Minimum your family can make it on

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-30-2006
Minimum your family can make it on
17
Wed, 10-25-2006 - 8:47pm

Hello Everyone.

I'm planning on becoming a SAHM with the birth of our second child in March. We have a 7 year old son. We are a military family, not living in base housing. We have 2 car payments, and they will be paid off in 2 years, so trading them in for something older isn't really something we are thinking of doing as both cars are very reliable.

When I leave my job, we will almost be cutting our income in half....and will be living off of $3500 per month. Has anyone successfully survived on this much or less? I have no problem with shopping at walmart, cutting coupons, etc as I'm not much of a spender now...but my hubby is. That's going to be the hard part.

Thanks for any info.

Tracy

Pages

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-21-2006
Thu, 10-26-2006 - 12:05am
I don't have a whole lot of advice, but I will say it was very tough when I quit my job. And I only made about half of what my husband made.
Maybe you could test it out for a few months, put all of your paycheck in a savings account and see how it goes on just one paycheck? That way you could really get a feel for what it will be like when you do quit.
Hope that helps a little! Good luck!

Avery3



Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting




Powered by CGISpy.com
iVillage Member
Registered: 05-08-2004
Thu, 10-26-2006 - 2:08am

That is around 42,000 a year completely do-able in my opinion. A family of four could thrive on that. I am assuming your dh gets medical insurance for the family since he is military?


My dh and I lived with WAY less when we first got together. If you are passionate about staying at home you can make it work.


jmo


Traci

myspace layouts, myspace codes, glitter graphics


Are you a M.O.M-Mom of Many? Find other M.O.M's

Avatar for goodmom95
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Thu, 10-26-2006 - 5:24am
Whee I was being divorced,I was also fighting for disability.For 3 years I HAD to survive on less than $400 a month.Sure I got assitance for rent and food,but none of the bills.It still was not enough CASH,no asst. for that.I survived,here I am today.(still poor)
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-22-2003
Thu, 10-26-2006 - 12:02pm
Hi, Tracy! My dh just got out of the Air Force. He was an E-5 (Staff Sargeant). Before I became a SAHM, I was an E-4 (Senior Airman), also. That was nice!! (About

Photobucket

Photobucket

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-11-2006
Thu, 10-26-2006 - 12:09pm
HI!
Photobucket
iVillage Member
Registered: 01-06-2004
Thu, 10-26-2006 - 12:16pm

We are a family of 5 and we live on a salary of over $55,000. Now we could have tons leftover if we didnt have so many bills, things we really did not have to have or paying off credit cards.

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting


Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-01-2003
Thu, 10-26-2006 - 1:16pm

Welcome Tracy.

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-11-2005
Thu, 10-26-2006 - 2:37pm

Hi Tracey,


It's hard for me to say what's "livable" for someone else especially since I don't know where you live.

Photobucket

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-09-2006
Thu, 10-26-2006 - 3:46pm

When Dan was in the Navy (which was up until November of last year) we lived on just barely over that per month. Yep, it's hard and many "toys" have to wait or be saved for, but since the kids are worth it that's okay.

Lol, the "minimum" our family can make it on is the current amount Dan brings home. When he first joined and all we got was 1800 per month we made it. We live to our means, and make a conscious effort to not go over that no matter what the income is. Of course, our situation is probably the reverse of yours, my DH is the saver and I'M the spender! Lol.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket


 

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-30-2006
Thu, 10-26-2006 - 8:52pm

Thanks everyone for the great replies! I did put my last check into savings and plan to do the same with the upcoming ones. Hopefully by March/April we'll be used to it. I think we can do it, but just have to get used to not eating out all the time and buying stuff for no reason.

One thing I am worried about is how we would ever get a home loan on $40,000 a year, or how we would rent. Where we are now is going to have to work until we get his new orders, but we definately need a bigger house with the baby coming. I'm afraid we won't qualify for anything or we'll have a hard time finding something to rent with just the one income....but I guess plenty of others have done it before us.

Thanks again....and I'm sure I'll have more questions!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Tracy

Pages