• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Free From Broke

A Personal Finance Blog for Regular Folks

  • Home
  • Personal Finance
  • Debt
  • Saving
  • Investing
    • Best Online Brokerages
  • Taxes
  • Credit Scores

Child Care

What We’re Doing To Adjust To One Income

Published or updated May 6, 2013 by Glen Craig

Contando Dinheiro

As I told you yesterday we’re moving from a two income family to one income. This will take some adjusting on our part.  If you’re considering moving from two incomes to one you should check out 9 Tips For Going To One Income from PT Money.

Among the things we have done so far to adjust:

  • Changed my 401(k) contributions – I was contributing more than the company match for my 401(k).  I’ve now lowered it to the company match.  Anything lower than the company match and I would be missing out on free money.
  • Roth IRA contributions – We lowered our monthly contribution to our Roth IRA’s.  Yes it’s important to save for retirement but for right now we need to make sure we can handle our new budget constraints.  If we find we have enough left over we’ll up the amount.
  • 529 Plans – Again, it’s important that our kids are able to go to college but having money now is more important.  We didn’t eliminate contributions, just lowered them.
  • Tax Withholding – With my wife not working I plan to change my tax withholding so I can keep more of my paycheck.  We’re waiting to hear back from our accountant for advice on what we should set my withholding for.
  • Health Care – Our health care was through my wife’s job.  I’ll have to switch it over to my company’s once my wife’s coverage officially ends.  This will cost us as my wife had free coverage and I don’t.  We had to keep this in mind when we worked out our budget.
  • Look for ways to trim expenses – The Starbucks days are coming to an end.  And now when we go to Target or BJ’s we’ll go in with a set list of things we need and not buy things we want.
  • Work on finding alternate sources of income – We’re keeping an eye out to see if there are any ways to earn some extra money.  I’d love to say this site would help support us but blogging isn’t as lucrative as some make it out to be.
  • Go through all of our monthly bills/expenses – We made sure to see where our money was going monthly.  We didn’t want to build a budget then find out we skipped something that would make us go over.  Make sure you check for any automatic contributions or payments you may have set up!

This will be a big adjustment for us but it will be worth it.  We’ve saved and planned and budgeted and I think we’ll be fine.  A little tighter than we used to be but fine.

Do you have any other ideas?

Sign up with ING Direct and get a $25 bonus

Creative Commons License photo credit: Jeff Belmonte

Filed Under: Kids, Personal Finance Tagged With: Budget, Child Care, Frugal, One Income Family

What Is Raising A Child Worth – We’re Going To One Income

Published or updated May 6, 2013 by Glen Craig

island hopping

What is it worth to raise your child? Is it worth giving up an income?  For us the answer will be yes.  First the first time in a long while my wife will not be heading back to work this September (she works in education).  Instead she will be staying home to raise our little guy and our princess (19 months and 8 yrs old respectively).  This wasn’t an easy decision for us.  Giving up her income will require us to be a lot more frugal and we’ll really have to watch our spending now.  Our future savings will also decrease as we won’t have as much to put away.  We have  a nice cushion already and I think we can do this; it just requires us to change our lifestyle.

Here is why we’re moving to one income:

  • Child Care Cost – We were paying a LOT in child care.  And yet for all we were paying our son was getting sick way too often, catching bugs from the other kids at day care.  Not that the day care was bad; it’s just inevitable that a child gets sick and spreads it around.
  • Sick Days – My wife took a lot of sick days during the last school year.  As I mentioned the little guy was getting sick a lot.  Day care is supposed to help us go to work but it was causing a lot of stress instead.  Let’s face it, it’s painful seeing your child sick and not be able to do much about it.  And my wife was getting to a point where her sick days were going to start costing her.
  • Stress of getting around and making arrangements – Mornings were hectic to say the least in our home.  Getting two kids ready and getting to work on time s a big deal.  The evening before we had to make sure everything was prepared and laid out for the next day.  Then there’s actually dropping the little guy off and picking him up (sitting in traffic, finding a spot, etc…).  Ever leave you child with someone else and have him cry for you?  It will break your heart!  We also had to find arrangements for our daughter after school for a good part of the year.  And because I was dropping her off in the morning I was getting to work and leaving later.
  • Enjoying raising our children – Last on this list but first in our hearts, the main reason for my wife staying home to raise the kids is because we feel it’s the right thing to do.  We feel strongly about being there for our children in their formative years.  My wife originally intended to take more time out when the little guy was born but she ended up going back anyway.  Now she will take the time off to be there for them.

It’s a shame that in today’s economy having a parent stay at home to raise the kids has to be a difficult decision.  When did it switch from a second income being gravy to it being just about necessary?

Stay tuned to see what we have done so far to adjust to one income!

Have you moved from two incomes to one?  How is it working for you?

Creative Commons License photo credit: quarxdmz

Filed Under: Kids, Life, Personal Finance Tagged With: Child Care, One Income Family

Primary Sidebar

A Little About Me

Glen CraigI'm Glen Craig - I used to live paycheck-to-paycheck, drowning in credit card debt. I turned that all around and now I build wealth rather than debt.

My goal is to make personal finance easy for you.

More ABOUT me.

Join our email list (FREE) and never miss an article!


Free From Broke as seen on

Follow Us

FacebookGoogleTwitterRSS



Follow @freefrombroke

Top Articles

  • Use Google Calendar To Pay Your Bills On Time
  • 9 Things to Do When You Retire
  • Side Hustle-Make Extra Money Cleaning Homes
  • Four Ways You Can Pay Off Your Home Mortgage Faster
  • Don’t Forget Your 401(k) When You Leave Your Job! Here’s What You Can Do With It
  • Your 4 Step Guide on How to Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck
  • What Is A Mortgage Escrow Account?
  • This is Why Your House Isn’t Selling – Here’s How to Finally Get Your House Sold
  • 7 Ways to Get Rich Quick
  • What is Renter’s Insurance and Why You Need It
  • What Is a Probate Lawyer and When Would You Use One?

Recent Articles

  • Money Market Account VS Savings Account – What’s the Difference?
  • Five Ways Fantasy Baseball is Like Personal Finance
  • Tools to Help Organize Your Taxes
  • Don't Let Your Goals Fizzle Out! - 5 Reasons Goals Fail, and What You Can Do To Make Yours Succeed
  • What Do You Think of New Year's Resolutions?

Tools to Improve Your Finances

  • Online High Yield Savings
  • All About Online Checking Accounts – Why Pay More Fees Than You Have To
  • Personal Capital Review - A One Stop Financial Center
  • Online Brokerages That Won't Break Your Bank
  • Credit Karma Review - Get Your Credit Score and More
  • CD Rates
  • Savings Rates
  • Mortgage and Refinance Rates
TurboTax Review HR Block Review Shoeboxed Review

Follow Us On Pinterest!

Follow Free From Broke's board Most RePinned and Popular {Free From Broke} on Pinterest.

Footer

More

  • About
  • Archives
  • Contact Us
  • Get Our Newsletter

More Recent Articles

  • Think Long Term When Shopping Black Friday and Cyber Monday
  • 10 Essential Tips For Shopping Black Friday And Cyber Monday That Will Save You Money
  • How to Improve Your Credit Score Fast
  • What is a Refund Anticipation Loan (RAL) and is it Worth It?
  • Paying Taxes with a Credit Card: Pros and Cons

Disclaimer

Free From Broke is for general information or entertainment purposes only and does not constitute professional financial advice. Be smart and do your own research or contact an independent financial professional for advice regarding your specific situation.

In accordance with FTC guidelines, we state that we have a financial relationship with companies mentioned in this website. This may include receiving access to free products and services for product and service reviews and giveaways.

© 2007–2025 Free From Broke A Personal Finance Blog For Regular Folks – All rights reserved.

No content on this site may be reused in any fashion without written permission from FreeFromBroke.com | Privacy Policy | Sitemap

Copyright © 2025 · Metro Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in settings.

Go to mobile version
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.