Living on one income..

 Good morning people..how are you all today?

So i have been thinking about this for a while and how many people have different takes on it.

We live on one income. We have no extra means of income. I did sell on Ebay for a while but it was more hassle than it was worth so i stopped and now donate items i no longer need..in my mind there is always someone in more need of these things than i am. A fortunate position to be in.

So how do we do it?

Well for one thing we never ever buy anything without talking about it first. If we can't afford it we either save or wait until we can. No spending is done without talking wether its for a small thing or a large thing. This way we can keep track of our spending and know the balance in the bank. 

We have worked hard to get to the place we are at now. We owe nothing and have nothing on credit. It was hard going for a few years to get rid of any debt we had. We learnt to do without .

We both were on the same team and it is team work to get rid of debt. I can remember feeling totally elated when i made my final payment on the credit card and it was done and over..the lady who took the payment however was a buzz kill..but i wanted to shout and run around that yes after 5 years we were totally debt free.

Like all young couples who are just starting out we needed things and catalogues and credit was thrown at us..being a little naive we took it and it took us forever to get rid of it all. We have been debt free now for about 15 years and i love every minute of it.We are not a young couple by the way..in our 50's both of us but it took until our late 30's to realize it was a never ending circle. We cut that card up and paid it all off.

So then we were down to just one wage packet for 5 people. We worked out our Rent, Bills and Food..it left us with not much i can tell you. So what did we do?

Well instead of buying cakes and puddings i started to make our own..saved me a fortune in the long run.

We make our own bread and buns..now doing this is part of our weekly routine.

We stopped just going into town for stuff or just look around..and normally we would have something to eat. It all added up to money we just didn't have anymore. It honestly saved us a lot of money and also stopped me from going nuts and buying stuff i didn't need really .

We also stopped using the bus..2 tickets to town and 2 tickets home 2-3 times a week soon adds up, we started to walk everywhere. It benefitted us in the long run.

I started to go to Charity shops more often and buy clothes..we never skimped on shoes or undies.

I also learned to sew and fix things rather than replacing them.

My husband has always been handy and did all our repairs and making things we wanted.

We also started to plan and budget for every occasion. Buying small gifts all year round for Christmas and Birthdays.

I meal planned up the wazzoo..and beyond.

We stopped just buying things because we wanted them and focused more on what we have. Maintenance of household items is essential. 

Getting the allotments was the best part of it all, fruit and veggies all home grown and in my freezers for us to enjoy all year.

Just sitting back and thinking of how much things would cost to renew and replace or could we spend a little to fix it.

It was hard to start with almost a complete lifestyle change literally overnight but it just made that one pay packet go even further than we ever thought it would.

So even though it was hard at times we made it and still make it. The savings on not buying things or repairing items has soon added to our bank balance, so now we can afford to spend a little more on items that need replacing so that the better quality ones will last longer.

This has been our life for so long its now second nature to us.

Don't get me wrong its been tough at times and both me and my husband didn't have new clothes or winter boots for a long time but we managed and appreciated them a lot more when we did get them.

I appreciate the fact that my husband goes out to work for us as a family and this enables me to be a stay at home mum, a home schooler and homemaker.

So living on one income is totally do able if you cut out the stuff you don't need to do.

This works for us and hopefully will continue to work for us. It may or may not work for others, depending on how much you want it or need to just cut back expenses.

What do you do to make that one wage go further and still live a comfortable life.

ftm