I hear all of it the time: "It should be nice making so much money you'll have the ability to be home along with your kids. We could never afford to perform that."
Excuse me?! Our group of five lives while on an income which may easily be eligible for several low-income programs. We make so much money, huh? Where is it?!
Rate of Hawaii Cash Advance Loans: 
Now please don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining. My husband and I have voluntarily, and quite happily, chosen this frugal lifestyle. But it's funny to hear the misconceptions others have about our finances.
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS
The assumption seems to be, if you're home using your children full-time you has to be rolling in piles of money. Common urban folk-lore unsettles us with all the "fact" who's will surely cost over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to raise each child to adulthood.
According to the people figures, it will cost over half millions of dollars to raise our three children! Gulp.... Maybe the numbers are accurate if I bought my children's clothing exclusively at up-scale specialty stores, sent "Buffy" and "Skip" to ultra-expensive private schools, and outfitted their rooms with the latest audio/visual equipment and top-of-the-line designer crib ensembles.
REALITY
But the fact inside our neighborhood is drastically different. Nearly every family on our block has consciously made the choice, at least to get a time, to produce the essential sacrifices so one can parent could be home with their young children.
I hope you won't think we've all dropped beyond life and adopted an existence of soap operas and bon-bons. Far from it. Many of the ladies have cottage industries or attend college. Some do consulting work to stay abreast with their professions. A neighbor stays home with her children, actively pursuing a writing career. But despite having additional part-time incomes, the families on our street don't make the money that statistics claim we'll need to adequately raise our kids. But raise them successfully, we will!
THE SECRET
So, what's the secrets to "one income living in a two income world?"
Actually, you can find several easy tricks:
1) watch Your Purchases
Watch your purchases, even small ones, carefully. If you're cautious along with your pennies, the dollars will take proper care of themselves.
For one month, have a detailed spending diary coming from all expenditures, for newspapers and coffee. Seeing all this in gray scale might be eye opening. Buying a latte' at the local espresso bar each morning can easily run you - per month. Most people spend at least each weekday on food related items at work. (Lunch, pop, coffee, snacks, etc.). Bringing lunches, treats and drinks from your home could save your household nearly 0 per month, or ,200 per year!
Groceries is one of the few fairly flexible expense categories for most families. Learn tricks for saving money by careful meal planning and using up leftovers. Investigate the concept of cooking for that freezer (i.e.: Frozen Assets). Learn to buy in bulk, and take advantage of lower prices by planning your menus across the grocery sales flyers inside newspaper.
Little expenses mount up quickly if they are done with a regular basis. When you find the areas within your life the location where the money is draining out, plug in the holes!
2) Live within Your Means
Vow to call home within your means. Easier said than can be done - but it might be done!
The starting point is establishing a budget. If you've got problems keeping to some written budget, try the envelope system. Figure out just how much money you may need every month for the different categories of expenses (food, clothing, gasoline, bus fare, etc.) and put that amount of profit separately labeled envelopes. You will have a concrete visual aid to demonstrate you exactly simply how much money you have left to spend in each category. And you will note clearly that borrowing money from another envelope leaves less money in that other category.
The envelope method is perfect for those who have a tendency to think that so long as as there's a positive balance in the checkbook, they could go on writing checks.
3) Escape of Debt
Get beyond debt, and stay out. Since 1996, there have been over one million personal ruptcies filed annually in the United States. The majority of those were the result of poorly managed consumer debt.
Does your installment debt (not including mortgages) total over 20 percent of the income? Have you taken cash advances on one bank card to give the monthly payments on other cards or credit accounts? Are you at your credit limits? Are you receiving letters, phone calls, or notices from collection agencies? Do you've got difficulty imagining your daily life without credit?
If you answered "yes" to even certainly one of these questions, consider seeking advice coming from a financial planner. You might be about the strategy to severe financial difficulties, as well as ruptcy.
4) Identify Priorities
Identify personal priorities. No you can set your family's priorities for you. But if you don't take time to think them through, articulate them clearly and live them out, you will discover you might have lived a life that is not a true reflection of your inner priorities.
Clarify your personal definition of success and meaningfulness by writing out a shorter mission statement for the life. Then evaluate every purchase and activity in light of the personal life mission.
If having time for community involvement is definitely an important priority, is it possible to pare back the non-essential activities allowing room for volunteering and service? Watching evening television might be a relaxing pastime, but could it be adding almost anything to your community's quality of life?
If staying home together with your children is often a top priority, do you think you're willing to do whatever it will require to create it happen? It's not only a crime to shop at thrift stores for your family's wardrobe essentials. And your children won't hate you if you don't take these to Hawaii every year (these are extreme examples, but I think you have the point).
5) A Support Network
Establish a support network of friends in similar financial circumstances. If cash is tight, every decision could become a monetary one. It helps to have friends who understand personally the difficulties you face, and may offer support to the choices you're making.
6) Resources
Tap to the many resources readily available for simple living. There are newsletters, books, websites, and also local study groups that will inspire you together with offer practical ideas for living within your means.
WHAT IT TAKES
It doesn't take a salary the size of Bill Gates' to reside one income. But it can take careful planning, focused priorities and a non-negotiable resolve for stay from debt.
There are sacrifices involved, but when your heart's desire is to get home together with your children, the rewards of staying true for your convictions will far out-weigh any losses you could possibly experience.
Our family faced these decisions nearly 10 years ago. We followed our hearts, and we'll never regret it. I drive my used, rusty station wagon with pride. Laugh in case you must, but we don't make monthly car payments and our yearly license fees and insurance premiums are minimal. Driving used cars is just one with the many choices we've made that permit me to get home daily with our young children.
SACRIFICES?
Am I making sacrifices? Maybe. But for me, the true sacrifice would be giving up the joys I share daily with my three kids. Laughing together. Growing and learning side by side. Being available to others in need. Those are joys that I can never recapture if I miss this opportunity now.
Carpe diem. Seize the day.
By making a number of not-so-difficult financial decisions, we are already able to reach our dream of living using one income inside a two income world. If you share that dream, I believe it is possible to make it happen, as well. It may be difficult, however the great things about which makes it work are beyond belief!
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