How much money do you think it takes to raise a family of 4 in America? According to this recent article on Yahoo Finance it’s $58,000 a year. Wow, that’s a lot of money, a lot of money we definitely don’t have. Could we use more money? Of course, I mean who is really going to say that they don’t want to make/have more money??
Being that we are almost a family of 4 {well, 5 if you include the dog} and our income is below the $50k mark, I found this number quite amusing. There are numerous people in the United States that raise families larger than a size 4 on less than $58,000 a year. People often wonder how they do it – or rather I used to wonder how they did it.
The truth is, if you pay attention to how much money you have and where it’s going you can survive raising a family of 4 on an income lower than $58k. How do you do this? You have make sacrifices and choose to live differently than our consumer driven society.
- Drive a P.O.S. instead of a car bought with borrowed funds. I’m not saying drive an unreliable car, I’m just suggesting you might have to drive a not so pretty car or a smaller car than you’d like to have for a while.
- Become a one car family. For some, this may not be an option, especially if your significant other or yourself is a road warrior for your job. But it is an option if that is not the case – remember car pooling is great.
- Use cash – a $40 purchase on a debit card is the same as a $43 purchase. What I mean is that we tend to not freak out if at the cash register we realize we went over our $40 budget by $3 because we have the money on our debit card to pay it. If this were a cash transaction you’d have to put something back in order to only spend your $40. This is why cash is KING – it will make you stick to your budget!
- Save like it’s going out of style. This is how my husband and I do it…plain and simple. We save, in fact I hoard money. Hoard any money that you have left over in your budget. If you don’t trust yourself to keep it in a savings account than take out the cash put it somewhere safe but out of sight out of mind.
- No more going out to eat. This will literally eat up your money in a heart beat! Especially if you’re taking out 2 kids plus you and the spouse. Make the commitment to eat meals at home and to brown bag. Invite friends over for lunch instead of going out to eat.
- Get rid of your fancy cell phone with the data plan. Let’s be honest unless you have a job that requires you to have a smart phone, you don’t need one. You can go down to having nothing but a land line or a prepaid phone plan. Added bonus – if your phone is in great condition you could probably sell it on eBay or Craigslist to add additional income or trade it-in through Amazon’s trade store.
- Shop Goodwill, Thrift Stores, and consignment/garage sales for clothes (especially kids clothes).
- DIY – Google, Pinterest, and YouTube are freaking awesome when it comes to showing/explaining how to do something yourself. Are there things that you should leave to the professionals? Yes, but there are several things that you can do – you can build awesome toys for your kids, update your bathroom, make your own clothes or decorations, the list of possibilities are endless.
The bottom line to surviving on less is to live way below your means. My checkbook register will always have a lower balance than my bank account. Reason being is that the additional is money that gets added to our slush fund. Start rounding up your transactions and rounding down your deposits, this will allow for there to be some ‘slush’ in your account at the end of the month when you reconcile. It may not seem like much but it’s better than not having any rainy day money.
Start changing your perspective and recognize the difference between wants and needs. I know that for me, our No Spend Month has done just that. Consider doing one for yourself and see how much money you waste on incidentals every month – you may be surprised.
Linked Up To: A Bowl Full of Lemons
Linked Up To: A Bowl Full of Lemons
Great, great tips! There are so many things we say we “need” that we could definitely do without. Thanks for sharing your ideas! Have a great weekend, Jessi!
~Abby =)