband didn’t get home in time to help. On another note, yes, giving up your puppy to another home can be controversial, but I am SO proud of you for doing it! Yes, we do have a larger dog and it is not cheap. By finding a new loving home for your puppy, you were putting your husband and soon-to-be children first. I love my dog, but he is not my child. Our dog easily eats $40 worth of food every month plus he needs about $600 in vet bills every year (not including if something goes wrong!). If we were in your situation with no kids attached to him and he was still a puppy where he had many years to love and be loved by another family, Yes, we would have made the same decision. In a heartbeat! We still would make that decision if it meant me staying home with the kids or getting a job. But, in our situation it is just a matter of paying cash for a home one month later than if we didn’t have him. There’s no question there, we are keeping him. I am a dedicated reader and have read and re-read your blog so many times during our journey that I feel like we are neighbors. Your information and encouragement have been one reason we are going to break-ground on our dream home in 6 weeks! Thank you Tiffany!
What is wrong with your dog that he needs that much in vet bills,?! that is not normal.
Plus I still maintain that if you adopt a pet, they are family. How can people be so heartless to just give them away like an old sweater??!
Actually, nothing is wrong with him (other than seasonal allergies which does cost about $150/yr), he has to go twice a year to get check-up, shots and flea/tick medication. Vets are not cheap around here. I do love my dog, dearly. I volunteer and help families with their finances so I see things from different lenses than most. Every week or so I speak with a family that either would love to have a mom at home and can’t because they are not willing to give up things like the nail salon, the lunches out, the $5 coffees, maid service or expensive pets. I also see families with multiple pets who can’t pay their light bill and their home is being foreclosed on. I see it all. It’s not pretty. It’s also not fair to the pets when the owner can’t pay for needed care. I totally understand the ‘my pet is my family’ feelings because I do love my dog. But, given a choice of keeping my pet or being with my kids and having some entertainment money for a healthy relationship with my husband, I will always choose to find a loving new home for my pet. Please understand that I am not in any way saying you are wrong! In fact, my 12 year old is wanting to be a vet because she is such an animal lover. I am the first to stop and help an animal in need. I just see too many people not willing to make the hard choices for the greater good.
But what you are talking about is not a situation where the person is homeless and not having food. You are talking about prioritizing wants over keeping the pet that YOU decided to adopt. That is my issue. DON”T adopt if you can’t and DON”T act like it is OK to just throw them away like trash! No One is obligated to adopt a pet and don’t act like you did the world a favor by taking one for a minute, because you just hurt that animal and it may never trust again.
Cindy – I appreciate your comments and sharing your point of view, but let’s keep this conversation positive and upbeat, okay? We’re ALL entitled to our own opinions, and it’s totally fine to disagree, but we can do so in a kind manner. And the fact that we gave up a dog is a minor point in a bigger article (and the decision to find him another home was NOT taken lightly and he was certainly not tossed aside like a sweater). If you have other ideas to add to the article as a whole, I’d love to hear them!
I just wanted to say no one wants to have to give up their pet! But, once our family got down to rationing food for our dog, we decided his health and happiness was more important than ours. He went to a great family and even has another dog sibling now.
I know the people who say they will never give up a pet probably hasn’t had their card declined to buy water, rationed food, and had to move out of state away from everything they know in order to survive.
I think you should think before you are so quick to judge and be thankful you have not had to be in a situation where you didn’t have a choice. Homeless people have dogs because they would never give up their pet it’s not fair to the dog!
I don’t feel like these pets are “being thrown away like trash”… These ladies are taking THEIR time and FINDING GOOD HOMES AND HAPPY families for the pets… I could see where you would be upset if they dropped them at a shelter, in the woods, or side of the road… however, they aren’t! They are FIND GOOD HOMES AND HAPPY families!
To each their own… I think a common problem in our society is that people feel entitled to judge others’ decisions … when we never know how that HARD decision effected the person who had to make it. Why can we, as a society, not stand up and support other people’s decisions, especially when Tiffany’s decision was to FIND A GOOD HOME WITH A HAPPY FAMILY rather than throw the puppy “away like trash”? Tiffany – I fully support and admire the tough decision that you made to help your family! I am new at learning to budget and coupon and live frugally and save like never before and … well, the list goes on! Thank you for sharing your testimony! 🙂 -AB
♥
Thank you for offering this breakdown Amy, which you certainly didn’t have too! We too have counseled families financially and have seen both sides of the fence. Families have to make hard decisions all the time, and other people don’t necessarily agree. That doesn’t make the decision right or wrong – it’s just not the same one they would have made. 🙂
It’s a DOG… Not a person. A little rational thinking please.
Well in my case, my 79 pound PUPPY jumped out of my moving car. Broke his leg, 2 ribs and a toe. I don’t have children, but I also don’t have pet insurance. The survey cost me $14,000 when all was said and done! My dog IS my child so I put my bid girl panties on and figured it out, but $600 annually would be awesome compared to what I’ve paid this year lol.
That’s such an inspiring story, Tiffany! Thanks for sharing your experience.
Thanks Amy!
I really appreciate your honesty and commitment to be home, despite the difficulty!
Thank you Emily 🙂
The other thing that needs to be considered for a wife (or husband) thinking about staying home with the children is the cost of their employment! Many, many years ago (nearly 18, in fact), my husband and I made the decision for me to stay home with our children. My clothing budget decreased. I no longer needed the professional suits, heels, etc. –or the dry cleaning bill to go with it. His dry cleaning budget decreased because I could launder and iron his shirts myself (and fix the buttons and catch stains better than the dry cleaner did). Our food budget went down as I learned to cook from scratch–and had the time and no longer needed convenience foods. Service calls to the plumber and electrician disappeared when I learned to DIY. We took care of the lawn ourselves rather than hiring it done. The list goes on. Today, I honestly don’t think I could get as much salary in the workplace as I can value-add to our family. It is worth thinking about and calculating.
Kathleen, I loved this comment!
I read an article a while back about how if you paid a stay at home mom an annual salary – it would come out to over $100k/yr.!
I am currently a working professional but would love to stay home if/when we have kids. As much as I KNOW how valuable homemakers are (my mother was SAHM my entire childhood), it is so nice to hear it broken down in this way. I have never thought about how much I actually spend just to arrive at my job on time and in professional attire. This page is giving me so much more confidence if I choose to take that path. Thanks!
You’re very welcome Jade! ♥
Back to your corners, ladies. This is not an ethics blog, It’s here to help us budget our food and household spending. Let’s not lose sight of that.
You won’t have to worry about my comments any more. I think it is ridiculous that you think I was unkind or inappropriate because I wasn’t. I will not be commenting or following any further.
Cindy,
Which part of Tiffany’s reply to you did you not see? Her and her husband spent $1200 treating the dog’s parvo, and then let her coworker adopt the animal. In my opinion, she did the most loving and caring thing for the animal that she could have done. She nursed it back to health and found a better home!
Your words were flat out unkind. Just because you have your opinion, doesn’t mean that others have to share the same view. You basically accused Tiffany of “treating the dog like trash” when in fact she did the exact opposite. Re-read her comments back to you and maybe you will change your mind!
Good grief. I love my pets (1 dog, 1 cat), but my family comes first every time. No if’s and’s or but’s in my household. Sometimes you just have to make tough decisions.
Awe….
I’m sorry being honest about what you did to make things work for your family resulted in such blowback. I love my pets like crazy but I have a friend who cannot meet her bills every month and she has three pets—she is prioritizing an animal over her kids and I don’t understand it. I appreciate that you found a new home for your pet rather than just dropping it off at an animal shelter.
As someone who adopted my dog FROM someone in the same position as Tiffany, I am also sorry you got such blowback. Daisy was such a wonderful addition to our family and I’m happy she got to come live with us where we could take care of her in a way the previous owner couldn’t. Every few months or so we bring her for a quick visit to see her old family, but she only lived there for 2 months, she isn’t attached anymore. I don’t think the negative comments are considering the feelings of the new family who were probably so happy to have her.
I have worked in animal welfare and rescue for many years (pretty much my entire life). I think the biggest problem here is realizing the difference between rehoming a puppy you just got, to a home you know would appreciate and love that puppy AND removing an older animal you have had for years because they are inconvenient or are becoming elderly, which requires more time and money. These are very very different things.
When you work with animals it is very easy to become distraught when people can give up an animal. Emotions run high because we see the worst of the worst, abuse, neglect, etc. Most animals do end up euthanized if they go to a shelter, adoption rates are not high for animals that are older than 6 months. Just trying to let people see from both sides.
I think rehoming a puppy, which is a costly creature to have in general, but a parvo of puppy more so, was fine.
We are a 3 dog, 6 cat, 2 child, 1 income household.
On the subject of pets, I am on the side of family first. We ” adopted” 2 grown dogs of the breed we were looking for (Great Pyrenees), one make and one female. Unbeknownst to us the female was pregnant and surprised us one Sunday with 5 puppies. For those who aren’t familiar with this breed they are LARGE dogs. We raised them until they were old enough to be weaned and then we sold them for a nice profit to people who were looking for a puppy of this breed to go onto their farm. These are livestock guardians. We also rehomed the mother as we realized that 2 of these large dogs were a handful to care for and to provide for.
Yes, there are animals who are pets and who have found a place in a family but animals should never come before humans. I am certain that Tiffany’s puppy was not affected by the change of scenery. In fact, it was a great decision to send a puppy to a farm! Nothing better for dog than to have plenty of room to run! Good decision Tiffany!!
Thank you Angel! And I can’t even imagine adopting two dogs AND THEN suddenly there’s 5 puppies, LOL!!
We’re still in the process of cutting down our expenses. One of the big ones for us has been our eating out and grocery budget. We had the same $600 spending you once had, and have since been working to bring that down drastically! 🙂
Great read! My first child will be turning 6 months next week and I am in the process of going through our expenses to see if I can stay home with her. This was very helpful! Thank you!
You’re most welcome!
I think the way you handled your puppy is extremely admirable. It was a young puppy still, and you found him a home any dog would love to have- with a family on a farm! You took excellent care of him and made sure he would continue to have a loving family. What more could anyone expect? People making judgy comments reveal more about their personality and flaws than about your decision. It completely detracts from the fact that your family has done something I’d say 95% of Americans would never be able to commit to. People are losing sight of the fact that you are debt free and paid cash for a beautiful home. I know I should be taking a page out of your book! Thank you for sharing so much of yourself with us!
Thank you for your kind words and support Brandy!! And that post about the house is coming soon!! 😉
Tiffany I give you such credit! I’ve been following you for a couple/few years now and I almost didn’t read this because I’ve read before how you managed to stay at home. So anyhow, when I started reading the comments, I kind of got angry! Sometimes I don’t know how you manage to keep calm but I suppose that you take some time to respond thoughtfully….I’m not sure that I always would!
Anyhow, 32 years ago we decided spur of the moment that I would stay at home when my daughter was born…it was so difficult to adjust to one income and we were very young so we ended up in credit card debt very quickly! We racked up 14K before we figured out what we were doing wrong! Then we needed to find a way to get that paid so we could buy a home with baby #2 on the way. It wasn’t easy but within a year we got rid of that debt and saved enough for a down payment on a house. If I knew then what I know now it would have been easy peasy!
But at least now I can tell that story to my grown children who are now looking to purchase their first homes!!
Thanks!
Aw, Julie, you completely made my day. 🙂 **hugs** Thank you!
First thing I did was open anther bank account in s different bank. Whenever o get any money for the month. I transfer as much as I can over to the other account and I then pretend as though it isn’t there. In a pinch I can use it. But I’ve made it difficult since I don’t have a debit card for that one. so I try to feed my family of 3 off of 50″ a month. That includes diapers and toiletries etc. I shop at the dollar store for cleaners and ransoms. And clothes I shop at value village during their 50 percent off days. I purposely cut my hair shorter than normal when I go in so I have time to let it grow out before I need it cut again. I buy makeup once a year and I don’t eat out. Almost ever. Our family date nights consist of my husband and I renting a movie on tv. We operate on one car which my husband uses. During the day my toddler and I opt for the bus if we really need to but would rather do the local library, the mall, play group. Parks. And other mom friends who live in the area. I buy a package of bus tickets for 20 dollars and it will last us about 3 months. Maybe more. Everything we need is so close to us. I make everything from scratch. I stretch meat and use lentils and beans to fill out our meals when we can. My husband loves meat. But when he’s away (which is all the time it seems) we eat more vegetarian. Have meat only a couple times a
Week rather than every meal ( which is my husbands preference). I make out a menu plan every week. And this month I want to try using cash only. Since Christmas I’ve been able to put aside 2,300 dollars in savings from money o could have spent if I needed to but opted to not spend it. It’s true. A penny saved is a penny earned. Another thing I’ve learned is to not get suckered into sales. If it’s money bleeding from your account unnecessarily, it isn’t a bargain. I look for meal ideas that use up things we already have. Like frittatas or chilies or home made pizzas. I have a list of “end of the grocery budget” meals I can adapt to what we have in pantry. I want to see if I can save more so I can have extra money for Christmas without touching my actual savings account. (That account is sacred to me and only to be used in emergencies). finances are king and my biggest priority since I think stability and safety security and love is what a child needs most. and maybe one day he’ll remember how we did it and he’ll know what he has to do to make his finances work.
cool, thanks for the ideas.
I noticed in a couple of the comments that the wife gave up the high paying job to be a stay at home parent. Curious if that decision was weighed or just made.
Hi Scott – that decision was weighed. Staying at home w/my newborn son was something we both desired, but it wasn’t a decision we took lightly because of the financial concerns. We sat down to write out a budget, to see if it was even remotely possible. When we saw that it was – after lots and lots of cutting back – we made the decision about halfway through the pregnancy. We then “practiced” living on one income for the second half of the pregnancy so that when the baby came, it wouldn’t be such a shocker. We also saved my income for those last few months to set aside for emergencies after the baby came. It was tough, but we made it work!
I read the question to be weighing between the husband or the wife staying home. I’m sure it wasn’t automatically assumed the wife would.
We’ve been cutting back so much lately. We switched to the cheapest cell plan we can get and saved $15 per month we also got a smaller trash can, which saves almost $200 over the course of the year. We fixed a leaky toilet which saved $40 per month! At the end of this month, we’re cancelling our Netflix because we have hulu and share my sister’s amazon so we don’t need all 3. We also use free tv apps like youtube, crackle, tubi tv and Pluto tv. We don’t go out much but when we do, I find a coupon or place where kids eat free. We have a movie theater that shows 2nd run movies for a dollar and has dollar or $2 concessions. The library is a great resource for free family fun because we can borrow books, movies, music, games, even telescopes for free! We check the library calendar every month for free kids activities. This spring, we’ll save on the grocery bill by planting a big veggie/herb garden and hitting the farmers market every weekend. I also got a tortilla press and pasta machine so we can make our own noodles, tortillas and chips and I make bread, yogurt, granola bars, waffles, soft pretzels, cookies, danish, bagels, etc and freeze it so we don’t buy much prepackaged food at all! For dates or family fun, we enjoy picnics, free concerts or movies in the park, movie night and cooking dinner at home, board games or cards, free museums, fishing and camping
These are fantastic ideas Brittany!! Thank you for sharing, and kudos for all the hard work you’re doing! I promise it will pay off!!
I enjoyed your blog very much. While most of your responses seem to have come from younger people, I am on the other end of the spectrum and will be retiring at the end of the year, looking at a need to reduce my monthly outgo by $650 . A part
time job seemed to be the answer, but I wasnt looking forward to that and wasnt sure that at 72 I would be able to find one..
After reading your article I’m going to see how much I can cut back first. Thanks for the encouragement!
You’re so very welcome Kaye! ♥
Great article!
Here’s some of the things that we’ve done:
1) Kept the house at a hotter temperature in summer and cooler temperature in winter
2) Used Cricket wireless (and shared a group plan with our friends) along with hand me down smartphones. We also use our Target debit card to buy refill cards, which saves 5% per month on the bill.
We have unlimited minutes, unlimited texts, and 5 GB of data. We pay $38 per month for service our two phones.
3) No cable or trash service. We don’t have a TV. Someone recently tried to sell me cable service and I got a laugh out of his reaction when he realized that we don’t have a TV.
For trash, we recycle and compost heavily. That leaves only a small amount of actual trash, which I haul periodically to the dump for $1-2 per trip. (no more than once a month and sometimes less) I wait until I’ve filled up a 32 gallon can and it takes us at least a month to do that. That saves roughly 90% over paying for curbside trash pick up. There’s not much convenience loss, considering that I would recycle anyway and have to haul the recyclables at some point. I do the trash dump trip the same day as I haul recyclables.
4) We shower as needed (not necessarily every day, especially in winter) and try to keep showers shorter and reuse bath water for younger kids if possible.
5) We try to avoid disposable items wherever possible. Every disposable item creates a recurring expense since they need to be replaced. I’ve found a lot of awesome alternatives to disposables. For example, kitchen towels, rags, and cloth napkins instead of paper products, glass and stainless steel straws instead of plastic, stainless steel plates instead of paper plates, cloth sandwich bags, reusable lunch bags, glass storage containers, cloth feminine pads and menstrual cup, etc.
6) We pay our car insurance in full, because they discount it. We set aside a set amount each month, so that we always have the money when the bill comes due.
It got me when you mentioned cutting down the expenses that I know I do not need in order to save money as some of the unneeded areas are actually where the person grossly overspend. I have to agree with this because I usually spend a lot on watching a movie. If that is the case, then I might stop watching movies permanently. After all, I need to save the money for the phone plans– that is more important for me.
Thanks for the excellent article. Everyone can decide to stay home with their young children if they plan it properly. It means not buying a house that is too expensive and not buying other things unnecessarily. In other words it means living within your means. Living a simple life is by far the happiest one. And giving up a pet that you cannot afford is very sensible. Pets are animals, not humans.
Loved the advice until it mentioned getting rid of a pet. I almost fell out of my chair literally. I’m super disappointed your telling people this should be an option.
Hi Jennifer – when we had the choice to either feed our family or feed the dog, we chose the family and found the dog a new home. Sometimes you have to make hard decisions.