Every so often, no matter how much you plan, life throws something at you that you simply can’t be fully prepared for.
Our household of three had no outstanding loans. We were stashing cash and felt secure about our finances. Then I began experiencing severe anxiety and depression.
After several intense panic episodes, my husband and I agreed it would be best for me to leave my part-time position and stay home with our son. That choice meant forfeiting roughly $10,000 a year in income.
I dove into the personal finance books we owned and started researching budgeting tips online. I’ve been a full-time stay-at-home mom for four months now.
Here’s the approach we’ve taken to make it work.
We Reduced Our Grocery Expenses
Food was one category I refused to compromise on. Before I quit working, our family had been trying to eat healthier, and maintaining that standard was important to me.
So rather than concentrating solely on cutting costs, I focused on eliminating waste. Steve and Annette Economides recommend planning meals and shopping only once a month in their book “America’s Cheapest Family Gets You Right on the Money.”
We don’t have the storage space to buy that much at once in our apartment, so I reduced our grocery trips from weekly (or more) to every two weeks. I also started using cash for groceries, which made me far more mindful about each purchase.
In a single month, our grocery spending dropped from $300 to $150.
We Cut Back on Dining Out
We decided to reserve eating out for when we have extra cash from donating plasma. In a strong month we might bring in $200, but sometimes, like last October, we only earned about $50.
I try to keep at least one meal’s worth of leftovers in the fridge for days when I lack the energy to cook. Still, with depression, some days it’s even too much to heat something up.
Now that my medication is beginning to help, a small nudge is sometimes enough to get me moving.
My “nudge” is an index card on the refrigerator that reads, “Today I decide to be wealthy.” I placed it there after reading Richard Paul Evans’ “The 5 Lessons a Millionaire Taught Me.” He recommends putting a reminder somewhere you’ll see it every day.
I find it most effective to place it where I’m most tempted to spend. While we haven’t hit our ultimate target yet, our restaurant costs have declined from $280 a month to roughly $150.
Month by month we’re improving, and hopefully that figure will soon be $20 or less.
We Curbed Impulsive Purchases
We reduced impulse buys almost unintentionally. Months before I stopped working, I was telling my mom I couldn’t keep up with the cleaning and organization at home. She sent me Marie Kondo’s “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.”
After reading it, I decided to tackle the whole house in one go. I had my amazing husband read parts of it so he could help, too.
Once we donated 10 large boxes and disposed of five enormous trash bags of clutter, our urge to acquire more items faded. Now, when we purchase something, it’s because we truly want it or genuinely need it.
Our impulse spending fell from about $70 a month to an average of $10.
We Built an Emergency Fund
One of my biggest fears about quitting work was how we would handle an unexpected expense without my paycheck.
After reading Dave Ramsey’s “The Total Money Makeover,” I decided we needed to prioritize having $1,000 set aside for emergencies, just as Ramsey advises.
Previously when I budgeted, I’d cover all expenses and dump the remainder into savings. Now we automatically direct 10% of every paycheck into savings and live on the rest. When we underspend against our budget, that surplus goes straight into the emergency fund.
For a young couple with a growing family, $1,000 felt like a significant amount. Then I consolidated our accounts.
It’s surprising how much money you actually control until it’s all visible in one place. By closing two bank accounts, we managed to deposit $300 into the emergency fund in just one week. Within three months we had saved $900.
A sizable portion of our emergency savings is kept in cash. Since it’s out of sight, it’s easier not to touch it.
How We Save on One Income
It wasn’t until I stopped working that I realized how much extra spending my job added to our lives.
On days I worked I frequently bought breakfast and lunch. We also no longer fill up the tank every week because we don’t drive daily anymore.
We anticipated making huge sacrifices moving to a single income, but we didn’t: within the first month we trimmed more than $300 from our monthly expenses.
And we still manage to enjoy family activities because we allocate both our time and money more thoughtfully.
Claire Donovan used to work in public relations and as an emergency dispatcher and is now a stay-at-home mom. She has a son and another child on the way, and she’s grateful to be at home with them.
