The idea of living on one income can be really scary…but whether you’re dreaming of your kids having a full-time parent at home, or you’ve suddenly lost your job, don’t be afraid. It is completely possible.
Throughout history, families typically lived on one income; with the wife managing the home life, while the husband had a job or business, which provided enough money to support his household. The other factor in this equation, then and now, is that the wife oversees the family income and possessions carefully, in a way that stretches their income, so that all expenses are covered, and the family is content and healthy. Her multi-pronged approach uses many strategies, including assessing needs, being an informed consumer, and using things wisely.
I found myself in the same situation 30 years ago, when my career plans didn’t work out. Luckily, I was raised in a traditional one-income family; so even though I was disappointed about my job, I never had any doubts that we’d make it. Thanks to my mom, I had another skill set to fall back on – Home economist!
You are far from “jobless.” Like me, you are now a Home Economist. That means it’s your JOB to work things out at home, so that the one income meets the needs of your family.
Even if you weren’t raised in a one-income family, you have two great advantages – The internet, where you can look up how to do things; and me, to mentor you!
Table of Contents
- The 4 Essential Concepts of Home Economy
- Focus on Buying Only What You Need
- Buy the Best Quality that you Need
- Brand A or Brand B? Sometimes, Buy Both
- Pay as Little for Things as Possible
- Do Not be Wasteful: Memorize This, and Save $1,000s
- Resources for Further Exploration
The 4 Essential Concepts of Home Economy
There are four essential concepts to the home economy:
- 1. Buy only what you can use.
- 2. Buy the quality that suits your needs the best.
- 3. Pay as little for things as possible.
- 4. Do not be wasteful.
Each of these concepts requires a lot of thinking on your part. Thinking doesn’t cost you any money; but you’ll be surprised to find how not thinking drains your wallet! Let’s take a look at each of these concepts now. The rest of my website and channel deal with concrete ideas that bring these concepts to life. That’s the fun part!
Focus on Buying Only What You Need
The secret to saving money is not in buying the cheapest of everything; but in setting priorities regarding all of the things your family uses – You’ll have to decide what’s important to you…and what is not.
Consider what you buy. It would be difficult to list everything on which you spend money, but that’s one way to do it. Alternatively, you could list all the things of just one category, such as food or clothing; or you could just list a set number of things that you regularly buy, and start there. Just be sure you are listing specific things, such as coffee, restaurant meals, jeans, etc..
Once you have some things listed, consider how you might save money on each item. The first question would be whether you need it at all. Could you use a smaller amount of it, or use it less often? Could you buy a cheaper brand, or stock up when it’s on sale?
Buy the Best Quality that you Need
What makes better financial sense – To buy only the best, or only the cheapest? The answer varies, sometimes it even varies for the same item.
For example, I buy only the best on the market, King Arthur, when it comes to flour. King Arthur flour has a higher protein content than other flours, and it is unbleached, making it more nutritious. That means even though I am paying more, my family is also getting more nutrition. Besides, I can easily find good sales on King Arthur, which reduces the price difference.
Popcorn is a good example of a product of which is the store brand is just fine. The method I use to make my popcorn is the secret to not having unpopped kernels in the bowl, not which brand I buy.
A great example of when to pay more is hand tools. The head of a cheap screwdriver is made of soft metal, and will become knicked and useless as soon as it meets a screw that’s made of better metal. If you’ve ever gouged your hand when the screwdriver slipped, you’ll have extra motivation to spend more for a good one! My favorite flathead screwdriver has a wooden handle, and belonged to my father! Screws are no match for its tough steel.
Brand A or Brand B? Sometimes, Buy Both
Then, there are times when I buy two different brands, and that is another way to save money. I use All Free and Clear laundry detergent for most of my things, but I keep a bottle of Persil around for anything that is really nasty, such as my son’s greasy mechanic’s clothes.
The lowest-priced laundry detergent left my clothes dingy-looking, after a while. I also had to use a greater quantity, which ate up the savings pretty quickly.
In Texas, some UNT students carried out a limited study, in which they compared detergents. They, too, found that the price does not always reflect in one’s savings:
“Tide includes the stain fighting ingredient at a higher concentration [than Gain, a more expensive brand]. Due to the high concentration, Tide would be able to perform the same job as Gain at a price cheaper to the consumer. [Tide] would offer cleaner fabric at median price.”
UNT Study
“Surf includes the stain fighting ingredient, as well. When using Surf, you may have to use more of the product to get the same results as a more expensive detergent. Although Surf is the most affordable, you may end up spending more money due to the [lesser effectiveness] of the detergent.”
The same goes for those recipes for homemade laundry detergent. I did that for a year or two, before I realized that the savings was not as great as I thought. I discovered another hidden cost of homemade or cheap laundry detergent, which is that it is harsh, causing your clothing to wear out more quickly.
Pay as Little for Things as Possible
Once you have identified the must-haves for your household, your next task is finding each one of them at the best price.
For every item on your list, there is usually a certain store that always has the best price, or a store where it occasionally goes on sale for an unbeatable price. Stores have a sales technique called “loss leaders”. A loss leader is an item that a store offers at such a low sale price, that they actually don’t make any significant profit off of it. They do this to tempt you into the store with the low price, knowing that most people will buy other things at prices high enough to offset the loss, and bring in more profit for them. Most supermarkets have a handful of loss leaders, which change every week.
The table above shows the huge variety of prices for my King Arthur flour. Since I bake a lot, good flour is a high priority for me. If that wasn’t the case, or if I needed to economize further, I could always buy the 25 lb. sack at Sams Club, for 30¢ lb..
This shows you a good example of the “home economist” difference. A woman who works outside the home would grab her KA Flour on the way back from the office, at $1.20 a pound. A family with a home economist may not have as many dollars coming in, but it evens out (or better) when they are paying much less for the same goods…in this case, 58% – 75% less.
Do Not be Wasteful: Memorize This, and Save $1,000s
Your first assignment – Forget OHM – This is your new mantra:
“Use it up,
Wear it out,
Make it do,
Or do without.”
Fifty years ago, everyone knew this little poem, and lived it. In other words, after you buy something, use it with care.
Once you start noticing how much you waste, you cannot un-notice it…and it will change your life. One shocking example is how much food is wasted. According to the USFDA,
“In the United States, food waste is estimated at between 30–40 percent of the food supply.”
USFDA
Don’t waste anything. It might sound restrictive, but it’s really just the opposite – There’s a certain freedom in taking charge of how your money is spent, in making choices. Yes, there’s sacrifice, but there’s also a lot of satisfaction, independence, and, and peace of mind.
Let’s take a closer look at each pearl of this wisdom:
Use it Up: don’t throw cash in your trash
If you’re not using things up all the way, you’re throwing “cash in the trash,” as a famous home economist says. Not everyone makes the effort to extract that last bit of hand lotion, laundry detergent, or toothpaste.
An unimaginable amount of money is thrown in the trash by simply not using leftovers for another meal, because nobody “likes” them. I can sympathize with this, in a way – I have bailed out of so many schemes where you’re supposed to cook in bulk and freeze everything in nice, neat containers; because I dislike the thawed, reheated food! I’ve learned what foods freeze well, so I do a bit of that. I prefer, however, to cook enough extra for one more meal, and have it a day or two later. This is gross with salad, but wonderful with chili, so you have to learn your preferences. What gets expensive is the attitude that I must have whatever meal I want, whenever I want, and the leftovers get thrown away.
Another thing that takes a bit of restraint is fully using up one package, before opening a different kind. It’s fine to have grape jelly and strawberry jam open at the same time, as long as both get used up. You may have to push back a bit on family members who open another box of cookies or cereal, because they’re bored with the one they opened last week; or worse, because the other box got stale (after they insisted on having it).
Wear it Out: getting more “mileage” out of your purchases
Reassess your criteria for replacing things. Replacing something simply because you’d like a change is a very expensive habit. It’s also a good way to end up with a cluttered home, which tends to make people unhappy.
And with a little extra care, things last even longer before they wear out. For example, a little Shoe Goo now, on that small area where the sole is starting to pull away from your shoe, will let you keep your shoes a lot longer. It will also save you from an unpleasant situation, like having it let go while you’re on vacation, or having your child trip on it and hurt himself at school.
Best of all, while you’re getting some extra mileage out of those shoes, you can start watching for the best sale price on your next pair, and be saving the money to buy them.
Make it Do and Discover a Happiness Bonus
The trick to “making it do” is to take better care of it, in the first place. So much of what we buy is intended to be disposable, but you can often enjoy it again, if you put it away clean and carefully.
Every holiday, stores bombard us with a dizzying array decorations. According to real estate website Rocket Homes,
“The average American reported spending a median of… $75 per year on holiday decorations in 2021.”
Buying and using them is fun; but do you really want to be out $750 in the next ten years, just from Christmas frills? Besides, you’re actually missing out on a nice experience, if you buy new ones every time. I’ve always loved it when a holiday rolls around, and I can retrieve the box for that day from my cellar or attic. Even my kids, now older, enjoy reminiscing, as one treasure after another is unwrapped from its newspaper.
A few years ago, I noticed a small pine tree had sprung up by the side of the road. I decided to treat my neighbors to some Christmas fun by quietly decorating the tree with a few packages of decorations from the dollar store. It cost me $3 to please my neighbors that year; but by “making them do” for more than one Christmas, I’ve been able to sustain the tradition (yeah, they liked it) for $0 – $1 a year. I affix the bows and shiny balls to the branches using my surplus of twist ties. After Christmas, I clip them off with wire cutters, discard the ties, clean them off with a rag, and pack them right into a shoebox for next year. Since I throw out any pieces that are damaged, I may grab a replacement pack at an after-Christmas sale, and add it to the shoebox. The overall effect looks great to people passing by in the car or hurrying by in the cold air. Nobody notices that the decorations aren’t brand-new; they’re just happy to see a bit of color and cheer against the bleak, grey, New England landscape.
Do Without: when less is more
I certainly could’ve done without decorating the neighborhood Charlie Brown tree, but the joy was priceless. I used to buy a few new things every year for my own tree; but I’ve given that up. We have so many ornaments now. These days, I only buy an ornament if I really love it. After doing this the past few years, I’m enjoying my ornaments a lot more, and my supply is starting to thin out to a more reasonable amount, as old ones reach the end of their usefulness. Besides, at some point, I’m counting on grandchildren, and I want to have room on my tree for their precious creations.
Resources for Further Exploration
Ideas on fighting food waste from the USFDA
