Going From Two Incomes to One (An Update)

I cannot believe it has been over three years, since we made the plunge to go from two incomes to one.  You can read my complete series I wrote in 2010 here!  Since the change things have changed a lot in our household and I thought I would provide an update.

We now have 3 beautiful children.  Our daughter was born last July.  She has been a complete blessing to our family.  She has provided some personal healing for myself and my Mom as well as made our family complete!  Plus she is hilarious and I cannot get enough of her.  When I had her I was able to take off 4 months of maternity leave which was amazing for me. 

A lot has changed with my husband also.  He was able to finish his MBA while he was staying home with our kids in January of 2012.  He was also enjoying volunteering at my son's school as a playground guard.  The kids actually got a kick out of it to see a Dad there because usually it is all Moms.

With his advanced degree in place, his dream job was to teach college level business courses.  After months of pursuing his dream, he landed his first college teaching job in June of 2012.  Since then it has completely "snowballed" (to his surprise) where he actually had to turn down teaching 2 classes this semester because it was getting to be too much.  He is right now teaching 4 classes.  He is teaching 2 evenings a week and 2 mornings a week.

Our parents are graciously helping with the morning childcare for us and I am able to be with the kids in the evenings.  My husband and I are both able to put our son on the bus in the morning and my husband is home in the afternoon to get him off the bus.  This is our new normal and it is working out great for us.  This is the first time in our marriage that I have seen my husband happy and fulfilled in his job.  Maybe someday he can turn this into a full-time career for him.

So technically we are not a "One Income" family anymore.  However, we do solely still live off of my income.  His income goes directly to paying off his student loans.  So for right now, he is working to pay off his loans, but it will be so nice when we are free of these student loans.

I truly believe each stage of life will need to force a change in how we currently care for our children.  It is nice to know the decisions we have made always seem to "work-out" for us and we are proud of them!

"My Stay-at-Home Husband Isn't a Loser"

Great article by Tara Gentile on Daily Worth!  She talks about the prejudices people have about her husband staying home with the kids.  Check out the article here! 

If you read my blog, you know that my husband voluntarily quit his job last September to stay home with our 2 boys ages 2 and 5. We have also encountered people who do not understand our situation and believe that I should stay home. However I am on a fast track program at my job and have been very successful! I do not want to stay home, I love my career. Having my husband stay home has been amazing and it is a lot less stress for me and our family. I wouldn't change a thing! The dual careers wasn't working for us and we really did not need the income. It felt like we were being selfish and choosing money over our kids. Our kids, my husband, and I are much happier than we were a year ago!

Going From Two Incomes to One (Part 4 – Final Post)

You can read Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here but I left as:

Our minds were made up; we could live on one income. We would have to watch our spending and track every penny of it to make it work, but we can make it work. It was decided and my husband turned in his two week notice at his employer.

It now has been almost 3 months since my husband has left his job. Things have been going wonderfully. The kids seem happier. I know I am happier since now I can go into work early and leave earlier. My husband seems happier. He was having some issues with his old job and I can tell he is enjoying being home with the boys. Some days are trying for him, but he handles them and moves on with the day. He definitely has a lot more patience then I do!

We still have some issues to work out on the home maintenance. I need to let go of certain things and let him do it. He needs to step up and just do things without me asking. I have always done the shopping due to my mapped out coupon trips. However now I give him a list and he does our mid week Aldi’s run for milk and other staples.

We still track our monthly spending down to the penny. This actually helps us make better decisions on when we can afford to buy things. We now think twice if we really need to buy something. I often feel guilty about recording foolish purchases on our spreadsheet like I wasted our money.

We changed our thinking about paying for things later rather than now. We still use credit cards and pay the full balance every month because we do not believe in a cash system. We practice self control and having to record every purchase in a spreadsheet keeps us in check. We have now set up accounts to save for future events. We have been contributing to our Christmas Fund through a Smarty Pig account since August so that we will have funds available to us. We have also started a Vacation Fund for our Disney Trip in May. Vacations are non-negotiable to us. We believe in making memories with our children that include family vacations. It is fitting into our budget, so we will have the funds set aside when we make our trip.

Life is about what you are willing to sacrifice to be able to attain other things you truly want. For us, our kids’ happiness and sense of “normal” was top on our list. It took a few sacrifices on our part to achieve this, but really our life is so much more content and fulfilling these days. I truly do not miss eating out as much as we use to, my husband is becoming a good cook experimenting with new recipes. Plus I love arriving home to dinner on the table and everyone seated in their chairs yelling “Hi Mom”!

I hope you enjoyed this series, if you have any additional questions, on how we went from two incomes to one, please leave a comment or drop me an e-mail!

Going From Two Incomes to One (Part 3)

You can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here, but I left as:

With all of this being done, a month and a half before the scheduled “quit” date, we ran a test month on one income. All of my husband’s income went directly into a savings account.

So for our test month, we were not allowed to use any of my husband’s income. All of his income would go directly into our savings account. We deemed our test month as “Super Family Holdback”. We only bought what was necessary. Using some of the principles from Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover, I made a spreadsheet to incorporate all funds coming in and out for the month. For the first time, I told our money where to go for the month.

For our test month, I recorded every penny we spent for that month on my spreadsheet. What a surprise to both of us, that it was possible to live on one income, you can read about our test month here. We were even able to still put money into our kids’ 529 accounts, retirement, and put money in our emergency savings account. So back to my “signs” I was waiting for, well this was a sign, a sign that we could do it. We were actually kicking ourselves on not doing this earlier! We were actually able to save more money than normal since we had reduced our spending so much.

My other “sign” came when I found out from my work that I would be charged a $125 monthly spousal surcharge if I carried my husband on my health insurance when he had access to health insurance from his employer. Well he did have access from his employer at a rate of $199 dollars a month for a single person! So when I totaled my new surcharge that came out to a whopping $1500 a year! This would in actuality further reduce his salary by an additional $1500. We just did not see the benefits of him continuing to work.

Our minds were made up; we could live on one income. We would have to watch our spending and track every penny of it to make it work, but we could make it work. It was decided and my husband turned in his two weeks notice at his employer.

To be continued in Part 4 (Final Post)...

Going From Two Incomes to One (Part 2)

You can read Part 1 here, but I left as:

We always had in the back of our minds that if our parents could no longer watch the kids, that my husband would quit his job. However it never happened that way. I was left torn for months, waiting for a “sign” that he should stay home with the kids. I never got that big “sign” I was looking for, but I did get some small inclinations that it was time to make a change in our lives.

My husband and I seriously started considering him staying home with our kids about 9 months earlier. Some of our compelling thoughts included:

• When the kids get sick, the stay-at-home parent would be able to care for them and not waste vacation days.
• We wanted our almost kindergartener to be able to get on the bus and come home on the bus and not to have to worry about before and after care. This was a compelling argument for us, since we both had stay-at-home Moms growing up ourselves.
• Are we being selfish with wanting to make more money when our kids really just need our time? We were at a point in our lives where we were settled in our home, had two decent cars, and had completed most major home repairs.
• Do we really need two incomes?
• Who is going to help the kids with their homework? That is our responsibility not their grandparents.
• Our parents are getting older and how long will they be able to care for our kids?
• Even though they wanted to watch our kids, we felt as if we were taking advantage of our parents and asking so much of them. They didn’t have to do all that they do for us.
• I was beginning to dread having to wake up two sleeping children to get them dressed and off to Grandma and Papa’s. I felt guilty. Plus the fact it was making me late for work.

With all of these compelling reasons, my husband and I decided to put a plan in place to prepare for him to leave his job. It was never a question on who would stay home with the kids. We made a pure financial decision. The other aspect was that I adore my job, have been with my company for over 10 years, and carry the health insurance. My company gives me outstanding benefits plus continues to promote me within the company. My husband had been stuck in the same position for five years and saw no promotion in his future.

About 4 months before my husband was to officially leave his job, we put a plan in place to reduce our spending and see if this one income set-up could actually work for our family. By then I had already been heavy in couponing and the drug store game and had seen our grocery bill get cut in half. This gave me encouragement. Other steps we took to financially prepare included:

• Continued to use coupons and play the Drug Store game to see how low we could get our grocery budget.
• Cut our eating out down to one time per week.
• Aggressively paid off our last car loan.
• Completed our bathroom renovation and paid cash (our last major house renovation).
• Watched spending on our credit cards
• Read Dave Ramsey’s Book The Total Money Makeover

With all of this being done, a month and a half before the scheduled “quit” date, we ran a test month on one income. All of my husband’s income went directly into a savings account.

To be continued in Part 3...

Going From Two Incomes to One (Part 1)

I have dropped some subtle hints in my blog, so if you have not caught them, we are now officially a one income family! If you think I am a stay-at-home Mom, nope think again. My husband is now a stay-at-home Dad (or parent as he refers to it as)! I am now the responsible party for bring home the bacon to my husband and boys. I am going to be doing a series on how we made this all possible.

Years have gone by with us wondering if we could make this work. Months of intense preparation took place before the “2 week notice was turned in at work”. In the end, this was by far the hardest, yet easiest decision my husband (of 8 years) and I have ever had to make as a married couple. When we married 8 years ago, I was working full-time and my husband was working part-time and attending school full-time. As time evolved (after a brief hiatus on unemployment) we have been a two income family for six years. We definitely enjoyed the perks of two incomes and at times somewhat abused them. We moved three times and bought three different houses in a span of 5 years (WOW!).

We were now at a stage in our lives where we have two children and we were both going about 100 miles per hour in different directions every day. We enjoyed the perks of free childcare since we both have willing and able parents wanting to care for their grandchildren. However kindergarten is on the horizon for our oldest. Granted we were blessed with free childcare, I still had to wake the kids up get them dressed and over to Grandma and Papa’s. My husband’s job was to pick the kids up in the evenings, sometimes at two different houses. Our lifestyle “worked” for us, however we were becoming tiresome, worn down, and in need of a change.

There were times when the kids were sick (or the grandparents) and we had to make a quick morning decision on who would call off of work. I printed a monthly calendar of where the kids would be everyday and what time they were to be dropped off and picked up at the designated house. We always had in the back of our minds that if our parents could no longer watch the kids, that my husband would quit his job. However it never happened that way. I was left torn for months, waiting for a “sign” that he should stay home with the kids. I never got that big “sign” I was looking for, but I did get some small inclinations that it was time to make a change in our lives.

To be continued in Part 2…