Many years ago someone told me something that has made a great inpact on my life. "Budget on the one who makes the least" Or if one does not work in the household then budget on what they could potentially make if they were to have to step up and be the bread winner.
We live off of what I could potentially make if I were to get a job. Which is less then what my husband currently makes and we do not plan on changing that! I love this way of living.
I know that it is not necessarily going to happen to everyone and some may never experience it but I cannot imagine the loss of a job in a household that has one income pay the mortgage and the other income pay the bills! My hubby lost his job 3 years ago and he was the only income so it was a pretty major hit but we budgeted on just one income so it probably didn't feel as bad as most do when they lose a job. Even if they still have another ones income.
Do any of you practice this same way of living/budgeting...is this something you would consider doing?
I paid all my household bills before I met Troy. We still live in the home and all the bills still come out of my income. We save all of his and he makes twice as much as I do. Life is good. :)
im single with one income-raised my kids myself with my paychex n pittance of child support..im a budget qween...after i pay bills i divide up what i have left to see how much i get to spend daily-ive got 3 dogs,a cat n 2 birds-birds n 1 dog r rescue,one dog with epilepsy.new rescue has lymes disease-so gotta budget in meds.have a great vet who takes post dated chexs.
on 4th of july i had a horrible accident almost cut pinky finger off-missed 2 weeks of work unpaid...thank god for kids,n good friends i pulled thru-1st paychex was 11.72...im a budget qween...
sort of. My husband has two jobs and I never know how much is paycheck is going to be from the second job (it is a small part time job and can range from $100 to $300) so when I budget I ignore the second job income.
We budget on one income not two. We both make about the same when we are both working. I have the potential to make more than him, but I am the overly cautious type. That being said, I have currently learned that somewhere in the back of my head, I have gotten used to his income being there to help us out of any potential jams. Right now it is not there and it is making me see life and our relationship differently.
After watching both my parents and my inlaws save and live thriftily all their lives--and now are retiring millionaires--my husband and I have tried to find a way to live that both allows us to be very comfortable with our emergency funds and college funds and retirement funds and short-term emergency funds, but also allows us to enjoy things in life, like buying food we enjoy making (nice cheeses rather than mac 'n cheese) and that is healthier for our family. We put money into each of three college funds each month, put money into our own savings, and money into an IRA. When we get windfalls (bonuses, stimulus money, tax returns), we directly invest those. My husband's contribution to his retirement is matched 100% and he has a pension. We have never carried credit card debt. When we find too much money in our checking account, we pay down the principal of our car, the only debt we owe besides our home. We live in a 160K $ home, my husband makes below 80K, and I do not work, for now. I'm excited about the prospect of going back to work, but it'll be at least a year. We are hoping to build a home on some land we own (paid cash). As a teacher, I'm not sure that living on my salary would be very comfortable--but I also know that my husband would like me to go back to work, just because it makes him a little less stressed about his job. He supports me staying at home 100%, though, too. I'm not sure what we'd do with the...45,000 $ in discrepancy between his salary as an engineer and mine as a teacher, if we lived on my (potential) salary. That's a lot of money to just sock away. I guess we could retire early, but honestly, neither of us minds working all that much, either.
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After watching both my parents and my inlaws save and live thriftily all their lives--and now are retiring millionaires--my husband and I have tried to find a way to live that both allows us to be very comfortable with our emergency funds and college funds and retirement funds and short-term emergency funds, but also allows us to enjoy things in life, like buying food we enjoy making (nice cheeses rather than mac 'n cheese) and that is healthier for our family. We put money into each of three college funds each month, put money into our own savings, and money into an IRA. When we get windfalls (bonuses, stimulus money, tax returns), we directly invest those. My husband's contribution to his retirement is matched 100% and he has a pension. We have never carried credit card debt. When we find too much money in our checking account, we pay down the principal of our car, the only debt we owe besides our home. We live in a 160K $ home, my husband makes below 80K, and I do not work, for now. I'm excited about the prospect of going back to work, but it'll be at least a year. We are hoping to build a home on some land we own (paid cash). As a teacher, I'm not sure that living on my salary would be very comfortable--but I also know that my husband would like me to go back to work, just because it makes him a little less stressed about his job. He supports me staying at home 100%, though, too. I'm not sure what we'd do with the...45,000 $ in discrepancy between his salary as an engineer and mine as a teacher, if we lived on my (potential) salary. That's a lot of money to just sock away. I guess we could retire early, but honestly, neither of us minds working all that much, either.
We do the same thing. Careful planning and major budgeting. I feel like you are much more at peace when there is not mountains of DEBT weighing you down.
I grew up in a household where my dad worked and my mom stayed home until I was in the 7th grade, when she got a job outside the home. (I wanted to go to college, and that was the only way we could afford for me to go was to bring in some extra income). However, I don't recall our way of living changing one iota; I suspect they continued to live as if my mother wasn't working.
We have a special needs daughter and decided when she started Kindergarten for me to stay at home. It was a hard decision to go from two paychecks to one, but in our situation, it was the best for us. However, we've always lived/paid our bills off my husband's paycheck. My paycheck was for health insurance for me and our daughter (my husband's company only covered him) and daycare expenses; there wasn't anything left, really, after those two things were taken care of.
We live in a fairly affluent and expensive area of the state, so everything is more expensive than it rightly needs to be. We're looking to move about 45 min-1 hour away from this area, which should help with lower living costs, but that will be a year or two from now.
But until then, we still have to keep plugging away and living on only one paycheck. Up until just a few weeks ago, my husband wasn't listening very closely when I stated "we need to live within our means." Then he fell and shattered the upper part of his tibia right underneath his left leg (at least 6 breaks/fractures/pulverizations) and is laid up with NO WALKING for 10 weeks. We have no disability. Luckily, his company is letting him work 3 days/week from home, and we were able to get some money out of his life insurance policy. But we've still taken a tremendous drop in monthly take home pay.
Suddenly, the "living within your means" mantra is something he's VERY interested in implementing.
Anyway you can do it to live within or even below your means is always going to be the best decision. Being a slave to debt isn't a way to live. I'd rather enjoy life than always worrying about where I'm going to find the money to pay the bills. It does take discipline and some strategic strategizing, though, to live off only one paycheck--and to live within your means. I cannot imagine how fast and hard the house of cards must fall when a person in a two-paycheck family loses his/her job, especially when they BOTH have to work to bring the money in to pay the bills. Do we pay the mortgage--or do we pay the other bills and buy groceries.
I hope to never be in that type of a situation.
No. Where I live, budgeting on the one of us who makes the least would literally mean having 6 people live in a one bedroom apartment driving one car and the other one walking. Budgeting on the one of us that makes the most would upgrade us to a 2 bedroom apartment and a bus pass for the one who doesn't get the car.
I see what you're saying, but there is no way for us to live on one income so I'm never going to budget for it or pretend to live that way when in reality we have two incomes and, God willing, always will. One of us would be dead or disabled before we went down to one income and that's what disability and life insurance are for.
You can do this if the incomes are close. My wife and I did this when she and I were both working. We lived on my income and saved on her income.
Its more realistic to live on the highest income and save the lower income.
Good luck to you and yours.
We just never spend more than we can pay off each month. And we budget so that we have an aggressive savings plan where we save a certain amount of money (a lot actually) each month...it'll go towards college eduacation for the kids and retirement (besides my husband's work retirement benefits). My husband's job is extremely stable and we will never have to worry about him losing it. But I see what you are saying and it's a great plan!!! If we lived off of what I could make a month we would be living off less than half of what my hubby makes. No more organic milk and veggies! We'd have to move into a condo probably! Anyway...I like your plan but what we are doing works very well. AND when I do go back to work we will be able to save even more! Yay!
