"Making It" on One Income

My family is SO lucky. My husband drives trucks (locally) at night, and I homeschool, take care of the home, and have my own tiny side-hustle teaching hobby, while not having to have a regular 9-5 type job now.  But I don't think we could make it like this on just my husband's pay 1) if we had debt other than the mortgage, and 2) if we rented rather than "owned" our house.

They were right--the great key to being able to weather financial storms (in the 'big E' Economy or the household economy) it staying out of debt. I did, and my husband has learned to since we married!

I mostly avoided debt in college, and dear husband and I spent our first couple years of marriage paying off what debt we did each bring to the marriage, so we were lucky enough to buy a house in the last year or so that mortgages were affordable here in this part of the country. (The value of our house has more than doubled in the time we have been here, and we could certainly not afford to buy our same house now.) I am so glad we did all this a decade ago--if we had to start out right now as a newly-married couple this year, things are so different for our lower-income bracket, I would probably have to have at least a part-time official job, relying on grandmothers for part-time childcare.

I wish I had solutions for those who are trying to do what I did, and my mom did, in these times. But I know getting out of debt and staying out of debt is still the basic step.  

Something weird (and maybe bad, but oh well) that allows us to get by on just my husband's income is the fact that our central heating system died three years ago, and we do not have the money to replace it, not will I take out a loan for repair.

So we have gotten really good at living without any air conditioning except at night, when we sleep--ah, those good old window units! Summer energy bills for us are much smaller than they used to be.

Winter bills are smaller now, too, though--to our surprise we learned that  just two radiant heaters in the middle of the house heat the whole house enough most winter days (might need three on in the depths of winter, but still!).

I am so glad our "not being able to fix things" caused our discoveries that we will continue with even when someday we save enough to repair the system. (But apparently the roof has only about 5 more years, so I've begun weekly savings for that first!)

I won't go into too many details here, but I was shocked at what a niece recently dropped for a "new" (2018) house in a development in a small northern midwestern town.  The good thing is that she is pretty frugal and 'money smart' and the house purchased has some amenities that will save $$$ on power bills down the road.  Out of curiosity, I did a quick search on properties in the surrounding area using standard realtor listing services and still was able to find some rural properties for under $100K, although I admit these are becoming few and far between.  Most often the hits I'm getting are lots for building on, something we would have not considered when starting out.  Codes will come into play with my next statement, but I do thing there are more options today (tiny homes, composting toilets, processed rainwater for drinking, etc.) for getting started on a purchased lot than when we were looking some 40 years ago.

But your points are good ones about finding out what you *need* versus finding out what you *want* and can put off for the future.  When we were starting out, I knew the job was going to demand a lot of time and was eyeing more of a 'turnkey' property that would require less input and up-keep.  Wife was smarter and was looking for that low-ball fixer-upper property that her part-time work could allow flexibility towards.  In the end, her choice was the best.....finding the closest-to-work, largest acreage, most run-down house, and by far most potentially beautiful property in the area.  With the way property values have risen, a real bargain investment in retrospect.  

I guess by way of advice, I would recommend to those still searching that you will have to tick boxes on a list of negotiables vs. non-negotiables....then put the list away for a bit while talking to as many more 'seasoned' home-owners as possible who share your values and dreams.  Even if they can't help directly in the search and finances, their indirect help may steer you to that most workable and affordable property now with the greatest potential now, even if far from the dream property you were hoping to get first time.  Good entry and notes, Rachel!

I am pretty darned happy for you. It is rare to find a one income household anymore.

Rachel wrote:Something weird (and maybe bad, but oh well) that allows us to get by on just my husband's income is the fact that our central heating system died three years ago, and we do not have the money to replace it, not will I take out a loan for repair.  

Oooh! Oooh! My kind of weird! This is our third summer doing this. Yes, folks, it is indeed possible to live in the midsouth, where we drink buckets of humidity instead of breathing air, without air conditioning. Even if you do NOT live in the mountains! Shade trees are our friends.

Winter bills are smaller now, too, though--to our surprise we learned that just two radiant heaters in the middle of the house heat the whole house enough most winter days (might need three on in the depths of winter, but still!).  

Our heat pump system could not keep the house above 50* since we bought the place. We got those same kinds of heaters, for supplement. When the system died many years ago, we also found the heaters kept the place very comfortable, while saving significantly on the electric bill.

We are in the same boat...central heat is super expensive, so we use space heaters. Also, our old AC unit needs to be replaced so we have the room AC units. Eventually, I would like an earth tube to cool and a rocket mass heater to heat my "to be built" hobbit/Oehler house.

I raised my son by myself. We sold our house, moved into an RV to save money while I started my own business. Income started very slow and was supplemented by part-time jobs, but it grows annually. We also live frugally to help keep expenses down.

As for credit, I have enough to keep a good credit rating otherwise I pay as I go.

My spouse and I are 29, and we call ourselves "semi-retired." I bought the house before we met for $12.5k and rehabbed it little by little. The only housing payment we have now since the house is paid off it the furnace loan. Replacing the furnace was non-optional for us, unfortunately. My spouse's part-time income covers all of our bills and small debt burden. I sell jam at the farmer's market for saving up to buy the farm, and I drive for uber for our spending money. Would like to drop the uber, but it's a mighty convenient way to put cash in my pocket for little work. I think I'll substitute teach a few days a week once the season slows down.

Debt takes up half of our monthly bill budget, and we're only two payments off from paying one of them off. A few years out for the rest, then it's done. The only debt we want now is the farm debt, and that seems worth it to us. Everyone seems to have a mortgage, and we can leverage ourselves to have a very small mortgage payment.

I don't regret my debt, but I do wish I did not have it. I'm grateful that it's all things I need and use, and I'm not paying interest on fidget toys and takeout like my ex husband is (he took his debt with him thank god!)

We're a one-income household, my college-educated wife currently stays home with kiddos while I, the blue-collar mechanic, work (though this arrangement may soon change). One of the keys for us to staying out of debt, is the ability to fix things, including major things, on my own. I realize that some people just simply don't have the skills or physical ability or mental gumption to do these things (that's not meant to put anyone down, it's just that not everyone has the same abilities). I don't know what the answer is for them, but I realize that it's not possible for some people  A couple examples...


We have a nice big house-5 beds, 4 baths, 3000 square feet. But we got it cheap (126k) and it had major termite damage. Like, not-really-safe-to-be-standing-in termite damage. The main support beams and columns in the basement were so damaged that i could easily shove a butter knife all the way through. So, I had to fix it. I had to learn to do all this with no prior experience.  It required building temporary walls, major demolition, digging and pouring new footers for support columns, building new beams, etc etc, and it all had to be to code.  This work would have cost tens of thousands to have someone else do, my cost was less than $2000.

I buy cheap vehicles. I paid $1600 for my current car, that I drive 80 miles every day for work. I put $400 dollars worth of parts into it and it's now a get-in-it-and-go car that I don't have to worry about breaking down. A new or reliable used car that requires no work can easily cost $15,000+, and when it inevitably breaks down, repairs are ungodly expensive at a shop.

My house had old crusty leaking plumbing and knob and tub electrical. I've replaced all the plumbing with PEX that impressed the plumber, and am doing the electrical little by little.

A lot of people can do minor DIY stuff, but not a lot of people can undertake major projects and have to come up with the money to pay other people to do them, which of course requires taking on debt. When I meet people that live on one income, they tend to fall into one of 3 categories.....1. Those where the breadwinner has a high paying job like a lawyer, doctor, etc and a second income just isn't needed (but somehow a lot of those types tend to have a lot of debt) 2. Those who live frugally and are lucky enough to have made good financial decisions and learned good skills while they were young and dumb, 3. Those who are poor and live on SNAP and medicare but do it because there are more important things to them (and that's not to knock those folks, they're doing an admirable thing).

So my husband is the primary breadwinner, but I do win some bread also, but less than he does.  In our part of OR USA, buying is still more expensive than renting, for a couple anyhow, no kids so we only need a one bedroom, though we'd love a two, but we can't afford that.  We try to do as much within our family as possible, get cars fixed, buy cars for less-than-what-they'd-normally-sell-for and pay per month to pay them off, I go to the food bank when we need to, though we don't always need to, depends on the month etc., we have lots of friends and we all help each other with things, sharing resources, etc.

In a different part of the country we'd definitely be able to buy a house, but not here and we're not open to moving far away from our kinsmen so that means we're still renting.

It is refreshing to read these posts.

My wife and I, by God's Providence, were able to pay all of our debt of before we had our first child and go down to one income. It was quite a challenge, I mean that, it really, really was. We do consider a mortgage debt and therefore undesirable. We ended up renting for many years but kept saving and did not compromise and get a mortgage (again, our conviction, not necessary anyone else's). We have been able to own our current property and things debt free and we are up to 5 children. We have everything we want and need and my 4 part time jobs are remote so, in some sense, we are together 24/7. It is not for everyone but we love it and are so thankful for it.

Why on earth did we have 2 cars when there were just 2 of us? There are 7 of us now and I would not even consider a 2nd car. Why did we have home internet and internet on our phones? I could multiply many examples.

Having recently purchased acreage and living in our RV, parked in a large barn, our living expenses go down as we add livestock and gardens. We hope to educate our children on the mindset you need to have to avoid the consumer economy and hopefully not wait until they are 40, 50, 60, never, to discover the freedom that comes from no debt.

Since we've been married we've never only had one income (although we sort of share one now :) as we are self employed running a small shop for small income!). When we were first married and renting we lived pretty frugally on one income, and saved the other wages towards a deposit on our first house. In eighteen months we had a reasonable (at the time) deposit saved up, which made it possible to get a better interest rate on the mortgage then too.
It may not be quite as cheap to live as a couple as a single person, but one rent, one set of heating bills, one lot of cooking pans....I think what also helped was frugal student habits that I've never quite grown out of!

One more tactic that I was reminded of over a recent beer with an old work colleague:  Buy a duplex, live in one side of the duplex, and rent the other side to tenants.  Use the tenant's rent to pay the mortgage on the property.  Yes, tenants can be risky, but with some decent ones you can get extra assistance/duties from them sometimes in exchange for reduced rent for a month or two.  Said colleague was sole income source while kiddos were being raised by wife who tended to rental side of things.  Husband's income came from graduate student stipend (not much $$!), but resulted in job with good income....and they then sold the duplex at a profit.  Some penny pinching to be sure, but worked out well in this case.

If we ever can buy a house we're hoping for a duplex of some kind, and then hoping to have a friend or two put a tinyhouse in the yard.  And have enough room for a nice garden.  That way we get rent money, from the second unit and from one or two tinyhouses on the property paying a bit of rent to be there, hopefully longterm, making the tinyhouses look "perminent" for government officials, but still being able to move them if the friends need to move and find a new place to "park".

My advice on this is to ALWAYS look at what you have first. No matter what it is.

Don't get me wrong, I understand seeing that it is always greener on the other guys homestead but that is seldom true. I recently got into this mindset and when things changed, and it looks like we are going to be here for awhile, I tried to think how we could make what we have work better.

For instance we have this HUGE house, six bedrooms, four bath, two kicthens, two living rooms, etc, and honestly do not need it. Sure we can stretch out in here but for empty-nesters I thought about getting a camper and renting this house out, but that would be a purchase. Then I realized we have a 24x24 foot, two story barn. While we store stuff in it, we could use that to make an apartment for us, and then rent the big house out to someone else. It has some build costs to that plan of course, but less than, or the same as, what buying a camper would be.

I got more numbers to crunch, but that is kind of the best way to do things; before figuring in things you might have to buy, think aboutwhat you already got first.

I lived for years with no electricity or running water- as did every generation of my family before me. There are lots of things which make life more comfortable, but you can live without them. My tip- eat a meal before you go grocery shopping- you'll buy a lot less crap if you're not hungry while cruising the supertmarket aisles. And if you have kids, find out what foods they don't like and buy them in bulk

I believe a big issue with many people is wanting more than they need.
I am not a religous person, so I am not coming from that angle.
I often hear,' that is a nice big bedroom, huge lounge" etc, it all costs money they may not have needed to spend.

I have written an article about good debt , bad debt and published widely.
It always creates discussion for obvious reasons,
I have a small home, but I can afford to race motorcycles as a result, that is one advantage of good, appropriate debt.
A link is in my signature.

I needed to come up with money for an unexpected and expensive vehicle repair. Feller I was working with asked what I was going to do. I said I'd been giving some thought to selling my body. He looked me up and down, smiled and said- So- gonna be stuck for cash for quite a while then.

Steve Zoma wrote:Then I realized we have a 24x24 foot, two story barn. While we store stuff in it, we could use that to make an apartment for us, and then rent the big house out to someone else. It has some build costs to that plan of course, but less than, or the same as, what buying a camper would be.

Greg Payton was thinking about doing something similar here. His floor plan was long and thin rather than square, and only one story. I don't know how he got on with it though.

Nancy Reading wrote:

Steve Zoma wrote:Then I realized we have a 24x24 foot, two story barn. While we store stuff in it, we could use that to make an apartment for us, and then rent the big house out to someone else. It has some build costs to that plan of course, but less than, or the same as, what buying a camper would be.

Greg Payton was thinking about doing something similar here. His floor plan was long and thin rather than square, and only one story. I don't know how he got on with it though.

It is tough because it takes a lot of faith that your plans will materialize. When you put hard earned money into something like that, you really end up being all-in.

For me it is difficult because I am not sure if this is a forever home for us, or if we use the equity it has and just cash in on it. If we do the latter, I have to stop now because you never want a million dollar house in a half million dollar neighborhood... you will never recoup your building expenses.