SAHMs- living on 1 income

[pugz]

What kind of changes did you make to live on 1 income so you could SAH?

Any tips or advice for making that transition?

I think i will need to SAH full time when we have a second.

[212]

We started living on his income exclusively the year before ttc. It gave us a really good glimpse of what life would be like and we banked my salary and it has been funding my IRA since.

[celiacmom]

We moved to a smaller place (lower mortgage)
Went onto budget billing for all bills we could (easier to determine monthly costs)
Made sure cars were paid off
My husband picks up 4-6 hours of ot a pay period.
Cut cable

[imojoebunny]

Apr 17, 2014 10:38:47 GMT -5 212 said:

We started living on his income exclusively the year before ttc. It gave us a really good glimpse of what life would be like and we banked my salary and it has been funding my IRA since.

This.  We never lived on mine after we married, just invested it.  We both made within 20% of each other.  Now, 7 years in, my DH makes more than we ever made combined, since he was able to focus on work, knowing I had things covered at home.  

[Deleted]

Lack of travel budget (and, alas, travel)
Paid off cars and won't replace until I go back to work
Bought a house we could afford on one salary
Shopped insurance to make sure we weren't overpaying
Never go shopping without a list and sticking to it (very few impulse purchases)

[ladygrey]

Apr 17, 2014 10:51:15 GMT -5 imojoebunny said:

Apr 17, 2014 10:38:47 GMT -5 212 said:

We started living on his income exclusively the year before ttc. It gave us a really good glimpse of what life would be like and we banked my salary and it has been funding my IRA since.

This.  We never lived on mine after we married, just invested it.  We both made within 20% of each other.  Now, 7 years in, my DH makes more than we ever made combined, since he was able to focus on work, knowing I had things covered at home.  

Same here. We haven't made any cuts to our budget since I started SAH, but having lived on one income for almost a year prior was great practice to make sure we could swing it financially.

[bunch]

We also banked my income, which was easy to do since I made little and it came in chunks via commission.

Cuts for us have been random shopping and eating out. Luckily neither is really fun with two kids. We are creative with vacations and dh works OT to fun our Roth IRAs.

[lulu21]

We live in a house that we can afford on one income and limited cable.

A big money saver is meal planning! I used to throw whatever I wanted in the cart, then wasted so much food.

[zeewifeandmama]

Apr 17, 2014 10:51:15 GMT -5 imojoebunny said:

Apr 17, 2014 10:38:47 GMT -5 212 said:

We started living on his income exclusively the year before ttc. It gave us a really good glimpse of what life would be like and we banked my salary and it has been funding my IRA since.

This.  We never lived on mine after we married, just invested it.  We both made within 20% of each other.  Now, 7 years in, my DH makes more than we ever made combined, since he was able to focus on work, knowing I had things covered at home.  

This exactly.

[scribellesam]

Actually making a budget and sticking with it made a huge difference; before we had kids we just spent whatever and hoped it worked out by the end of the month. I'm a very careful meal planner now and I never get to do that fun thing where you wander around Target and end up spending $100. Much less travel too but it's annoying to travel with DS anyway so that's not so bad, although I wish we could get away for a couple's weekend more often. Also, very little fun money - I haven't had a pedicure in two years and date nights are usually saved for when we have gift cards.

I don't get to do a lot of the fun SAHM stuff that costs money, like music classes and children's museum memberships, but it was important enough to us for me to stay home that I don't mind substituting in free parks, library storytimes, and play dates instead. I'm extremely happy as a SAHM and don't mind the budget sacrifices for now, although I may work again once the kids are in school and we need more money for activities etc.

[Marmee]

Apr 17, 2014 11:12:30 GMT -5 zeewifeandmama said:

Apr 17, 2014 10:51:15 GMT -5 imojoebunny said:

This.  We never lived on mine after we married, just invested it.  We both made within 20% of each other.  Now, 7 years in, my DH makes more than we ever made combined, since he was able to focus on work, knowing I had things covered at home.  

This exactly.

Pretty much this. We were only married 13mo when I quit to SAH. I mademorethan H slightly and we spent that year fixing up our house, buying furniture & baby stuff. We never had a 2 income lifestyle really. Now we bring in 1.5xs our combined income without me working. My being at home played a lot into that between H being able to focus on his career totally & my finding real estate deals & doing property managing (which is like 2hours every 6mo).

[dcn]

We also lived on dh's salary and when I do work it goes mostly into savings. The big things are we save less and spend less on gifts, travel and eating out.

[pugz]

The stuff i find hard to budget for are the irregular things. Vet bills, home maintenance, car insurance (twice a year).

[Cheerio]

Apr 17, 2014 11:39:54 GMT -5 pugz said:

The stuff i find hard to budget for are the irregular things. Vet bills, home maintenance, car insurance (twice a year).

This was one of the things I had difficulty with. When DH worked, we would just cash flow a lot of things. We were saving a lot so we would just put less into savings those months. Now I have an automatic transfer to savings every month for those items that come up every so often (car insurance and taxes, exterminator, HOA dues). It has helped us a lot to plan for those expenses.

The biggest change for us is hat do not currently put anything into general savings. We are still funding our IRAs and my 401(k) and put some money into DS's 529, though.

It took a while to figure out, but I was surprised at how much lower our taxes were the year after DH stopped working. His income had made us ineligible for the child tax credit, so that $1,000 right there.

[rex]

for the irregular stuff that is not an emergency, we have a general savings account. it doesn't a lot in it but if covers those things and we add a little each month or when we get a surplus.

[spanikopita]

Doing this now. I have to totally eliminate impulse purchases. We don't have cable. We eat dinner out 2x month, tops.

[ssmjlm]

Apr 17, 2014 11:39:54 GMT -5 pugz said:

The stuff i find hard to budget for are the irregular things. Vet bills, home maintenance, car insurance (twice a year).

I would just start a slush type of savings account.  Figure out an annual average and just save that automatically.  Even if it's just $100/month.

[Deleted]

Apr 17, 2014 11:39:54 GMT -5 pugz said:

The stuff i find hard to budget for are the irregular things. Vet bills, home maintenance, car insurance (twice a year).

I WAH but we live on H's income to make things easier since my income is unpredictable. For vet bills we looked at what we paid on regular stuff (annual checkup and meds) in the past calendar year and added a slush fund of maybe $50/month to cover unexpected sick dog expenses and the annual total/12 was our budget line item. Basically the same thing with home maintenance, we looked at what we spent over the past year and budgeted an extra $100 every month to be part of a slush fund for emergencies (plus we have an efund for bigger stuff). Car insurance was easier as we knew what to expect to pay annually, so we took that amount and divided by 12.

[Deleted]

Apr 17, 2014 11:39:54 GMT -5 pugz said:

The stuff i find hard to budget for are the irregular things. Vet bills, home maintenance, car insurance (twice a year).

Mint will let you set up categories to account for this stuff, if you can take a guess at amounts (or just look at the previous year). I have become more into Mint since our income drastically dropped.

[pugz]

I've been keeping track of our spending the last 18 months so I am looking back on the spreadsheets to figure out averages. So far we've just cash flowed with my part time income. Childcare FSA has covered all daycare expenses since she is only there PT

Can you use the childcare FSA for preschool?

Car will be paid off June 15th so that is $225 back a month, whee!

[Cheerio]

Apr 17, 2014 12:33:11 GMT -5 pugz said:

I've been keeping track of our spending the last 18 months so I am looking back on the spreadsheets to figure out averages. So far we've just cash flowed with my part time income. Childcare FSA has covered all daycare expenses since she is only there PT

Can you use the childcare FSA for preschool?

Car will be paid off June 15th so that is $225 back a month, whee!

I think you can only use the childcare FSA for preschool if both parents are working or actively looking for work.

[pugz]

Apr 17, 2014 12:35:26 GMT -5 Cheerio said:

Apr 17, 2014 12:33:11 GMT -5 pugz said:

I've been keeping track of our spending the last 18 months so I am looking back on the spreadsheets to figure out averages. So far we've just cash flowed with my part time income. Childcare FSA has covered all daycare expenses since she is only there PT

Can you use the childcare FSA for preschool?

Car will be paid off June 15th so that is $225 back a month, whee!

I think you can only use the childcare FSA for preschool if both parents are working or actively looking for work.

Got it. Well without FSA contributions dh's income will go up a bit

[urbancowgirl]

Moved across the country to a place with a lower COL

Seriously, though, we cut way back on travel, eating out, concerts/other events, and clothes.

[juliabug]

Start living on one income as soon as possible and bank the rest. We knew when we got married that I would one day SAH, so we used my income for me to finish school and take several international vacations before having kids. 

[sh10]

We bought our house on DH's income alone, we sold DH's Camaro with low miles for a car two years older and slightly higher miles (I think he secretly cried that day, he's a car guy), paid off undergrad student loans and car payments, and then started banking all my salary. Unfortunately I was laid off about two months after we were banking mine 100%, then I got pregnant two months after that, but we banked all the unemployment. We hope to eventually live closer to family, where my dad can help us fix up a cheaper house and get everything we want, plus help with DS and any future kids. We took two big trips before DS and our vacations in the next few years will be the il's cottage. DH is about to graduate from grad school, so we expect his income to increase.

For budgeting, we put small amounts in each month for car insurance, car repairs, life insurance, travel, clothes, DS, e fund, etc. we use pnc and put everything in the wish list in the savings account. It's really helpful because then we don't have the big bills to cash flow, we have already saved it.

We always knew we wanted me to stay home, and as my job got worse, it was more apparent every day. I actually was happy to be laid off. Sure we could always have more money, but I'm happier at home and DH is happier for it too. I take care of the stuff he doesn't like to do and weekends we get to enjoy as a family without errands. When DS and any future kids are in school, I'll probably try to do more with fitness, but for now I'm happy with my four classes per week.

[Saudade]

We were living only on DH's income before DS came because I wasn't working. Once I'm done with school, I'll go to work, so everything is temporary.

Nothing had to change once DS came around but we do make attempts to eat out less and go to Target less. I need to be better about this. It's a work in progress.

[MadamePresident]

Apr 17, 2014 12:35:37 GMT -5 @vicmo said:

Apr 17, 2014 11:39:54 GMT -5 pugz said:

The stuff i find hard to budget for are the irregular things. Vet bills, home maintenance, car insurance (twice a year).

I do work (well, I'm going back next month) but I deal with this stuff by creating sinking funds each month for 1/12 of the approximate annual amount. I also save for car repairs, Christmas / birthday / wedding gifts, and utilities (varies depending on the weather). I feel better just paying bills whenever they come due from the savings account rather than having to adjust my budget for expensive months.

This is what we do to.  We say we want to spend X amount per "gift able holiday" then add it up per person per day -Christmas, birthday, mother's day, etc. Then we totaled and set aside part of it each month.  After using this method a few years we have found it to be pretty good. Because my mom might get a bigger present one year,  but then my sister might just want something less expensive.

The same for vet bills. We figure out how many times a year we visit. The costs of vaccines,  and budget for a every other year teeth cleaning.  As our dog gets older we may have to add more.  Dog food just comes out of groceries. 

We know how much we pay for insurance,  but get a better rate for passing yearly so we just set aside some each month. 

As far as me being able to stay  home, we worked really hard to pay off the house.  I know that isn't super popular on these boards,  but it gives us security, and allows for our monthly expenses to be pretty low. 

[drloretta]

I think the biggest change was paying off any CC debt we had. In the last year that debt has reappeared (thanks DH) and it's made things a lot tighter than they need to be.

[Deleted]

Apr 17, 2014 12:03:04 GMT -5 ssmjlm said:

Apr 17, 2014 11:39:54 GMT -5 pugz said:

The stuff i find hard to budget for are the irregular things. Vet bills, home maintenance, car insurance (twice a year).

I would just start a slush type of savings account.  Figure out an annual average and just save that automatically.  Even if it's just $100/month.

That's what we did too.  We saved up $500 in a local savings account, that we can transfer same-day into our checking account if needed. Unexpected irregular things like vet bills or farm emergencies get pulled from that account, then we put roughly $100 a month back into it until it's back up to $500. Knock on wood, we've never wiped out the whole account and not been able to replenish it before we needed it again.

But overall, we lived on DH's salary while we TTC (took 18 months to conceive DS). It was HARD to get there. When we decided that I would SAH, we looked at our bills and saw how much more than DH's salary they were. So we looked to see what expenses we had to eliminate. The mortgage wasn't going anywhere (we had just refi'd to a lower rate), as were several other fixed things. A $25 savings here or there for a lower cell phone bill wasn't going to help us, we needed to cut out a LOT MORE than that. So we buckled down and paid off a bunch of stuff to free up more of DH's paycheck. We debt-snowballed his personal loan, my car, and his car. We eliminated travel completely (womp womp). 

[scribellesam]

Apr 17, 2014 12:24:00 GMT -5 @tokenhoser said:

Apr 17, 2014 11:39:54 GMT -5 pugz said:

The stuff i find hard to budget for are the irregular things. Vet bills, home maintenance, car insurance (twice a year).

Mint will let you set up categories to account for this stuff, if you can take a guess at amounts (or just look at the previous year). I have become more into Mint since our income drastically dropped.

Oh, yes, we use Mint all the time to track our spending throughout the month. We have a miscellaneous budget that we save for things like vet bills, etc. It usually works, although sometimes we have to dip into the emergency fund one month and then add the money back in a later month when we don't have that expense.