I liked the article titled "Confessions of a One Income Family" in this week's Dollar Stretcher. While all of what she lists is important, most, if not all of them should be part of every frugalite's life - not just for those who live on one income. 

How many of those things do you do?  

An affordable home is a must.  Many families have fallen into the trap of needing 2 full time incomes: one pays the mortgage, the other covers the rest.  We rent an 800+ sq. ft. house for $550 monthly, for the next 2 years, at least.

We do not have cc debt BUT we do have stupid (student) loan debt. 

Pay cash for cars. Yes.  Drive Free, Retire Rich 
          http://www.daveramsey.com/etc/lms/drive_free/player.cfm

Living on less than we make--yes.

Have Emergency Fund in place.  3-6 months of expenses

Sinking funds for holidays, birthdays, insurance premiums, etc.

We have cable currently for $15.99 monthly, killing the idiot box on March 1.

We rarely buy clothing or shoes.  It has to be a real need to entice us to do so.  Teen dd has a clothing allowance and pays for some of her stuff.  

Frugal food shopping: pricebook is current, take an inventory, make a list, and stick to it.

Going out to the theater?  Nope.  We get free DVDs from the library.

Conserve gasoline.

We budget $35 for eating out monthly for the 3 of us.

Traveling?  No, we are in the midst of becoming debt free and that is the focus.

This was an interesting article.  It is a really a primer on how to live frugally, whether you have one income or two.   

rolo:

This was an interesting article.  It is a really a primer on how to live frugally, whether you have one income or two.   

I thought so, too, kind of like frugal living in a nutshell. It's good to run a checklist now and then!  

I really liked the writer's tone. Practical and upbeat. We are beginning to do some of them....will continue to learn more at our old age. I found it inspiring.

We've been a one-income household for most of the time that we've been married (hubby is a perpetual student, which is ok, because it was part of our original plan).  Thus far, we have:

• Bought a house we can safely afford on one salary
• only have the $10.50 cable and have RR light ($29 rather than $50)
• only own one (fuel efficient) car right now while we look for (and save for) a reliable, older car that we can buy for cash
• Christmas and birthday gifts are homemade
• We utilize the library (both the public library and the "Library of Mom") for DVDs
• Buy all of hubby's books used
• carpool to our respective jobs

It was good to see that we're doing a lot of what was on the list already.  I would like to do more yard-sale-ing, though.  We're usually doing something on Saturday mornings that keeps us from checking them out, and I'd like to change that....especially since it's getting nicer out.  We also want to have a yard sale of our own this spring.

There was an article last week, I can't recall the name, but it was written by a lady who instead of "joining the rat race" and work 40 hours to keep her lifestyle, found ways to keep her home and simplify her food, entertainment and other aspects of her life.

I enjoyed this article very much.

 I enjoyed the article.  It made me feel good to know that we already do alot of the things mentioned.  We became a one income family when our daughter was a little over a year old.  Before that I worked in the home and was making good money, but that wasn't even worth it.  I don't miss most of the things we have given up or changed in our lives for me to be home with my daughter, especially now that I get to homeschool her.  The only thing I don't like having right now is a car payment, but in the 14 months we have had this vehicle, the only maintence that has had to be done is change the oil, which to my husband is wonderufl since he spent most weekends working on the last one.  Our clothes come from thrift stores, our movies from the library or my brother's collection, our mobile home was bought with cash and we cook from scratch most of the time anymore.

1. We have tried for two years to get into an affordable home. We have had to realistic and reevaluate our concept of affordable. We can pay the rent on one income but we are paying much more than we wanted to.

2. We only have one medical debt which is reducing and work debt.

3. I don't see us being able to rely on older vehicles for his work one. Saving to pay cash for what he needs is a couple of years away.

4. We are not changing our lifestyle and budget, only adding rent so I think we can live under the income.

5. Still working on the savings.

6. I save up for gift buying and stick to the funds I have. Buying through the year on sales helps as well.

9. My grocery shopping focuses more on picking up sale items to add to my food stock than picking up things we are out of or feel like eating.

12. I have long bought clothes off season to get better prices.  

I read this article, and many of the others (how I spent the bulk of my morning-heehee), and even though I'm an admitted spendthrift, I was pleasantly surprised that we follow almost all of the hints/tips/ideas listed.

~ Our mortgage is affordable, and when we re-fi'd 4 years ago for a lower fixed rate, we converted what was a 30 year mortgage to a 15 year mortgage. We've also been sending any extra $300 toward the principle each month for the last 4 years. Our goal is to have it paid off BEFORE the twins graduate from high school, rather than having it paid off around the same time they'd be graduating. Before finding different frugal forums on the web, the thought of being mortgage free before we are 50 seemed impossible to me. I now know it is very possible!

~ The truck I drive is a 1997 F-250 extended cab pick up truck. It's a diesel, has 4 wheel drive, and even though we're quickly outgrowing it as the kids get bigger, it's paid for, only has 134,000 miles on it, and it's very easy to maintain. I'm blessed that my husband does all of the maintenance; the only thing we ever pay to have done is having new tires put on the truck. Brian's work truck is a 2000 F-450 with a utility bed on it. It has over 200k miles on it, and I imagine sometime this year, we'll be looking at purchasing a new truck (which the business will pay for). The business account has enough in it that he could pay outright for it, but this is something he'll/we'll have to discuss with our CPA before doing so.

~ We carry no CC debt or balances. When I do use them, I pay them off entirely when I receive my statements. I've only used one CC since Christmas, and will pay it off when the bill comes in a week or so.

~ I need to work on a budget just so I can get an idea of what our expenses really are. I've been really bad about this, especially since Brian's business has really picked up. I'm guilty of the whole spending money just because it's there. Brian doesn't feel we need a budget; if I just do things his way...pay the bills, buy groceries, the ocassional doctor/dental visit, and just leave the rest in the bank, we wouldn't need a budget. I need to actually do the work, and see it in black and white.

~ We have a substantial emergency savings account; I'm proud of that too. I am however guilty of relying on the OD protection, and when reconciling our checkbook and bank accounts at the end of 2007, I was appalled by the amount of money I'd wasted, and the amount of money it cost each time our bank automatically made a transfer from one account to the other.

~ I have accumulated plenty of gifts in my gift stockpile area of our basement. TOO much probably. I need to get it organized, and be more diligent about using what I have on hand, instead of going out and buying more.

~ THE GROCERY BUDGET!! I totally suck at this one!! Part of it is my psychological need to stockpile food, paper, and HBA items for fear that something might happen; and part of it is over 75% of our grocery budget goes toward fresh produce and milk, and the prices of these things simply keep going up and up.

~ We don't go to movies. Brian feels that they're a waste of money, when he could simply relax and watch a movie at home for free!! lol It's also one of the reasons I don't see us ever getting rid of the dish. It's simply our only form of entertainment, and sometimes it's even educational!

~ I do need to improve on my errand running. I do try to get it all done in one day, but living in the rural area that we do, just the driving can eat up a chunk of time. However, it's an area I am seriously working on, especially with fuel prices increasing daily.

~ I do buy clothing out of season and/or off the clearance racks, and at thrift stores, especially for the kids. I usually buy Brian's clothes for him as gifts (Christmas & birthday). I'm getting better about checking the clearance racks first, when I buy something new for me. However, I tend to ask for gc's (at Christmas, my birthday, Mother's Day, etc) to the places I buy my clothes, and use those when I buy clothes for myself. However, my down fall is buying shoes and purses.

~ Brian and I rarely go out to dinner alone. Maybe once every 2-3 months; so I see this as an investment more than a luxury. It's simply nice to just go to a restaurant, be waited on, and be able to have an adult conversation with my husband, without being interrupted 100 times by the kids. We take the kids out to dinner with us, about 3-4 times a year, and they see this as a very special treat. As far as eating lunch out, my best friend and I had been meeting once a week for lunch, and some shopping, but we had a long soul searching talk with each other, and we've decided to do the lunch out every other week, and the weeks we don't meet for lunch, we'll trade off going to each other's house for lunch. This way, we'll both be able to get out of the house, save some money, and still have our girlfriend time!

~ And we simply don't travel. Brian and I have never had a honeymoon. My mom does have a little house in West Virginia, that I'd love to take the kids down there for 3 or 4 days, and stay at her house (for free; but we'd leave her some money to help with the electric & phone, if we used it). Getting Brian to agree to this though, is like pulling teeth. He's a workaholic through and through.

I think for the most part, we're doing okay. I know I can do more to save money, and I'm working on it, but it's so much easier said than done! For instance, my cousin just started selling Longaberger baskets-I ordered each of the kids an Easter basket. KA-CHING! The Easter baskets they have they've outgrown (Sarah's is Hello Kitty; Andy's is Thomas the Tank Engine), but I'll set them aside for them when their older. The new baskets should last longer, and will be an awesome keepsake for them as well. Plus, it helped my cousin get her business going.

We're not a one income family, but my husband and I have our own business, so there are high and low times as far as money coming in.  We follow almost all of the items mentioned.  For the mortgage payment, we ALWAYS pay extra, even if it's only $10.  With credit cards, we try to not charge more than can be paid off at month end.  I hate that interest, so at least with my card, I pay it off every month (hubby doesn't always w/his card, but pays off as soon as possible).  We live out in the country, so I also try to combine all errands on one trip.

Couldn't do without the cable though.

Some of our friends seem to think it's silly to be frugal (like... live, spend, have fun!  why save?!)...  We like to make things ourselves, fix things, reuse, recycle and save $$ so we can splurge now and then on things that are more meaningful.