How much income is needed to support a family on one income?

[maria29]

The biggest way I save money right now is in groceries. For example, I just got $40.00 worth of meat (10 meals worth ) for $24.00. Whole Foods was offering a $10.00 off coupon if you spent 40 in their meat department. On top of that I work there so I got my discount.

I spend about $30-40 to feed a family of three. We do many of the frugal things already posted. But even still, we are just able to pay most of the bills.

I wonder sometimes on here how people just can’t see that it’s not possible for some families to be able to afford to have another child(ren).

 

[Sure]

Okay…

Let’s take a family of 6 living “bare bones” in a city like Chicago. They have 2 cars (only 1 small payment) and send the kids to private school:

Monthly expenses

Mortgage: 1700
Prop Taxes: 500
Car: 400
Groceries: 860
Clothing: 100
Gasoline: 250
Car Insurance: 90
Elec: 85
Natural Gas: 85
Phone: 35
Cellphone for safety: 30
Extracurricular: 40
Misc.: 100
Dining Out: 100
Entertainment: 50
Internet: 30
Student Loan (most people have them): 200
Catholic School Tuition for 4 kids: 500
Basic Savings (for car/home repair and maybe a cheap vacation): 200

TOTAL: $5,355 per month…That’s about a gross income of $75,000 and that includes no retirement savings.

I think unless you live somewhere where you can buy a house for $100K, a family needs $80-90K per year just to get by.

 

[AmberDale]

Mortgage: 1700 plus
Prop Taxes: 500 **a month??
My mortgage, prop taxes, and house insurance are all bundled and are less than that!! We bought our house for 150K!! **
Car: 400
**That is not a small car payment in my eyes. If we must get a car payment, we won’t pay more than75-100 a month on a 2 year loan. **
Groceries: 860
Still seems high! Even for a family of six. Shop at discount places (like Aldi’s), cook from scratch
Clothing: 100
**we don’t budget for clothes, my kids usually get their clothes from yard sales or consignment shops. Anything NEW is as gifts from family **Gasoline: 250
That is actually about right, especially now
Car Insurance: 90
our two cars a month is 75, so close
Elec: 85
low, but our also contains sewage, water, and elec
Natural Gas: 85
low but we are on the budget bill so it’s the same all year (that way we don’t get a 400 dollar bill in winter)
Phone: 35
no phone
Cellphone for safety: 30
paid for by husbands employer, but that what a perpaid was costing.
Extracurricular: 40
none really
Misc.: 100
none really
Dining Out: 100
yep, if not less. We are trying NOT to eat out
Entertainment: 50
none
Internet: 30
**CHEAP! WOW! **
Student Loan (most people have them): 200
Catholic School Tuition for 4 kids: 500
we homeschool So our Catholic school doesn’t cost quite as much
Basic Savings (for car/home repair and maybe a cheap vacation): 200
**yea…

We live in the midwest and make WAY less than 75K! We make less than 40K! It can be done, especially if you want it to be. There are many things in that list that can be cut (entertainment can be cheaper, and such)

Honestly it all depends on where you live and what the cost of living is
**

 

[maria29]

We can’t even begin to afford to buy a house where we live. Houses start at least $200,000 range. We’ve cut everything down to the bare min, and theres still not much.without both of us working we’d never make our mim payments and we’d proably be living on the street But our situation is not unique, I know many families that have the same kind of bills that we dur monthly bills look like this:

Rent: $875
Student Loans: $458.00
Cell Phone: $95.00
GE Line Of Credit: $551.00
Electric :$100.00
My Car: $200.00
Groceries: $180.00
Insurance: $129.00
Gas: $250
Babysitter: $420
Dining Out: $0-30
Extra: $0-30

 

[Sure]

Mortgage: 1700 plus
Prop Taxes: 500 a month??
My mortgage, prop taxes, and house insurance are all bundled and are less than that!! We bought our house for 150K!!
Car: 400
**That is not a small car payment in my eyes. If we must get a car payment, we won’t pay more than75-100 a month on a 2 year loan. **
Groceries: 860
Still seems high! Even for a family of six. Shop at discount places (like Aldi’s), cook from scratch
Clothing: 100
**we don’t budget for clothes, my kids usually get their clothes from yard sales or consignment shops. Anything NEW is as gifts from family **Gasoline: 250
That is actually about right, especially now
Car Insurance: 90
our two cars a month is 75, so close
Elec: 85
low, but our also contains sewage, water, and elec
Natural Gas: 85
low but we are on the budget bill so it’s the same all year (that way we don’t get a 400 dollar bill in winter)
Phone: 35
no phone
Cellphone for safety: 30
paid for by husbands employer, but that what a perpaid was costing.
Extracurricular: 40
none really
Misc.: 100
none really
Dining Out: 100
yep, if not less. We are trying NOT to eat out
Entertainment: 50
none
Internet: 30
**CHEAP! WOW! **
Student Loan (most people have them): 200
Catholic School Tuition for 4 kids: 500
we homeschool So our Catholic school doesn’t cost quite as much
Basic Savings (for car/home repair and maybe a cheap vacation): 200
**yea…

We live in the midwest and make WAY less than 75K! We make less than 40K! It can be done, especially if you want it to be. There are many things in that list that can be cut (entertainment can be cheaper, and such)

Honestly it all depends on where you live and what the cost of living is
**

This isn’t my budget…I really wish I spent that little…I was just trying to show how a couple with 4 kids with a $250K mortgage (which will buy you a small 1200 square feet or so 3 bedroom house in a decent but still low-end neighborhood) still needs $75K plus to make it.

I am wondering if some of you who are making it on $40K or less are doing it because you bought a house a long time ago and have no student loans/car payments. For a young couple today starting out in most cities is going to mean one car loan, sizeable student loans and fairly significant mortgage. For those folks, $40K or so isn’t even close to cutting it.

The downside is the more you make, the more you spend. We have always been a one income family and at every income level mentioned here. So, I agree that one income is possible…God always finds a way.

 

[Sure]

We can’t even begin to afford to buy a house where we live. Houses start at least $200,000 range. We’ve cut everything down to the bare min, and theres still not much.without both of us working we’d never make our mim payments and we’d proably be living on the street But our situation is not unique, I know many families that have the same kind of bills that we dur monthly bills look like this:

Rent: $875
Student Loans: $458.00
Cell Phone: $95.00
GE Line Of Credit: $551.00
Electric :$100.00
My Car: $200.00
Groceries: $180.00
Insurance: $129.00
Gas: $250
Babysitter: $420
Dining Out: $0-30
Extra: $0-30

Tell your husband to make more…just kidding, well sort of.

If your’re young (I’m guessing you are from the student loan amt), don’t worry it will get better. As your husband progresses he will make more. Frequently, those increases come in leaps and through job changes. Tell him not to be afraid to look for better opportunities that will build his resume for the future. ok…[soapbox\off]

 

[tapiocapudding]

OT:
Maria I’m wondering how you manage to spend so little on groceries? Even subsisting mostly on a diet of hamburger helper and kraft dinner DH and I are spending $75 a week and that’s just for two of us…

 

[OutinChgoburbs]

How did you start doing these things?

What we did: One thing caught our fancy, the food budget. At the time, the older two were teens and at home, and they ATE, I mean they ATE.So, we rbought that down. And when we got custody of the little girls, we worked on it some more (almost fiteen years later).

I’ve always been crafty with mixed results. But I LOVE to shop, and I can shop without buying for hours. So, some of our Christmas for extended family is crafting, someof it is cooking, and some of it is deep bargain shopping.

It doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time, years.

I would pick the one thing you know cathces your interest and will give you success, and work on it for at least 60 days.

 

[OutinChgoburbs]

How did you start doing these things?

What we did: One thing caught our fancy, the food budget. At the time, the older two were teens and at home, and they ATE, I mean they ATE. So, we brought that down. And when we got custody of the little girls, we worked on it some more (almost fiteen years later).

I’ve always been crafty with mixed results. But I LOVE to shop, and I can shop without buying for hours. So, some of our Christmas for extended family is crafting, someof it is cooking, and some of it is deep bargain shopping.

It doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time, years.

I would pick the one thing you know cathces your interest and will give you success, and work on it for at least 60 days.

Okay…

Let’s take a family of 6 living “bare bones” in a city like Chicago. They have 2 cars (only 1 small payment) and send the kids to private school:

Monthly expenses

Mortgage: 1700 Yikes!! That’s huge!!! it’s still a possibility living in the City proper, but out here in the 'burbs, it’s only about $900-$1200.
Prop Taxes: 500 That’s $6000 taxes a year. That’s way too high, even for the City. Pull it down to $300-$350 a month.
Car: 400 This can be lost by saving the money for a car and paying cash outright. You can put the car payment in the bank instead of paying it to the lender, and then there will be no interest.
Groceries: 860 You gotta be kidding me?!? Where is this imaginary shopping happening, Treasure Island or Dominick’s? We spend about $300 a month for 2 BIG eaters and two overweight adults. So, that’d be $450 for a family of 6.
Clothing: 100
Gasoline: 250 Are you commuting the the suburbs? Is the job not accesible by CTA?
Car Insurance: 90 Why so high?
Elec: 85
Natural Gas: 85
Phone: 35
Cellphone for safety: 30
Extracurricular: 40
Misc.: 100
Dining Out: 100 No dining out every month.
Entertainment: 50
Internet: 30
Student Loan (most people have them): 200 Most people need to work on getting rid of them.
Catholic School Tuition for 4 kids: 500 More like $600. Paper. Pencils. Uniforms. Printer ink. The science fair.
Basic Savings (for car/home repair and maybe a cheap vacation): 200

TOTAL: $5,355 per month…That’s about a gross income of $75,000 and that includes no retirement savings. I came up with a base of $3655.

I think unless you live somewhere where you can buy a house for $100K, Aurora, Blue Island, South Holland…a family needs $80-90K per year just to get by.

 

[AmberDale]

I am wondering if some of you who are making it on $40K or less are doing it because you bought a house a long time ago and have no student loans/car payments. For a young couple today starting out in most cities is going to mean one car loan, sizeable student loans and fairly significant mortgage. For those folks, $40K or so isn’t even close to cutting it.

The downside is the more you make, the more you spend. We have always been a one income family and at every income level mentioned here. So, I agree that one income is possible…God always finds a way.

For us: my husband and I have been married only 5 years (nearly 6), we had our house built 4 years ago (nearly 5).

It all depends on where you live

 

[maria29]

OT:
Maria I’m wondering how you manage to spend so little on groceries? Even subsisting mostly on a diet of hamburger helper and kraft dinner DH and I are spending $75 a week and that’s just for two of us…

I work at Whole Foods and we get a 20% discount on food. Like I mentioned earlier too, they’re offering a $10 coupon off if you spend $40 in the meat department. Plus I got to use my discount on top it, so I got 10 packages of meat for $24.00!

 

[Al_Masetti]

“Discretionary spending” can easily creep into one’s monthly cash flow.

The last time I lost my job, we just looked at every expenditure.

Make strenuous efforts to pay off all debt … start with the smallest ones first … good psychological boost; when they’re paid off, then those payments go toward the next smallest.

Magazines and books. No renewals and no new ones. Use the library. [Libraries and community adult schools have great activities for free or cheap.]

Car stuff. Finish the payments and no replacements. If a vehicle is really over the top, figure a way to get rid of it to get out from under the payments. Work it out in detail. [Friends with minimal paying jobs have Land Rovers!!! ] Deferred maintenance or did it myself where possible. Cars should last 200,000 miles or 10 to 20 years. Depending. Teach yourself to do body work, rust removal, dent repairs. Be persistent; eventually it gets pretty easy.

Compute miles per gallon with every gas purchase. Keep a notebook in the glove box. Ditto: keep a log of maintenance items; oil changes, water pumps, brakes, mufflers, etc.

No vacations. Avoid trips … even el cheapo trips are costly.

No eating out.

No entertainment expense. Plenty of freebies available.

Clothing. Zero. Got too much stuff already. Reorganize the closets; you would be shocked at what’s in there.

Avoid garage sales … waste of time and buy too much “really neat stuff” with no use.

Go over all the light bulbs; convert to curly fluorescent; reduce voltages. Turn out all lights when room not in use.

Shop for supermarket sales only. No full priced stuff. Store brands. No cookies; no crackers; no candy; no chips. El cheapo coffee on sale only. NO SODA! No beer. No liquor. No bottled water. [The best water on the planet is in NYC; yet folks there complain and buy bottled water!] Drink tap water or milk. [Do they still sell dry milk?] Eggs and rice are still cheap. Day old bread. Save old chicken and other bones in freezer; make soup stock; pour into ice cube trays. Buy a yogurt maker and use it. Hamburger helper is extremely expensive. Sometimes even hamburger is expensive. A friend of ours raised beef cattle; small operation; offered us a side or half a side for great price. Custom butchered, wrapped and frozen.

No cable or satellite; or minimum plan. Use rabbit ears or home made antenna where possible. [We did that until the Trade Center went down and took the transmission antenna with it. The availability of free television will diminish soon with the all digital “baloney”.] Use radio for entertainment.

Cancel internet; use it for free at the library.

Review all telephone plans; go to minimum plan. Get rid of cell phones as soon as possible.

Review car insurance; if car is too old, get rid of some of the comprehensive body damage coverage; maximize deductibles.

Appeal all property tax increases. Get comparables.

It’s not easy … takes effort and it’s not fun, although it can be made into a game. Get into the habit of turning out lights. Got our heating bill way down by insulating and caulking every possible place.

We deferred getting a computer for decades, ditto cable. Got into the habit of having old cars. We are the world’s biggest DIY’ers.

When I was out of work and using the attic as an “office” for job search, I found that the computer would heat up the attic … it was obviously using a lot of electricity. So we started shutting down the computer at night; only turned it on when we needed it; didn’t turn it on and off to avoid surges. Still have the old Windows 98 machine. Avoid upgrades if at all possible. It’s easy to spend a fortune on computer doodads (technical term).

Go for walks instead of to the gym.

Dream up ways to scrimp and be frugal. Make it a contest. See who can come up with the most money saving ideas.

Some may just not work out. But eventually, you, too, will be accused of having the first dime you ever made.

 

[THutch04]

Here’s my money saving techniques (knowing that this will probably change once it’s not just me). I do still live at home right now, but I really do need to learn how to do everything on my own.

-No buying new clothes. I have a lot of good quality clothes that will last for years. It was expensive at the time, but it’s kept me from having to buy more because the quality is so good.

-No eating out

-No trips

-Only use the car to get to and from work, meaning don’t go out with other people unless somebody else is driving (When I’m not at school I live in an area with no real public transportation).

-Keep track of how much you’re using electricity/water each month and if you REALLY need to use it that much. I don’t turn on my air conditioner until the end of July when I have to, don’t take showers longer than 10 minutes, and don’t have multiple electrical appliances (such as tv and computer) running at the same time (a lot of kids have the tv on when they’re on the computer as “background noise”).

-Leave the lights off as long as possible in the house.

-Once I get too old to be on my parents health insurance, I don’t plan on having any. NOT that I would recommend that for most people, but I am literally never sick and I know I won’t be able to afford health insurance.

*I still wish I could bring myself to not eating as much, and therefore not spending as much money, but I’m trying to gain weight and attempting to do at least 2400 calories a day (or as much as I can handle without making myself sick), which I’m finding is REALLY expensive!

 

[Just_wondering]

THutch04, you’re a braver person than I am! I am not comfortable going without health insurance for even a month. But then, I’m Canadian so that’s the way I’ve been raised.

I’ve just signed a contract for a new job starting this summer. The boss said to me as I was reading it over, “of course, if you want health insurance we’ll pay half, but you won’t be needing that, will you?” My reaction was “Of course I need health insurance! What if I get hit by a car or something?” You won’t catch me without health insurance. :dts:

 

[deb1]

I am wondering if some of you who are making it on $40K or less are doing it because you bought a house a long time ago and have no student loans/car payments. For a young couple today starting out in most cities is going to mean one car loan, sizeable student loans and fairly significant mortgage. .

I think that the amount that you can live on comfortably depends on where in the country that you live. My hubby makes just under fifty thousand dollars a year. We have lived in the south, the midwest and the northwest and did all right. But it sounds like the more northern parts of the country are very expensive.

Also, many people don’t expect to buy a house until they have been married several years. Once, an older lady commented to me, that modern young people want everything immediately. She and her hubby saved several years to buy a home and they never considered trading up for a larger home.

I think that more young people should weigh if the particular subject that they are studying in college will net them future income that will justify large colllege loans. I’ve had friends who end up making less money after attaining their degrees then my friends who never got a degree at all!

 

[deb1]

The biggest way I save money right now is in groceries. For example, I just got $40.00 worth of meat (10 meals worth ) for $24.00. Whole Foods was offering a $10.00 off coupon if you spent 40 in their meat department. On top of that I work there so I got my discount.

I spend about $30-40 to feed a family of three. We do many of the frugal things already posted. But even still, we are just able to pay most of the bills.

I wonder sometimes on here how people just can’t see that it’s not possible for some families to be able to afford to have another child(ren).

Wow! You are doing great on your food bill! I spend three hundred a month to feed my family of six. Now that amount includes non food items that I buy each month like detergent, toilet paper and soap. Still, you are amazing to only spend 30-40 dollars a week!!

 

[deb1]

Monthly expenses

Mortgage: 1700

You need to move down south!! Yes, I live in a trailer but it is a 2500 square foot trailer on a little over an acre of land. It has four bedrooms, two baths and is bricked in, so it isn’t going anywhere. It cost me around 700 dollars a month for the whole shibang. Of course, living in a trailer means that you are always going to hear jokes on late night shows about your type of home. But for 700 dollars this is a huge house.

Groceries: 860

Our food budget has remained about three hundred dollars no matter where we lived, south, midwest, and northwest. I ask this in sincerity, is it a lot more expensive to buy groceries in northern cities?

Elec: 85

I think that this family is getting off cheap with electricity! My last bill was just over a hundred. But I have to fight my heat sensitive husband over the AC.

Phone: 35
Cellphone for safety: 30

This is cheaper then my own bills for a cellphone.

Dining Out: 100
Entertainment: 50

When we first married, I was forced to learn to cook. The upshoot is that I learned wonderful meals to make for my family. The downside was that when we do go out to eat my family whines because the food doesn’t taste like mom’s.

Catholic School Tuition for 4 kids: 500

Homschool really is a great alternative for those who can do it.

Basic Savings (for car/home repair and maybe a cheap vacation): 200

Yes, people, SAVE!!! Take it from a person who did not save when she first got married. That money is a lifesaver. I could have stayed out of debt if we had an emergency fund.

 

[Al_Masetti]

One way to keep expenses down is a specific choice of hobbies.

For example, we know why oil prices are so high.

So, we could start a hobby of reading (free at the library) and writing to Congress and the President.

Here is one place to start:

Testimony today, May 21, 2008

Shell Oil CEO John Hofmeister. Here is response number one to Senator Leahy.

HOFMEISTER: In the United States, access to our own oil and gas resources has been limited for the last 30 years, prohibiting companies such as Shell from exploring and developing resources for the benefit of the American people. It is not a free market. According to the Department of the Interior, 62% of all on-shore federal lands are off limits to oil and gas developments, with restrictions applying to 92% of all federal lands. The Argonne National Laboratory did a report in 2004 that identified 40 specific federal policy areas that halt, limit, delay, or restrict natural gas projects. The problem of access can be solved in this country by the same government that has prohibited it. Congress could have chose to lift some or all of the current restrictions on exploration and production of oil and gas. Congress could provide national policy to reverse the persistent decline of domestically secure natural resource development.

---

So, what we can do at no cost is to dig out the actual copies of the reports of the Department of the Interior and of Argonne National Laboratory. Call or write to those two agencies or ask your congressman/ congresswoman for copies.

Ask them for copies of the transcripts of Hofmeister’s testimony.

Write to Shell and ask for Hofmeister’s testimony.

And read all that stuff and make political action your (almost) free hobby.

 

[PaulinVA]

Our food budget has remained about three hundred dollars no matter where we lived, south, midwest, and northwest. I ask this in sincerity, is it a lot more expensive to buy groceries in northern cities?

Our six month average for groceries is $1300 a month for a family of 5 with three teens.

I am shocked myself. And, it’s going up. We live in an area where the average household income is in six figures, housing is expensive, and businesses charge an arm and a leg for everything.

Maybe we consider more things “groceries” than the rest of you guys.

 

[Gigglin4God]

My husband is the only one able to work with us. It is just us two and I feel like just a couple needs at least 30-40 thousand a year. I am not getting any kind of government help and have alot of health issues that prevent me from working. We still owe alot of the doctors and one hospital money from when I had to be hospitalized for my depression and anxiety. I am also right now in need of probably over 5 thousand dollars worth of dental work and we just cant do anything. With the cost of gas, food, my medicine, my doctors appts, utilities, and unexpected cost we are bearly making it on his wage where he works. He only grosses before the taxes are taken out of his check as well as medical insurance like 21,120 a year. That really isnt much and we dont just go out to eat every night and have the fanciest of things. We are just bearly making our own ends meet and we were even turned down a few years back for food stamps. So our belt is almost to break in half from being so over tightness. I wish there was a way that we could bring in more money but I dont see how. We even save aluminum cans just to cash them in for a little bit of something extra. It is really hard but we make it somehow by the grace of God.