how do you live off one wage?

pukkamum

We have lived on one wage for 12 yrs and have managed very well, my husband brings home around £400 a week.
We have 3 children and budget very carefully to enable me to stay at home, takeaways are a rare treat, holidays are generally camping, we only have one car etc yet we are extremely happy.
Instead of takeaways we have homemade pizza and curry on a saturday, and do a lot of walking instead of doing expensive activities, luckily we live 5 mins away from lovely countryside we have a great park very close by and it is free and tiring, my 2 favourite words hahaha.
We aren't materialistic and find happiness in making memories not buying stuff.
Being at home means I have time to shop around using the market and local shops for food, I buy a lot of second hand clothes and I save money every week even if it's only a pound.
We live a simple but happy life.

ca55ie

I worked part time when my children were small.
Most of my salary went on child care (there was no help with childcare then) and we accepted that because it kept me in the business and once the children went to school I was able to increase my hours.
The big plus was I had time each day being "me" not "mum" and I really appreciated the hours I spent each day with my children:j

[Deleted User]

leoniestacy wrote: »

hiya all,
.....I just wondered how hard is it living on one wage, atm we both live ok, bills payed on time, few beers at the weekend and a few takeaways, i no this will have to stop. But is this sort of money livable?

I don't have children, but we live on one (almost minimum fulltime) wage due to my disabilities- my Oh works but I can't, currently. I get a small amount of DLA, comparable to child benefit.

My advice: use the downtime to up your income and reduce expenditure in other ways - best tariffs for bills, utilities. Ebay your 'treasures' (junk). Freecycle and swap for household items. Ditch the takeaways and cook them instead. Supermarket beers. Online surveys & focus groups in exchange for shopping vouchers. Go freeview/freesat and get charity shop DVDs. This is my 'job' now! It does mean I spend a lot of time online but I view this as my employment!

It becomes a strangely enjoyable challenge, and much of it is also good educational stuff for your little one - if you have a garden, veggie patch to help feed you also becomes an insect home. Totting up groceries becomes simple sums. Making pastry becomes a messy fun play thing. Library (free) books is a good gateway for literacy etc etc.

There is also the part-time option of doing some work when hubby is at home with child(ren) so he gets his 'Daddy' time too. It might not be what you're used to (eg pubs or healthcare) but you will also get a change, get time off being Mummy and meet new people.

beluga

We live on one wage, and have done for years. I spend a lot of time on this site, looking for free or cheap things to do, cooking from scratch, growing my own vegetables etc. We budget carefully, and I love to hunt out a bargain! It's a lifestyle choice for us, and it works for us. We don't have the latest gadgets, eat out a lot, have a huge house, fancy car etc etc, but we do pretty well with what we have, and we're happy with it and it enables us to spend lots of time together. Obviously it depends massively on how much the one income is!

JodyBPM

There's a lot more benefits to working than just the salary, and it can be worth it to work for little or no extra money for a short time. Off the top of my head, you need to consider:
-adult company
-personal fulfilment
-personal independence, not being entirely reliant upon partner or state for your income
-career progression
-pension contributions (occupational rather than state, as state will be covered by HRP)
-resilience - ie still having one income if partner loses job etc
-the difficulty getting back into the workplace if you have had a large chunk of time out of it
-keeping skills current and up to date

And probably many more that I haven't thought of!

I'm not necessarily saying that everyone has to work full time, in fact I've only worked part time since my children were born, but I've kept in my field keeping my skills to date. It always worries me when people think that if their job only covers childcare that its not worth working, because they tend to forget the bigger picture and how many other benefits there are to working.

Its a much bigger decision than a purely financial one.

Spendless

Part-time working wasn't an option from my employer. They didn't employ any part-timers and the right to request flexible working (including part-time) didn't exist 13+ years ago. Maternity leave was less then too, I got 14 weeks with eldest and 18 with youngest.

floss2

Think of the pros and cons - make a list, both you & hubby, and then compare them.

Include things like being able to take your kids to mums & tots / nursery / school, having time to teach them to read, to cook with them, play with them, take them for jabs etc, to enjoy their childhood.

Also include things like being away from adult company, being stuck in the house with children, housekeeping, cooking from scratch, bargain hunting, managing without impulse buying, coping with sick kids when you are ill.

I'm sure you will come to the right decision for your family - good luck!

nickj_2

we more or less lived on one wage when our kids were young , mrs j worked at waitrose 2 days a week , but as we only had one car it proved too much hassle getting her to work dropping kids off at parents etc , so she switched to just working on a saturday which was much better , then as the kids got a bit older she did child minding, then trained as a pre school and after school cub worker . i guess we survived on less than £15p/a , not really sure how we did it , but we always went away 2 times a year , in this country , i managed to pay off our mortgage last year , if you live within your means and are prepapred to make sacrifices for a few years it will reward you far more than those who dump their kids and go off and earn shed loads of cash ....... money can't buy you time, your kids only grow up one , you only have that chance once , make the most of it , it doesn't last long

alwaysskint96

nickj wrote: »

if you live within your means and are prepapred to make sacrifices for a few years it will reward you far more than those who dump their kids and go off and earn shed loads of cash ....... money can't buy you time, your kids only grow up one , you only have that chance once , make the most of it , it doesn't last long

why is a woman who works dumping their kids but a bloke isnt??? Or do you count yourself as having " dumped" the kids on your wife

*Louise*

I worked when we had one child but childcare costs would have been unrealistic once we had three. Hubby handily moved into management after the first so we lived off the higher wage and I was happy to be a SAHM. I have loved it and feel it has been less pressure for us, especially over the past two years when DS1 has had to have regular hospital appointments and I realised it would have been a nightmare getting so much time off had I been working.

I have, however, been doing evening voluntary work for over 10 years, this has meant I have been keeping my skills up to date, going on courses and also have a social side to life, as well as making a contribution to the community. We are all happy with the way things have worked out.