WOW! I think we're out of control! How much do you spend?

[ckoncurat]

We go on a date once a week, about $30 for two including tax and tip. plus pizza for the family once a week, another $30. So $60 a week, or $3000 a year. Yikes!!!

 

[Kitzka]

THAT is good to know! Thank you! I just purchased a $10-worth-of-food-for-$5 Groupon coupon, but Groupon gave me $10 to spend so it was FREE! Yep, I'm THAT cheap

Michelle

Wanted to reply to part of your original post. We discovered culvers this summer in Chicago. You can defintely get a good deal there and it's better than other fast food. The culvers by our hotel had buy 1 get 1 free shakes, concretes and some other dessert as long as it was after 9. My daughter and her friend were able to get a treat every night and it was a huge deal for the families.

And op-I don't think your amount is too bad for 6 months. We don't spend as much but there are only 3 of us. And we only eat once every 2 weeks or so.

Lara

 

[milwaukeemommy]

Yep, we love Culver's & choose that over McD's every time (they are right next to each other) & we almost always have coupons. We went one night when they had $1 butterburgers -- ok, we'll probably never do that again LOL. We had to wait an hour for our food, & it's a good thing we are not claustrophobic because YIKES there was NO ROOM in that place! But what a deal! LOL

Michelle

 

[ilovejack02]

NO fast food for the most part here , I get chick fil a about every two weeks, kids meal, 4 nugget pack for my self. During summer DS10 will be with me, during school year , he isn't of course.

Dinner out with hubby is once a month , usually spend 70 or 80 at the local yummy sushi place. Once a month pizza order in runs about 20.00.

I enjoy cooking and until recently SAHM . Now im just at part time still, but it has been an adjustment. several frozen pizza and grilled cheese nights at first. Im getting a handle on it though , back to cooking regularly .

I am bringing lunch on days I work, I did forget once and ran to wendy's for a baked potato and salad.

 

[ilovejack02]

I'm sure that is great if you are not the one earning the one income. DW would absolutely love to live off of one income provided that I am the one going off to work everyday.

Whew .. thank goodness my husband didn't look at me being a SAHW with a . He was thrilled that I wanted to be home taking care of the kids and the house and only to happy to work hard so we could still have nice things and trips. My job was to budget accordingly . Worked great for us and he was very appreciative of all I did for the family , as I was of him.

 

[Couchy]

WOW! DH spend most of our "fun" $$ eating out. We eat out at a TS place once a week and occasionally 2x. Life is busy and this is the only time we can sit and just relax and connect. We do not really order take out ( maybe 6 times a year) and we never do fast food unless you count Panera but that is maybe 4-5 times a year. That being said we spend close to 400 a month eating out. It usually gives us two meals because we never finish and then eat leftovers for another meal. Bonefish is our go to place and I usually have a martini because they are so good there

 

[traviesojmt]

We enjoy eating out. We enjoy trying new foods and restaurants. We eat at a sit-down restaurant every Saturday night. My DH is currently deployed, but when he is home, we have lunch out together every Wednesday. Since he is gone, the kids and I often go to Noodle & Co once during the week. I am a SAHM. In any given week, I am responsible for preparing 19 meals. Having 2 out doesn't sound like too much to me.

 

[tasha99]

I'd guess we spend about $60 per month eating out (for me and DS14). That's a monthly trip to McDonalds and an every other month meal at a sushi bar in Anchorage.

 

[ssawka]

Whew .. thank goodness my husband didn't look at me being a SAHW with a . He was thrilled that I wanted to be home taking care of the kids and the house and only to happy to work hard so we could still have nice things and trips. My job was to budget accordingly . Worked great for us and he was very appreciative of all I did for the family , as I was of him.

ITA! Before DD was in school I was overjoyed that DW was able to stay home with her. The thing is when the kids are all in school for 8 hours a day, there is no reason that both parents shouldn't be working, at least part-time. Besides, this thread was not talking about having little ones at home. It was talking about having enough income so only one person has to work. IMHO that makes no sense unless there is a need to have someone at home full time.

 

[tasha99]

ITA! Before DD was in school I was overjoyed that DW was able to stay home with her. The thing is when the kids are all in school for 8 hours a day, there is no reason that both parents shouldn't be working, at least part-time. Besides, this thread was not talking about having little ones at home. It was talking about having enough income so only one person has to work. IMHO that makes no sense unless there is a need to have someone at home full time.

Sort of depends on how involved running your household is, and how involved the SAHP is in the kids' school. My stepmom stayed home permanently. With a large house and yard, uber-involvement in my younger siblings' schools, a large vacation home that required attention, and lots of community volunteering, it made sense to her and my dad to keep her at home. This wouldn't have been true if they'd had to struggle on one income, but they did okay. When you look at the kind of part time work she could have gotten after staying home so long (say $12 per hour), that's only around $1000 based on 20 hours per week. Worth it for some, but I doubt they would have hired anyone to pick up the slack her working would have left. I think it made sense to have her spend her time improving the quality of life for all in the family.

(And I say all that even though one of the things she found time for was walking by study hall when I was in high school to make sure I was actually there. What can I say . . . I was a notorious truant for a while).

 

[SaraJayne]

ITA! Before DD was in school I was overjoyed that DW was able to stay home with her. The thing is when the kids are all in school for 8 hours a day, there is no reason that both parents shouldn't be working, at least part-time. Besides, this thread was not talking about having little ones at home. It was talking about having enough income so only one person has to work. IMHO that makes no sense unless there is a need to have someone at home full time.

We live quite comfortably on one income. If the day ever comes when that changes, then I will get a job outside the home. For now, having me home works for our family.

 

[kirstenb1]

ITA! Before DD was in school I was overjoyed that DW was able to stay home with her. The thing is when the kids are all in school for 8 hours a day, there is no reason that both parents shouldn't be working, at least part-time. Besides, this thread was not talking about having little ones at home. It was talking about having enough income so only one person has to work. IMHO that makes no sense unless there is a need to have someone at home full time.

I think you need to be careful about generalizing. Maybe there is no reason for YOUR family to have one parent at home once kids are in school. However, there are so many scenarios for other families that make sense for them.

 

[smitch425]

We live quite comfortably on one income. If the day ever comes when that changes, then I will get a job outside the home. For now, having me home works for our family.

Same here.

 

[TeamTull]

We spend about the same amount -- it's absolutely crazy. Once we made our plans for WDW, we cut back to one time per week. It makes us appreciate it a lot more and it saves a ton of money!

 

[ssawka]

We live quite comfortably on one income. If the day ever comes when that changes, then I will get a job outside the home. For now, having me home works for our family.

We could easily do it too, but still unless you have little ones at home or other thing (charities, etc.) to keep you busy, there is no reason not to work. DW loved not working, but once DD was in school I found it unacceptable. Fortunately, DW decided to go to massage school and now makes good money for working part time. The point of my original post was make sure the spouse that will remain working is on-board before trying to figure out how you can make it work on one income. If they are and you can make it work, great! In my case, DW would love to quit tomorrow, but I would never agree to that without a good reason.

 

[4GoofyCrew]

In a nutshell: WAY TOO MUCH.

But we love eating out. And we don't spend money on movies, etc. so eating out IS our entertainment.

I will be the first to admit though that we could probably travel a lot more (or a lot more luxuriously) if we scaled back.

And I am thankful to work part time while our kids are at school. Full time isn't practical with before/after school daycare, etc. Plus I put in a lot of volunteer hours at their school, which I thoroughly enjoy.

 

[smitch425]

We could easily do it too, but still unless you have little ones at home or other thing (charities, etc.) to keep you busy, there is no reason not to work. DW loved not working, but once DD was in school I found it unacceptable. Fortunately, DW decided to go to massage school and now makes good money for working part time. The point of my original post was make sure the spouse that will remain working is on-board before trying to figure out how you can make it work on one income. If they are and you can make it work, great! In my case, DW would love to quit tomorrow, but I would never agree to that without a good reason.

Many husbands do not find it "unacceptable". I am a stay at home mom, but my kids are in 2nd and 4th grade. I currently volunteer at their school 2 days a week (approx. 6-8 hours a week), which will increase as the year goes on. I am also the room mom for DD. Last year I pulled double duty as room mom which was a lot of work! I have considered getting a part time job, but DH does not want me to get a job that will require me to work any evenings or any weekends. I would need summers off and since he works for the Dept. of Defense, I would need holidays off, as well. Not a lot of jobs out there that meet those requirements, so I stay at home. I looked into getting a job at the kids' school, but there really wasn't anything that was appealing. If I needed to get a job, I would, but since I don't, I won't. It works for us, but not for everyone. I certainly place no judgement on anyone else's situation. It is no one else's business why some people stay home and some don't.

 

[2girls4me]

I am not cut out to be a sahm, and we need the income.

If others can do it, who am I to judge?

We need to cut down on spending, period. We make enough to cover our bills, but come up short because of overspending. So we are making changes.

 

[Dizisfun]

I've never sat down and added it all up but we spend waayy to much eating out......We really need to cut back and once I retire come February I am sure that things will change and I will cook more.

 

[Tiger926]

I am confused as to how this thread became a SAHM debate? No one should feel the need to justify their living arrangements or career expectations with anyone on here. Some spouses stay home, and others do not - it is only the business of the two people involved in that relationship as to whether they can afford this decision or not.

Best of luck to OP and others looking to work on their budgets! Tiger