We have been a one-income family since 2008! I can’t believe it has been that long. While making the decision to quit my job to stay home with my first child definitely wasn’t an easy one, we knew it was the right one for our family. While I have had some random (financially insignificant) side hustles over the years, year after year living on one income has remained our decision.
Over the past 12 years I’ve found tips and frugal living hacks that have allowed us to thrive as a one-income family (not just survive). We haven’t done these things perfect (or consistently for that matter) but these 5 tips are must-haves for a one-income family. These five things have remained necessary through many changes (job loss, return to college, unplanned babies, foreclosure etc.) over these years.
These are tools to put in your mom toolbox, ones that you’ll be able to use not only as a one-income family but as a manager of your home throughout the years should your situation change! So let’s jump into the things you’ll want to master before making this jump!
Tracking Your Income and Spending
I would suggest doing this before becoming a one-income family. It’s important that you know where your money is going so that you know exactly how much you will need when you decide to become a one-income family. You’ll also want to know just how much income you have coming in. This can be as simple as jotting down transactions in a paper notebook or as complex as a spreadsheet OR (easy peasy) you can pull your bank statements online and print them!
I would recommend doing this for at LEAST a month (more is better!) before you become a one-income family. The longer you track, the more accurate an outlook you’ll have of your household income/expenditures. It is crucial to know where your household money is coming from/going as this data will set you up to succeed at the next tip.
Creating a One Income Budget
Now I’ll start off by saying there are so many different ways to do this. It’s important that you find a way that works best for your family. The systems that work best for our family have changed over the years and what you start off using to budget may not work a year from now.
Because there are so many different ways of budgeting out there, it’s important that you take YOUR values and goals into consideration before choosing how you will budget.
WHY is this important to you!?
- Values: Is budgeting about stewardship? Take your faith/values into account.
- Goals: Is it about becoming debt-free?
- Vision: About being strategic with what you have so that you can make sure that remaining home with your children is feasible?
Be flexible and extend Grace to yourself. If something isn’t working you have the freedom to change it up and try something else (there are hundreds of methods out there!). I beat myself up for many years because our previous way of budgeting (Dave Ramsey) was no longer working for our family and I just couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong (we had gone from bi-weekly to weekly pay at one point and monthly at another!). It wasn’t me, it was simply that situations had changed a bit and I needed a tool that fit us better!
Budgeting is a whole post in itself so I won’t overwhelm you with tons of things here! Just know that there is no one right way to do it and that it will take some trial and error to find what works for you.
Living on Less
While this seems like a no-brainer, it was a lot harder for me than I thought it would be! Your family will learn to live on a little bit less of nearly everything! You’ll learn to get super creative and challenge yourself and it can even be fun!
There are many resources and articles on how to get creative with living on less! One of my favorite tools for doing this was Money Saving Mom (Crystal Paine). Her book “The Money Saving Mom’s Budget” was one of the first MOST HELPFUL actionable tools I had! This book is FULL of creative ways to save thousands, slash spending and how to be more intentional with your money. It is a must-have for your bookshelf! I gave my copy away to a family member and REGRET IT! I recently bought myself another copy 🙂
TIP: This started with cutting out non-necessities in our family. Remember that spending tracking from tip one? Take note of those non-essentials you spend on (subscriptions, memberships, eating out, premiums etc.) and start there! 😛
Meal Planning on One Income
This one is fairly straightforward but you’ll be amazed at how much money you will save just by doing this. You’ll want to have an idea of how many meals you’ll be eating at home (snacks too)! Make sure you take into consideration how many people you’ll be feeding as well. For example, when we were homeschooling full-time all three of my children were home all day. That meant all three meals; breakfast, lunch, dinner + snacks were eaten at home! That meant I needed more food than I would had they been in school. It is important to know how much NECESSARY food you’ll need for the week!
Also, If your children are younger they obviously won’t be eating as much as older children or full grown adults. There are many different ways to do this as well. Some prefer to plan meals for each day while others keep a general list of meals they make weekly. I tend to go back and forth depending on how I feel or how busy our week is. Be flexible with this system as well and allow it to evolve over time to fit your family’s unique needs.
Meal planning allows you to only purchase groceries that you’ll use in a timely manner and it will help you avoid unnecessary spending. We don’t typically stock up on groceries, because we don’t need to (and often we can’t afford to). We grocery shop weekly and buy what we will use that week. Our familyeats a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables so it’s important that we eat them before they go bad… we buy those week to week!
Making a PURPOSEFUL Grocery List
One of the biggest struggles I’ve had in becoming a one-income family has been realizing how little self-control I actually have! That comes out often when I’m at the grocery store. Snickers in the grocery line anyone? Having a grocery list and sticking to it will save you a ton of money. Our grocery list consists primarily of items from the ingredient list of my meal plan as well as things we’re running low on. There are some things we just buy every week that stay on there as well (milk, eggs, bananas).
I currently keep a master grocery list in my phone. But find what works for you! If you prefer paper, do that! I’ve done both over the years (and am even OCD enough to have it organized by aisle). I keep a “master list” which simply has the items we buy consistently week to week and I build on that as needed. Not only does this help me stay on track it saves me a ton of time from having to write out everything weekly.
I use an app called Trello for my list (a project management tool) and have a master list of items organized into columns ( I know a bit overkill) BUT I shop a few different stores (Costco, Sprouts, Local Dairy, Walmart) on our trips and this helps me keep an ongoing list (all in one place) of items we have on hand, items we need this week, and which store I’ll get it at. Then I can drag and drop items into the columns as needed. I also can make notes of prices at different stores for future reference.
Keep in mind your grocery list will vary with your family’s diet and family size. Our grocery list and budget also include toiletries and paper goods. If your family has dietary restrictions, your grocery list (and grocery bill for that matter) will look a lot different than someone who doesn’t. Our family tries to stick to a clean eating diet and we have some restrictions, therefor, our weekly grocery bill is RARELY under $225 for our family of 5 (my boys eat like grown men)…. Allow you list to grow, evolve, and change as your family does. Our bill would be a lot less if we didn’t eat the way we do.
BONUS TIP:
Practicing Gratitude/Contentment
While you may never “master” this, it’s important that you practice it even if it’s imperfectly. There have been many times in the past 12 years that I have questioned why we chose this route for our family. This journey was a HARD one of us many times and I had to remember why I was doing it. It always came back to finding gratitude and contentment in the season I was in. Going without, living on less, budgeting and planning can be overwhelming at times. You won’t do it perfectly! LIKE EVER. Comparison with others’ financial situations (or their stuff) will make this so much harder for you.
Remember your why. Why are you making the decision ( or maybe you had no choice!) to become a one-income family? There will be many times you will need encouragement and you’ll want to remember the positive aspects of one income living. For us, my why was because time and memories with my children were more important than having stuff… and boy do I like stuff. But we determined at that point that we would never regret having made this decision to be home and it holds true to this day.
If you’d like a fun (free printable) tool to practice gratitude, check out the link above!
Making the jump from two incomes to one is no easy task. It is a huge decision that needs some strategic planning and purposeful intention to ensure it’s done in the best way possible for your family.
I hope these five tips will be helpful tools to add to your toolbox as you make the jump to becoming a one-income family!
