one income

we certainly get this question alot "how do you guys do it on one income?" while i wish i had some secret recipe, i do not. but what i do have is alot of mistakes. and what are mistakes good for....to learn from. we know that God is our provider. Jehovah Jireh!! not until we let go of our fears and give this area of our life to God did we really start seeing the blessings from it. the desire of our home is to have mama at home. this is something hubby is very convicted about. and we have seen so many blessings come from this as we have surrendered and let God provide through a modest single income. another conviction we have is to live a debt free life. while this is something we are still working hard on, it feels good to be working towards a goal. so how do we accomplish these two things ...
1. pray and trust God. He has proven ( not that He has to) Himself to us over and over again.
2. hardwork! hubby works very hard. he works alot of overtime. we do alot of things ourselves instead of paying someone. like bathing the dogs, washing cars, home repairs, haircuts.
3. minimize our bills. we have as few bills as we can. the bare essentials as they say! no credit cards, cable, and soon no car payments!
4. hand me downs. we have been so blessed to always recieve hand me downs from family and friends. we rarely ever have to buy clothes for the kids.
5. sacrifices. we sacrifice alot to minimize our bills and cut back on the money that goes out. small sacrifices can add up to alot! like not eating out. but these things dont seem like sacrifices anymore!
6. buy food in bulk. this is something we learned a long time ago. buying foods like rice and beans in big bags at costco is so helpful! these bags can easily last us half a year and can be added to anything to make a complete meal. and the leftovers freeze well for the next dinner.
7. sack lunches. one way we avoid eating out is to always pack up our lunches and snacks. we do alot of running around so lunch and snacks always go with us. i always pack hubbys lunch for work as well.
8. homeschooling. this area could fall under hand me downs too. i very seldom buy school books. i love getting hand me down books. i also purchase used books for very cheap.
9. reuse and recycle. we reuse our water bottles for as long as they will hold up. we also recycle cans and plastic. it adds up!!
10. think long and hard before purchasing big or little items! i find the longer i think and pray about a purchase the more i realize one of two things,either i can live without it and am often thankful i didnt waste money on it, or i can get it somewhere else cheaper or used.
11. envelope system. i think this is the most important tip! this one most definately deserves its own article! but just to skim the top, using a cash only envelope system has been the best thing we have ever done! ill give details on how our system works in another post.
i hope that this blog is helpful and encouraging to someone out there. maybe someone that has always wanted to stay home with their kids but isnt sure how to make that work. we are still making mistakes. but with a teachable heart we can learn from those mistakes and use them to make our family stronger.