Managing on one Income

[Lil X-men]

I dont know if this has been touched in another thread, but I was talking about in another thread just before, so I thought I'd start another here.
I just wondered how everyone found or plans to handle the transition from two, to one income when you had or are having your children? Will or did you go back to work sooner if it's too hard? Does it put undue stress on you and your partner?


We dont earn a huge salary, thats works out about a grand a week and manage ok with a mortgage and 1 child.
We have budgeted badly sometimes and ended up with any empty account and no money to pay for petrol etc.
We are currently re financing so as to pay off the mortgage quicker and setup a proper budget (with an adivsor to keep us on track).

But it's not like life before hand when I used to buy clothes every week and spend on nights out to bars or restuarants, Hairdressers, not to mention fancy cellphones etc.

I do find that I value things differently now, those material things that were so important to me dont really matter anymore. I 'd rather spend any spare money I had on my son or something for the house.

I may go back to work yet, but only part time as my DH is not keen on putting bubs into daycare yet. Or we may have our second (and last) child next year, so as to get all out of the way in a manner of speaking, then I can go back to fulltime work sooner rather than later.

Enough of my crap, what about you all?

[nemosmum]

Hi Julie,

Yep its hard living on one income and trying to get ahead. I started back at work (2 days a week) when our bub was about 8 months old, mainly because I wanted out side stimulation and the extra $ came in handy.

Now DS is just over 16months old and I would love to be a full time sahm but our current situation wont really allow it.

Well I guess I could stop work and manage on DH's wage but we would be scraping through and I really think our DS deserves better then that so I choose to work part time.

Next year we are probably going to try for bub #2 so I will be staying at home after that, how long for depends again on how we manage to live etc.

I think alot of people in OZ and else where are in the same boat, just getting by. Its hard and sometimes it gets me down coz I wish for more but thats life and you just have to make do with what you have. There are people who are worse off then us so I feel grateful for what we do have, our health, good jobs and great family and friends etc.

[Mum2Tyla]

Hi,
It is hard to make that ransition from tweo wages to one, we started living on one wage about 3 months ago so we got used to living on one wage and used my wage to pay off bills etc but it is still hard, my partner is terrible with money and is so laid back he just thinks everythink will work it self out. Our budget is so tight I amy have to go back to work part time but I am lucky that I ahve family that can help out so I don't have to put her in day care.

[brooke]

It is really hard living on 1 wage!
My DH and I have been doing it now for 2mths and I cant believe how hard it is!
I fully intend on going back to work once my maternity leave is up!
I was just saying to DH last night on the way out to a dinner my friend had planned at a resturant that I CANT WAIT to earn some money again!
That way we don't have to stress when we get invited out how we are going to afford it....!

I have never been so broke in my life and some times cry when we are having a "short" week because I feel so guilty! I think It must be a male thing because DH tells me not to worry and everything will work out!

I guess eventually things may get easier... we will learn to bbbbudget... a little better! Just still very scary right now when I have always been used to having what ever I want when ever I want!

[meshan]

We found the transistion from 2 wages to 1 relatively painless, mainly because we had saved a lot before we had our first baby and our mortgage was quite small.

Then we had our second baby and moved adding about $700 a month to our mortage. Thats when things got really hard and now we are struggling.

I work Saturdays so I don't have to put the boys in childcare - but even with that extra money it is still tough.

We don't smoke, drink, go out, buy clothes or luxury items - our money just goes on living and of course the boys don't do without much.

My husband earns a higher then average wage - I really don't know how people on less money do it.

I have a girlfriend who has never worked since he first child was born - she's now 8. She has given me some ideas of how to live on 1 wage but I can't stick to it all.
She has a very strict budget and sticks to it religously, she never makes STD phone calls, she has no internet or moblie phone, she cuts her own hair and everyone else in the family's (no she is not a hairdresser ), the kids only get toys on their birthday and christmas, they have no credit cards and if they want somthing they save for it (it took them 2 years to get a new dining table). She is a great Mum and has wonderful kids but I really don't think I could live that tightly for the long term.

[Lil X-men]

Wow she must be so disciplined! We havent been in the past and have come up short some weeks, so we have got a budget advisor helping us now. :D

[bekkyboo]

Since finding out i was pregnant - my dr ordered me to finish work straight away. my body has a great deal of trouble coping with new or forgien things, so it was the safest way to get through that first scary part of first trimester. Now that i am almost finished that (12 weeks on this coming tuesday) i was hoping to find some part-time work to get some money saved up for when im premenatly off with Bub, But cause of my heart condition now getting worse - im off on rest (with bed rest soon to be mandatory :() till bubs due in June 06.

Jase earns about 1g a week, so we are ok for money, but over the xmas break and things we wont.

Im not really sure how we are going to cope with the money issue when bubs arrived. Fingers crossed things work out.

May have to start some serious budgeting :)

[Lallas' Mum]

Julie,

You sound like me about 2 years ago.

I originally intended to go back to work by the time my first son was 6 months. We had some medical troubles with bub at the time I was due to return to work. It made both my DH and I realise that there was more to life than money (not that we were ever really driven by money). We decided that we were managing fine on one income and decided to have bub number two sooner than originally planned. So now I have a 25 month old and a 7 month old an we are doing fine financially.
It is a little bit tougher as you can't go on silly spending sprees and you tend to search for value in things. But I found after a while you are so used to it that you find yourself saying "oh, what a waste of money" to things that in the past you would have just gone ahead and bought.

I am considering returing to work after bub number two is one, but I am looking into Family day care. We are currently selling our house to move into a roomier place and I am ensuring it will suit my needs when it comes to caring for extra kids. I don't think I will return to working away from home until the kiddies are at school.

I am glad with the way things have panned out for us. I would never have imagined that we would survive on one income for so long, but we have and I have experienced so much with my little ones that I would have missed out on if I had returned to work.

Everyone is in different circumstances, but I am so happy with the way things are. Our lives are rich, though we are not wealthy.

[carls]

I've got another 2 weeks of work and I'm pretty scared about how life is going to be going down to one wage! I have booked bub into childcare for Jan 2007 but it all depends on whether I can find a job (I'm sure it wont be a problem).

We are used to having whatever we want, when we want as well! I'm just hoping that bub takes up so much of my time that I wont be concerned about my new wardrobe every season!! :o

[Ky]

When we decided to ttc #1, we immediately went to living off the lower of our wages (mine at the time) and saved dh's wage towards a house deposit. He was at a good job (in NZ) at the time and was bringing home close to $1000 per f/n. By the time I had to stop work (at 10 weeks due to threatened miscarriage of Bella after I had m/c Nikki), we had a new house and were able to live on dh's wage and save at the same time. We got ourselves really prepared in the following months - even survived through 3 ½ weeks of unemployment and a boarder who left owing us $4000!

Dh got a job the day Bella and I came home from the hospital ... it was a real step down - only $17,000 p/a gross. Out of this, we managed to pay our mortgage and live - we even paid off our credit card!

We have since sold our house and moved to Australia ... my dh is now bringing home $400 in the hand each week and as we have now been here over 2 years, I will be elibgable for all Centrelink benefits, so our lot will improve once my application is processed.

Believe me, you can live on very little and still have a fantastic life ... we don't miss out on having fun, we are not sad and moping about our finances - sure, we may not buy a house for many years and our kids may not have the latest of everything, but we are happy!

We are even able to send Bella to a private school next year and Daniel to pre-school 2 days a week!

Think about subscribing to the simple savings website ... here (http://www.simplesavings.com.au/) and use some of the amazing collection of tips towards a rewarding lifestyle on a lower budget.

The funny thing is ... I manage to pay all of our bills ... we have credit cards for when times are tough, but the balances are diminishing ... and yet, I still have money to have a coffee with friends, treat the kids to something nice, buy Christmas presents, help others out if in need, feed my family well, run our car (when necessary!), get the occasional dvd with munchies, go out to dinner on birthdays ... and never get behind in my rent!

Life can be great on one income!

[Lil X-men]

Thats wonderful that you are doing so well on one income, that has raised my spirits!! We are hoping to being making our money work better for us soon too with the help from these budget people. I'm quite excited about it, as we are earning ok money but not managing it well and it really is all about how you manage it isnt it?
We were splurgers before having kids so trying to hone that impulse to buy buy buy has been difficult!

[Me]

We were quite lucky this year in regards to finance... i started a new job a month before i found out i was pregnant and the new job paid monthly. i only stayed there for about 7 or 8 months, but because the pay was monthly, over that time we learnt to restrict ourselves so as to always have money left in our account. i have now been off work for 9 weeks and although we occasionally get caught out(being christmas and unexpected things that we have to buy for bub), i'd say we're doing fine. we have even managed to pay extra off the credit card and next year will be able to pay extra off the car or house.
I try to make our money go as far as possible, we buy all our meat in bulk, i buy soap, toilet paper, shampoo etc when it is on special and look for great bargins for presents(without just buying something because it's cheap!).
As has been said before, it's not how much you earn, it's how you manage it that counts.

[Lil X-men]

Yes, as someone was telling me the other day, that they pay $100 a month into their electricity account and other big bills, so that when the quarterly or monthly bill comes in you dont get a nasty shock!

I dont know why I haven't thought of this sooner, it will make things a heck of a lot easier, than paying a $400-500 bill in one week, and ripping away half your pay check in one go! leaving you with no money for groceries or petrol etc.

[onabreak]

I am a SAHM have been now for 15mths. Hubby and I have our own business and have to pay 4 employees every week, pay a mortgage, bills etc etc. He does earn a very good wage, but at the moment we are finding it a bit difficult aswell. He is saying that I might have to go back to work part time.:(

Buying a house and our 5th car has made us go backwards a bit. But now we are getting on top of everything and are hoping to pay off our house within 5 years. We are currently in the process of changing banks and I am making sure that hubby sets up a savings account where the money comes out automatically and that you can't touch it unless you go into the bank or use internet banking. We are hoping to put away between $200 - $500 a week into this account so when it comes to winter when hubby doesn't have much work we will have plenty of money to live on.

Even if you set up a savings account where only $20 comes of your account each week, and you forget about it, you will be amazed how quickly $20 can add up to.

I opened and ING account and have $20 go into every week and now having that account for nearly and year and a half I have over $1500 in the bank for emergency.

[Odessa]

At the moment myself and DP are in the ideal money situation - DINK, renting with two mates. We're paying off my cc and our personal loans like crazy, once our debts are cleared we're planning to live off one wage and hoard the other like crazy...we want to start TTC in 2007, but we also want to buy a house, so we're not too sure if we're saving for a deposit or saving for my year off work ;)

I pay our electricity bill fortnightly, by direct debit. We're with Integral Energy, they have an easy payment plan where they estimate your energy usage based on your previous bills, and divide it into equal monthly or fortnightly installments. Ours is $58, much easier to cope with than a quarterly $400 bill!

I also budget fairly strictly and shop for groceries at ALDI. I manage to put at least $300 a fortnight onto the credit card, and the only major bill we have coming up is rego for our two cars :)

[ETsMum]

My two cents worth would be to practice living off one wage as soon as possible. I went on leave in July and planned to start living off one wage sometime in May. However, DP wasn't taking our saving seriously (buying fishing gear I think!) so I brought it forward to April. :p

I used the internet and simply increased our mortgage repayments by my weekly wage (less about a few $ so I could buy maternity and baby things :D ) That way I would never see it in our main bank account and DP couldn't be tempted to spend it. It is available for redraw if our fridge blows up for example, but until then it is reducing our interest.

When I stopped getting maternity pay I just reduced the mortgage repayments back.

[JATS]

We've gone from living off centrelink to living off DH's new full time job, and I'm here to tell you, living off a single income is FANTASTIC compared to being reliant on the family payment and newstart! Once I start working too we'll have more money than we know what to do with! :D Nice change after being broke for 5 yrs!!!

[BabyJoy]

I've read with great interest this whole thread and am feeling somewhat apprehensive about the next six months or more. I've only just started maternity leave and have been worried sick about money. I earn a lot more than DH and so living off his wage will be tough. He is also very worried about it and feels a lot of guilt. He is desperately searching for employment that pays more even though I think we will manage on his current income. We have paid off all our debts such as credit cards and personal loans, and all we have now is regular bills and the mortgage. The problem is that the mortgage is huge and sometimes so are the bills, not to mention monthly life/tpd/income protection insurance payments and DH contributes to his super as well. :eek: We put aside money each week for these payments, but still get a shock when a bill arrives in the letterbox!
I have no idea how much money I'll need when the baby arrives... some people tell me newborns don't cost much at all, but others say they cost a lot - suppose it depends whether you buy lots of disposable nappies.
I think after six months off we will be flat broke and I'll have to go back to work... but hopefully just part-time to begin with.
We discussed DH becoming a stay at home dad and me continue to work after bub is born (because financially we'd be WAY better off), but he is an old fashioned guy and really wants me to be with the baby while he brings home the bacon.

[Odessa]

Hi Shannon,

I've spoken to a few people about getting ready for time off work, and everyone I've spoken to recommends socking away as much money as you can in the lead up to mat. leave. If you have the type of mortgage that allows extra repayments or you have an offset account, store your savings there, as you'll save on interest from your home loan. Try and stock up on nappies etc ahead of time and keep your eyes open for sales and giveaways.

I subscribe to a savings website that has a tipsheet on saving money when setting up for baby, if you're interested here is the link to the tipsheet:

http://www.simplesavings.com.au/tipsheets/NewMothers.pdf