I can’t tell you how many times I’ve searched all over Pinterest, Facebook and any other place on the internet for the secret to be able to stay at home. I can’t tell you how many blog posts I’ve clicked on titled, “How to Stay at Home on One Income”. Every time I feel like I never get any answers! How did they all do it? Jeez, it’s hard for us to make it on two incomes! But I’m not here to give you vague tips on how to cut down your budget. No, I’m going to show you an example of how it’s possible for a family of 4 to live on one income.

The biggest secret to it all is to create a budget and stick to it. I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately and it’s mostly been financial books. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that creating a detailed budget is the key to success, no matter your financial goal.

Want to get out of debt? Create a budget.

Want to stretch your paycheck longer? Create a budget.

Want to save money for something big? Create a budget.

Want to become a millionaire? Inherit a bunch of money….. I’m kidding, create a freaking budget!

The best way to do this is look at your monthly bills. I list mine in order of due date and importance. Rent is on top because it’s always due on the first of every month. Fun money is all the way at the bottom because if I have something more important or if something was more expensive than expected, that’s where the money is getting pulled from. List ALL your bills and total them up. Make sure you add line items for groceries, gas, pets or anything else that you may spend money on during a month. These are not my exact numbers. This is an example of how it may be attainable. Everyone is going to have variation, but it might not be far off from where you currently are.

The only way this is actually doable on an income of ~$30,000 is if you don’t have a bunch of debt payments. I’ll tell you from experience that it’s near impossible to do with more than one car payment. We had to sell my car and pay off a couple things before it would be manageable for us to live on my husbands income alone. Honestly, right now it’s still a little tight, but I do what I can from home to help boost our income just a little bit to cover some holes.

Another big variable is your housing payment. If your rent/mortgage payment is over 1/3 of your monthly income, then it’s going to be very difficult to try and make this work. Most financial advisers would recommend that your housing payments only equal 25% of your monthly payment. That’s including your HOAs, insurance and property taxes. I know what you’re thinking. Why weren’t any of us taught that? It would have been great to know! There needs to be a change in high school curriculum to teach things like this!

Now here’s another biggie. You can’t spend too much on going out for random Target runs! I know it’s hard to resist, but if you want to stay home with your babies, you gotta make some sacrifices! We don’t buy clothes often, so we don’t have a huge clothing budget. I feel like that is a big chunk of money that goes out each month for people. If you’re staying home, better make sure to get your sweat pants and T-shirt’s out, you won’t be needing Vera Wangs newest line lounging on the couch or chasing after a toddler all day! If you’re home all day, you’ve got plenty of time to cook and bake and all that fun stuff! No need for reservations at your favorite restaurant every Wednesday and Friday. Try limiting it to every other Friday.

If you want tips on how to cut down your grocery budget, try to make batch meals. Look up sales and coupons. Join your grocery stores membership program for extra savings and gas points. Also check out my Grocery Shopping post.

It may be beneficial to see if your cell phone carrier offers internet in your area. Sometimes it’s cheaper to go through your carrier rather than a regular company. It may even bring your cell phone bill down!

Staying home is not glamorous. Not in the least. But I can tell you that it is so worth it and so much fun to see how your children change from day to day, week to week. I cannot express how awesome it feels knowing I don’t have to stress about childcare costs and having someone else raise my babies. I am truly blessed to be able to do it! I know it’s not for everyone, but to me, it’s everything!