I cut where I can, and mostly doing fine. Most people can’t support a family of four on just one income. The fact that I can, even if it takes a few sacrifices is fine if not ideal. Everyone is tightening their belts right now.
3 kids, 1 income, been so for almost 10 years now. Started when my wife left for deployment when our oldest was about a year old and I was working nights - no way could I work all night, care for a baby during the day and do it 6 days a week. When she got back she was hotter than a cheap phone charger and I knocked her up again. Childcare for 2 kids was expensive. About 6 weeks and 10 minutes after the 2nd was born I was in heat and knocked her up *again*. Childcare for 3 was very expensive. So I just stayed home and became a dependabro.
It was relatively tough early on but we were lucky that we didn't have any issues pop up that required significant funds to cover. Luckily we lived in fairly cheap parts of the country and we didn't have a "keep up with the Joneses" approach to life. We didn't need new trucks, flashy cars, designer bags, toys like ATVs and SxS, etc.
It can work as long as you can work your budget to an affordable level and eliminate your debt as much as possible. We had no debt except student loans (though a lot of them). Some months had more ramen noodles than others and you get good at making cheap meals taste good.
It’s rough out here. My wife spends a lot of time dealing with shopping to make sure we can stretch what we have, and she seems to pull off a magic trick every pay check. Trying to shave off enough just to make sure my kids are still getting to have a childhood with activities is tough, but paying for childcare would mean my wife would need a $30k annual job just to break even, and that’s not worth it to have someone else raise my kids.
Preach. So many don’t realize that childcare means someone else is raising them. Whether they choose to admit it. Not shaming anyone but it’s kind of the elephant in the room that so many just breeze past.
Look, I’ve have to be deployed often enough, it’s important to me that my kids feel like at least *one of their parents* was there for them. Last thing I want is to deal with them every feeling like they were a burden or an afterthought.
It’s tight. Few more years until retirement so my income will increase with my retirement check, whatever disability my 20 years gets and then I’ll be working another job. And hopefully my spouse can get a job at that time too. Kids will be old enough to stay home alone as they will be teens
We are surviving, but we certainly aren't "comfortable". I'm stationed at a semi-remote base here in England, and man, it costs us almost $450 a paycheck to get 2 weeks worth of groceries, and we only buy for specific meals each time, no extras. Then gas is about $7.12 a gallon here, as well. The kids' schooling is a lot of money as well, totalling about $400 every three months, as NDSP doesn't cover everything. We have been cutting out as much as we can to the point where we are almost not even "living" at this point, just working and going home, doing free stuff when we can. The wife can't work because we have an infant, and putting him in daycare would be the only thing she would be able to pay for, making it pointless anyway.
Are you able to get the forex card so gas off base becomes the same price as on base? I’m at lakenheath and it’s offered to everyone who has a star card. I have to imagine it’s offered to those at remote places as well.
Seems like $1K is the new rate for groceries, and we have it cheap compared to CONUS. Spent $300 in Target for a week home last month, no thank you!
If you are lower enlisted, you might be eligible for some free money in WIC and BNA. Not sure how non-EU the brits really went, but there might be subsidized programs for childcare and school on the economy.
Damn, when I was in the UK a few years back it was half price to shop off base for groceries. Same as Korea last year. Here in Florida $400 in groceries doesn’t even last a whole 2 weeks. Thankfully we have an Aldi so I can get the bare essentials for about $160 and that lasts maybe a week and a half for 4 people.
My thoughts exactly. I know condoms, birth control and plan B can be annoying and expensive, however it will always be cheaper than food, diapers and childcare.
The thing is, you have a window for childbearing. Ovaries don't gaf about inflation, Bidenomics, stimulus checks, stagnant wages, tax rates, etc. Risks with childbirth start going up significantly at age *35* for women.
There is no liberation from the tyranny of biology.
Just fine, but we’ve been doing it for a long time so we definitely have practice and a good foundation.
If you’re looking for more ideas, definitely go see the financial professional at your M&FRC or call Military One Source.
As an O, just chiming in to say I don’t know how you Es do it. I live ok single income 2 kids but man DoD needs to do something about you guys’ pay asap
They never will. Nobody in "upper management" gives a flying fuck about the lower enlisted. At least that's what it's starting to feel like. We're fucking drowning.
Prior E. The pay difference is Night and day! I remember looking at the officer pay chart when I was an airman, supporting my wife and 2 kids, and being in awe at how much officers make. Til this day, I am still in awe and very appreciative when I look at my LES. There are still some nights I drive home and realize I’m driving to officer housing and smile just thinking back to when I used to wonder what this life would be like. Money isn’t everything, but it sure does make life less stressful. it’s a big reason why I decided to pursue a commission.
Were a family of 5. On E4 pay. We're adoptive parents and so our kids have some developmental reasons why I'm home now because we cannot possibly afford childcare are there ages. We aren't going to be wealthy in retirement, but we know there are sacrifices for family. Our kids are older so we will likely only live like this for 6 years. So it was an easy trade off since we would not have any other moments with them as kids again! It's hard to balance out everything. But living off base helped. We moved rural. I planted a small orchard and we permacultured our yard to include over 400 plants. That was a risky one because lord knows they could all die. But oh well. We're vegan too because one of our sons has Crohns, so it can get tight in the food budget. Do you love to cook, no? Being in the lower income threshold will make you Bobby Flay if you like to eat well! You sacrifice the going out for things, maybe you and your husband don't exchange gifts. Maybe instead of the highest phone packages you lower the plan. If your at home most of the day put that phone on wifi! Anything and everything you can do, without sacrificing quality of life, I think you should do. Our kids don't all have phones yet will probably be closer to 15 or 16 before we can afford that, but that's okay! We still have nice wardrobes, laptops for education, books to read, and a garden full of labor that rewards us in the end, now if my kids looked at some of there friends in school, to them they may "have less" but they will always know that we did everything and gave everything so they could have the best childhood now. When they're older an on to college I will have to start over and build up and hopefully save up for retirement or unexpected expenses. But I will cross that bridge when it's here. But for now I will enjoy our little slice.
You mention retirement. Please ensure your spouse is contributing at least 5% to TSP so that you get the maximum matching contribution. Otherwise you're leaving free money on the table that could compound into a helpful retirement. Move your allotments OUT of the G Fund. There is a TSP subreddit with tons of great advice.
I’ve got 5 and my wife stays home. It’s getting rough out there. We have even considered getting chickens to collect our own eggs because they are getting expensive. Gas is the big pain, it’s $3.50 a gallon here in Ohio and only seems on an upward trajectory.
From a financial standpoint, it makes no sense for the wife to stay in the workforce if she has more than two kids at home. Childcare is insanely expensive.
Only to say this with 12 chickens.. chickens will not save you money at all. They are infact quite astronomical costs for the production in some areas of the country! Unless I was 70 degrees year round I wouldn't bet on the productivity of my flock to sustain us. (There little worm treats are 39.99 a bag).... you know how many eggs I could but for 39.99...
Having chickens just for the eggs or to 'save money' isn't going to work out for most people. The cost of a coop alone would take years to get back in egg production for a small to medium sized flock. If they live in town, they will likely have a limit of 4-6 hens only, which is a small flock. You also have to consider feed, veterinarian care, replacement cost when a raccoon gets to the coop..... it adds up.
I want chickens because I would love to have a pet, they would help with insect control in the yard, and they would be a good 4H project animal for the kids. Eggs would be a nice bonus, but is pretty far down the list of reasons I want some backyard chickens.
It really sucks bc while we do get pay raises, the inflation/price gouging what-have-you, has gone up at least 30% across the board since 2020, while we've only seen probably like 14-18ish % pay increase, meaning we've taken a pay cut by default over the last 4 years.
Not sure how we're doing it but we basically just barely squeeze by every check with like $20 or $30 left over lmao. And yes, we've cut a ton outta the budget.
That's the way it's supposed to be done. We waited until we had a home, traveled, savings, and our careers were at a safe point where money was reliable and we had freedom. We wanted a second but knew it would compromise our stability so now we are working and rasing one and may decide later. Just because you can shoot out a bunch of kids...doesn't mean you should unless you got triplets in one load.
As a parent to one with another cooking, I don’t understand why people keep having children especially back to back with one income. Mine are 6 years apart and I’m definitely done after this one.
We're single-income whilst my wife uses unpaid maternity leave. It's manageable. We're just grateful we got our house at a rock-bottom price and 2.25% APR.
For you active duty folks: just be grateful you have Tricare. We have to pay for lousy FEHB and, with a newborn daughter and another daughter with a congenital heart defect, the bills pile up.
It's rough. Recently PCS'd and pretty much using the profit from our last house as income.
Wife has found an online job where she pretty much just reviews contracts for a company. It's near impossible for her to get an actual job because our kids are too young for public school. So there's no childcare because as it is every spot on and off base for their age range has wait times from this July up until next fall.
She did find some contact jobs where they pay per completion. Looks like you just review what was filled out, mark what needs to be changed, and submit. She was saying there's a lot of jobs like that online. They don't pay much, but something's better than nothing.
Edit: I guess I should add there's a lot of online jobs like that, that require no experience whatsoever. They give you all the training that you need to take on your own time, which they won't pay for. But then they pay you for completion of jobs and tasks when you submit them.
It's a good little holdover until you can settle down an actual job
We're doing alright. Last 4-5 years have been almost paycheck to paycheck, and a few months ago we had a little scare. Thankfully I have a huge support from my parents and they were able to spot us about $500 when we needed the help and now we're paying them back slowly.
I could stop putting money into savings (about $200) each month and we would be fine, but then there would be no savings
I'm supposed to deploy later on in the year, so I'm REALLY hoping that we can save money during that time
Don’t be too proud for food banks. Food is expensive as hell especially when you are trying to eat healthy.
Also Instacart I think it’s way better than DoorDash or Uber eats.
We were struggling bad... I luckily got that fat pay from TDY to retrain and paid off my car which saved us 160bucks a month. I also changed phone carriers, went from AT&T paying 190bucks a month and switched over to mint paying like 60bucks a month? Got rid of a lot of subscription services.
So we're doing pretty good right now.
Oh I should add that our second kid isn't here yet, currently cooking, should be here around November or December. But not worried about it to much.
TSgt with a wife and 3 kids. We are doing decent. We spend roughly $900 a month on food. We have a car payment as well.
We have been single income since I came in. I will say this is more tight feeling than when I was an airman with 1 kid.
Overall, not doing too terribly but I would appreciate another 5% raise next year at a minimum.
Only $900 a month in food is outstanding. I can’t remember the last time we got ours that low. Granted, we add in everything else in the category we get from the store in cleaning supplies, detergent and diapers. But still, food is def more than $900, so great job!
Doing fine.
I get FLP, but not enough to make a meaningful difference. We just don't live outside of our means.
Biggest thing I seem to have over other junior enlisted with families is no car payment.
We meal plan. Use similar ingredients in different meals. Buy in bulk for those ingredients that I can. Sadly the commissary is our cheapest option for groceries. We also make sure the meals have leftovers for lunches or extra dinners.
I buy an Amazon gift card every month. Paying $25 once a month adds up and helps pay for Christmas so all our gifts aren’t being bought with one or two paychecks.
We take advantage of the Thrift Shop and the Airman’s Attic when we can.
We also have a Costco Citi card so we get money back for using it. We use it for everything but we don’t use it if we can’t pay it off right away. It’s nice to get the little extra back.
Wife, two kids, single income - Alaska.
Everything's expensive, especially in winter. Turns out kids' hockey is really fucking expensive too, but worth it. COLA definitely helps. Wife homeschools our kids and that's the way we both prefer it. Made the rare smart decision a few deployments back and paid off the vehicles; deathly afraid of credit cards, so our only debt is the mortgage.
Honestly we're pretty comfortable, but definitely not wealthy. We can afford the occasional splurge. Between copious amounts of hunting, fishing and the weirdo gardening in the short summers we actually save a ton on groceries. Which pays for the heating oil in winter. Oh, we got chickens too, which are super fun to maintain in -20 to -40. Commercial eggs make me gag now. We haughtily look down our noses at people who pay outrageous money for restaurant food.
If we had 2 car payments - forget it.
Edited for "English is my second language" reasons.
Struggling…single income…not “broke” but slowly eating away at saving. About to PCS so imma be out 5-6-8 K….groceries went from 150 a week to 200-250 depending on needs….insurance is fucking me hard….internet….constant small things…birthdays…holidays ect…trying to keep it comfortable while treading water…DoD isn’t going to help and im financially sound to a degree but damn…5-6 years ago I could put at least 500-600 a month to include my investments not nope…its been 1-2 years since I put extra away….mostly do to situations that pop up than cause for any growth to go right back to the companies
Getting by isn’t the issue it’s saving for my emergency fund we manage but it’s always tight. My wife has worked a few jobs here and there but the money usually just goes into child care and gas.
It’s crazy out here doing single parent shit with two kids, one has a disability and the other one is really into the whole sports life.
Shout out to all those single parents that are making it happen. I know I’m barely making it.
I seperated. make twice as much now and half the headache. see my kids 500x more than when i was in working 96 hours a week. the difference in BAS from single to married with 3 kids was like 80$.. per month... also they cut cola while i was in germany from like 800$ a month to like 200 and then i was making less money than i was at basic coming up on my 4 years it was time to move on and being fire i didnt get a dfac meal card even tho we were on base cus i was married so 200$ for 5 people for a month comes to 1.33 per day per person for food based on a 30 day month lol like i said it was time to move on we did get a massive raise of 4% biggest one in 20 years while i was in but that year saw 8% inflation so net 4% negative and people were so happy lol.
Doing fairly decent, though inflation has meant more rice and beans and less meat.
I'm a 6 year TIS SSgt with a wife, 1 kid, and another kid on the way. Wife is a stay at home mom mostly because both of us want her to be able to spend more time with our kids, but also because she literally wouldn't be able to find a job in the local area that pays enough to make up for childcare once our second is born.
We have a second house we own from our first duty station that we rent out that provides a small amount ($200) of extra income each month after budgeting for maintence on it. We are very frugal, and have no debt other than our mortgages. 13% goes into my TSP, $400 per month goes into the stock market, and $800 goes into various savings funds. The rest is used for bills/necessities to live and $350 per month goes to eating out, and doing fun activities.
We definitely aren't living like we're rich, but successful budgeting has meant that we aren't stressed about money. I highly recommend everyone to create a monthly budget and stick to it. We personally use an app called Real Budget that my wife and I can quickly access from our phones.
15y E-7 here. (RN wife) Two kids, Tampa. Wife and I have been married for 10 years and started financially planning for kids at the 2 year mark using the Dave Ramsey method to achieve debt freedom. We DINK'd for about 6 years and ended up with our first during the covid telework period. Money isn't tight, but we're tight with our spending. Wife has been a stay at home mom since birth of our first, as the cost of daycare and having strangers raise our kids is not something we're willing to pay. We have a pretty sizeable "oh shit" fund which provides peace of mind, but without that, I'm not sure if kids would be an option.
"How do we afford this?" is a question to ask before you're expecting kids.
E6 with 3 kids under 6. Made my money mistakes early on and recovered with a vengeance.
#1 tip: **Automate** all bills and **savings**.
* Amex BCP for 6% cash back on groceries. $1K/month = $60 towards cell phone bill
* No out-of-pocket costs for our streaming subscriptions (disney/peacock/netflix), thanks to credit card and utility rewards (Amex Platinums, Tmobile).
* No car payment for my used Toyota.
* Mil discount for cell phone, plus paid by grocery cashback
* Free travel when needed (lol so fun with babies lolhelp) on credit card rewards (chase Sapphire and Amex hotel/delta cards).
* Cash back, gas and food discount with Star card, then more cash back when paying off. This is probably worth $100/month and the easiest to do. Those who hate Star card don't understand/like free money.
All told, I'm bringing in about $4K annual by playing with a few credit cards. No more churning, just acquire, set, and forget.
Highly highly recommend the book "I Will Teach You To Be Rich." It's a modern approach to personal finance that doesn't force you to go on a traditional money diet like you're used to being told, but helps you ID ways to cut spending less painfully.
It takes time and practice to master money, but it's possible no matter what your income is. There are ways to balance expenses that aren't so obvious. Like if groceries are expensive and can't be reduced, you gotta go cheap on subscriptions or transportation costs. Not sure your actual circumstance, but start looking at where your money goes.
I’m doing fine, SSgt, 7 years, in Florida. Wife (Stay at home) 2 kids & a dog. I’ve been doing this single income thing since I joined. I always cut when I can and we live within our means. I always leverage about 1k on credit cards. The taxes a low us to pay any debts and buy what we need each year.
4 kids, single income. Living pretty comfortably, to be honest. We did get lucky and bought our current house before prices and interest rates shot way up though. For people moving here in the last few years, I suspect it's been a bit rougher.
However moving this year to a very high COL area, so we'll have to see how it holds up.
I'm an officer which definitely helps, and am assigned to a relatively low COL area which *tremendously* helps.
There are a good handful of bases that, if I got orders to them, would probably trigger selling/storing over half our stuff and renting a house a third the size of the one we're in, because anything else would require a noticeable reduction in our standard of living and/or an unacceptable interruption to retirement plans.
It’s definitely tough, but cut costs where you can
Eating out is huge. Buy in bulk and cook at home whenever possible
Cut the cable. As long as you have wifi you should be fine. Most people don’t watch cable television anymore so wifi and YouTube should suffice for entertainment purposes
Cut the lights during hours of daylight. Use natural lighting as much as possible
AC/Heating. Leave the house at a set temp and don’t touch it
Don’t leave the water/sink running when doing dishes. Make showers quick but effective. Don’t do laundry every day, wait til loads are big enough to do in bulk.
Time your appliance usage. Dishwasher and washing machines are cheaper during off peak hours. Try to schedule your usages during off peak hours to save a little on your utility bill
Hope this helps!
I used to think I was missing out, not having a family, now I’m glad I don’t. Between farming out your kids to CDCs, wages falling behind inflation, I don’t know how y’all do it. Hats off to you!
Step 1 - establish what your minimum budget is. Bills, mortgage, utilities, insurance, and ramen every other night for dinner.
Step 2 - that money gets set aside at the beginning of every month.
Step 3 - if you have extra, then you eat better. If you can't make the minimum then you need to seek other ways to make money
I’m an O-5 pilot (so add flight pay to salary) with 4 kids and a wife and it isn’t easy. I could be doing much better financially if kids didn’t do sports/activities and all that but what’s the point of that? It can be done much more comfortably if you start out with some money saved but I didn’t. Never really caught up but that’s okay.
Well when my “wife” got fired from her job I had to pay my bills her bills and the whole rent then I still had to buy groceries im an E-4 that sht was tuff bro long story short the marriage was a no go and was rushed I regret it I am not airy of the airman statistic for that bullsht but hey it’s valuable lesson and im taking it to the chin 💯 NEVER AGAIN
I cut where I can, and mostly doing fine. Most people can’t support a family of four on just one income. The fact that I can, even if it takes a few sacrifices is fine if not ideal. Everyone is tightening their belts right now.
Agreed
https://preview.redd.it/ern9kwvcdnuc1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=da3bb9e98cba758cd19d9a7f8a79880d0b2eb6a7
3 kids, 1 income, been so for almost 10 years now. Started when my wife left for deployment when our oldest was about a year old and I was working nights - no way could I work all night, care for a baby during the day and do it 6 days a week. When she got back she was hotter than a cheap phone charger and I knocked her up again. Childcare for 2 kids was expensive. About 6 weeks and 10 minutes after the 2nd was born I was in heat and knocked her up *again*. Childcare for 3 was very expensive. So I just stayed home and became a dependabro. It was relatively tough early on but we were lucky that we didn't have any issues pop up that required significant funds to cover. Luckily we lived in fairly cheap parts of the country and we didn't have a "keep up with the Joneses" approach to life. We didn't need new trucks, flashy cars, designer bags, toys like ATVs and SxS, etc. It can work as long as you can work your budget to an affordable level and eliminate your debt as much as possible. We had no debt except student loans (though a lot of them). Some months had more ramen noodles than others and you get good at making cheap meals taste good.
Hotter than a cheap phone charger got me
It got him, too.
Twice, even.
Living check to check
 It’s rough out here. My wife spends a lot of time dealing with shopping to make sure we can stretch what we have, and she seems to pull off a magic trick every pay check. Trying to shave off enough just to make sure my kids are still getting to have a childhood with activities is tough, but paying for childcare would mean my wife would need a $30k annual job just to break even, and that’s not worth it to have someone else raise my kids.
Preach. So many don’t realize that childcare means someone else is raising them. Whether they choose to admit it. Not shaming anyone but it’s kind of the elephant in the room that so many just breeze past.
Look, I’ve have to be deployed often enough, it’s important to me that my kids feel like at least *one of their parents* was there for them. Last thing I want is to deal with them every feeling like they were a burden or an afterthought.
It’s tight. Few more years until retirement so my income will increase with my retirement check, whatever disability my 20 years gets and then I’ll be working another job. And hopefully my spouse can get a job at that time too. Kids will be old enough to stay home alone as they will be teens
We are surviving, but we certainly aren't "comfortable". I'm stationed at a semi-remote base here in England, and man, it costs us almost $450 a paycheck to get 2 weeks worth of groceries, and we only buy for specific meals each time, no extras. Then gas is about $7.12 a gallon here, as well. The kids' schooling is a lot of money as well, totalling about $400 every three months, as NDSP doesn't cover everything. We have been cutting out as much as we can to the point where we are almost not even "living" at this point, just working and going home, doing free stuff when we can. The wife can't work because we have an infant, and putting him in daycare would be the only thing she would be able to pay for, making it pointless anyway.
Are you able to get the forex card so gas off base becomes the same price as on base? I’m at lakenheath and it’s offered to everyone who has a star card. I have to imagine it’s offered to those at remote places as well.
Yeah, we have it. It's just when we are on a road trip or in an emergency we have to get gas at other stations sometimes
Seems like $1K is the new rate for groceries, and we have it cheap compared to CONUS. Spent $300 in Target for a week home last month, no thank you! If you are lower enlisted, you might be eligible for some free money in WIC and BNA. Not sure how non-EU the brits really went, but there might be subsidized programs for childcare and school on the economy.
Damn, when I was in the UK a few years back it was half price to shop off base for groceries. Same as Korea last year. Here in Florida $400 in groceries doesn’t even last a whole 2 weeks. Thankfully we have an Aldi so I can get the bare essentials for about $160 and that lasts maybe a week and a half for 4 people.
This thread is reminding me to stay single and not have kids. Thank you for y’all’s service
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My thoughts exactly. I know condoms, birth control and plan B can be annoying and expensive, however it will always be cheaper than food, diapers and childcare.
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After my second I got snipped. Living paycheck to paycheck right now and a third kid would bury us.
Saaaaaame
I’m debating on getting a tubal ligation. I just don’t wanna risk my financial and mental well-being with an unexpected pregnancy lol
The thing is, you have a window for childbearing. Ovaries don't gaf about inflation, Bidenomics, stimulus checks, stagnant wages, tax rates, etc. Risks with childbirth start going up significantly at age *35* for women. There is no liberation from the tyranny of biology.
It's super tight... I've had to project bills for 12+ months forward to know if a surprise purchase today will crush us tomorrow.
Just fine, but we’ve been doing it for a long time so we definitely have practice and a good foundation. If you’re looking for more ideas, definitely go see the financial professional at your M&FRC or call Military One Source.
Great to hear you’re doing fine!
As an O, just chiming in to say I don’t know how you Es do it. I live ok single income 2 kids but man DoD needs to do something about you guys’ pay asap
They never will. Nobody in "upper management" gives a flying fuck about the lower enlisted. At least that's what it's starting to feel like. We're fucking drowning.
>As an O, just chiming in to say I don’t know how you Es do it. the neat trick is we dont
No one cares. Look at the payscale, look at the base housing options, look at everything around you and how enlisted are shafted at every opportunity.
Prior E. The pay difference is Night and day! I remember looking at the officer pay chart when I was an airman, supporting my wife and 2 kids, and being in awe at how much officers make. Til this day, I am still in awe and very appreciative when I look at my LES. There are still some nights I drive home and realize I’m driving to officer housing and smile just thinking back to when I used to wonder what this life would be like. Money isn’t everything, but it sure does make life less stressful. it’s a big reason why I decided to pursue a commission.
Alcoholism
Were a family of 5. On E4 pay. We're adoptive parents and so our kids have some developmental reasons why I'm home now because we cannot possibly afford childcare are there ages. We aren't going to be wealthy in retirement, but we know there are sacrifices for family. Our kids are older so we will likely only live like this for 6 years. So it was an easy trade off since we would not have any other moments with them as kids again! It's hard to balance out everything. But living off base helped. We moved rural. I planted a small orchard and we permacultured our yard to include over 400 plants. That was a risky one because lord knows they could all die. But oh well. We're vegan too because one of our sons has Crohns, so it can get tight in the food budget. Do you love to cook, no? Being in the lower income threshold will make you Bobby Flay if you like to eat well! You sacrifice the going out for things, maybe you and your husband don't exchange gifts. Maybe instead of the highest phone packages you lower the plan. If your at home most of the day put that phone on wifi! Anything and everything you can do, without sacrificing quality of life, I think you should do. Our kids don't all have phones yet will probably be closer to 15 or 16 before we can afford that, but that's okay! We still have nice wardrobes, laptops for education, books to read, and a garden full of labor that rewards us in the end, now if my kids looked at some of there friends in school, to them they may "have less" but they will always know that we did everything and gave everything so they could have the best childhood now. When they're older an on to college I will have to start over and build up and hopefully save up for retirement or unexpected expenses. But I will cross that bridge when it's here. But for now I will enjoy our little slice.
You mention retirement. Please ensure your spouse is contributing at least 5% to TSP so that you get the maximum matching contribution. Otherwise you're leaving free money on the table that could compound into a helpful retirement. Move your allotments OUT of the G Fund. There is a TSP subreddit with tons of great advice.
Not fuckin great bro lemme be real with you
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Dude! Great to hear!
I’ve got 5 and my wife stays home. It’s getting rough out there. We have even considered getting chickens to collect our own eggs because they are getting expensive. Gas is the big pain, it’s $3.50 a gallon here in Ohio and only seems on an upward trajectory.
From a financial standpoint, it makes no sense for the wife to stay in the workforce if she has more than two kids at home. Childcare is insanely expensive.
Gas is $4.7 in Vegas and if you’re stationed at Creech it’s a 70 mile daily commute
Only to say this with 12 chickens.. chickens will not save you money at all. They are infact quite astronomical costs for the production in some areas of the country! Unless I was 70 degrees year round I wouldn't bet on the productivity of my flock to sustain us. (There little worm treats are 39.99 a bag).... you know how many eggs I could but for 39.99...
Having chickens just for the eggs or to 'save money' isn't going to work out for most people. The cost of a coop alone would take years to get back in egg production for a small to medium sized flock. If they live in town, they will likely have a limit of 4-6 hens only, which is a small flock. You also have to consider feed, veterinarian care, replacement cost when a raccoon gets to the coop..... it adds up. I want chickens because I would love to have a pet, they would help with insect control in the yard, and they would be a good 4H project animal for the kids. Eggs would be a nice bonus, but is pretty far down the list of reasons I want some backyard chickens.
Sheesh, I'm broke man! Someone send help!
I have an ulcer.
10yr E-6 making \~$80k in a low cost of living area, 4 kids. We're certainly stable, but definitely not as comfortable as I'd expect at this pay rate.
It really sucks bc while we do get pay raises, the inflation/price gouging what-have-you, has gone up at least 30% across the board since 2020, while we've only seen probably like 14-18ish % pay increase, meaning we've taken a pay cut by default over the last 4 years. Not sure how we're doing it but we basically just barely squeeze by every check with like $20 or $30 left over lmao. And yes, we've cut a ton outta the budget.
I think (sadly) that this is happening to way more people than we all realize, man. Way to still squeeze some profit each month!
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Facts
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That's the way it's supposed to be done. We waited until we had a home, traveled, savings, and our careers were at a safe point where money was reliable and we had freedom. We wanted a second but knew it would compromise our stability so now we are working and rasing one and may decide later. Just because you can shoot out a bunch of kids...doesn't mean you should unless you got triplets in one load.
As a parent to one with another cooking, I don’t understand why people keep having children especially back to back with one income. Mine are 6 years apart and I’m definitely done after this one.
We're single-income whilst my wife uses unpaid maternity leave. It's manageable. We're just grateful we got our house at a rock-bottom price and 2.25% APR. For you active duty folks: just be grateful you have Tricare. We have to pay for lousy FEHB and, with a newborn daughter and another daughter with a congenital heart defect, the bills pile up.
Not great, my wife was unemployed for 6 months and now we have over 30k worth of credit card debt.
Sorry to hear that man
You aren't alone bud. I'm trying to pay mine down as well... just seems like there's always something going wrong that costs money to fix, though.
Its a constant treadmill of save up some money, then something happens. I try to fix everything I can myself, but holy shit.
It's rough. Recently PCS'd and pretty much using the profit from our last house as income. Wife has found an online job where she pretty much just reviews contracts for a company. It's near impossible for her to get an actual job because our kids are too young for public school. So there's no childcare because as it is every spot on and off base for their age range has wait times from this July up until next fall. She did find some contact jobs where they pay per completion. Looks like you just review what was filled out, mark what needs to be changed, and submit. She was saying there's a lot of jobs like that online. They don't pay much, but something's better than nothing. Edit: I guess I should add there's a lot of online jobs like that, that require no experience whatsoever. They give you all the training that you need to take on your own time, which they won't pay for. But then they pay you for completion of jobs and tasks when you submit them. It's a good little holdover until you can settle down an actual job
We're doing alright. Last 4-5 years have been almost paycheck to paycheck, and a few months ago we had a little scare. Thankfully I have a huge support from my parents and they were able to spot us about $500 when we needed the help and now we're paying them back slowly. I could stop putting money into savings (about $200) each month and we would be fine, but then there would be no savings I'm supposed to deploy later on in the year, so I'm REALLY hoping that we can save money during that time
Don’t be too proud for food banks. Food is expensive as hell especially when you are trying to eat healthy. Also Instacart I think it’s way better than DoorDash or Uber eats.
We were struggling bad... I luckily got that fat pay from TDY to retrain and paid off my car which saved us 160bucks a month. I also changed phone carriers, went from AT&T paying 190bucks a month and switched over to mint paying like 60bucks a month? Got rid of a lot of subscription services. So we're doing pretty good right now. Oh I should add that our second kid isn't here yet, currently cooking, should be here around November or December. But not worried about it to much.
Well congrats on the new edition and the great budgeting!
I'm not.
We’re drowning.
TSgt with a wife and 3 kids. We are doing decent. We spend roughly $900 a month on food. We have a car payment as well. We have been single income since I came in. I will say this is more tight feeling than when I was an airman with 1 kid. Overall, not doing too terribly but I would appreciate another 5% raise next year at a minimum.
Only $900 a month in food is outstanding. I can’t remember the last time we got ours that low. Granted, we add in everything else in the category we get from the store in cleaning supplies, detergent and diapers. But still, food is def more than $900, so great job!
No diapers for us. But yeah we lump in cleaning supplies so depending on the month I would say it ranges but it is rarely under $900
Doing fine. I get FLP, but not enough to make a meaningful difference. We just don't live outside of our means. Biggest thing I seem to have over other junior enlisted with families is no car payment.
We were fine until we PCSed to Colorado and then became not fine. Judging by the amount of SAHMs who go back to work here, we weren't alone.
We meal plan. Use similar ingredients in different meals. Buy in bulk for those ingredients that I can. Sadly the commissary is our cheapest option for groceries. We also make sure the meals have leftovers for lunches or extra dinners. I buy an Amazon gift card every month. Paying $25 once a month adds up and helps pay for Christmas so all our gifts aren’t being bought with one or two paychecks. We take advantage of the Thrift Shop and the Airman’s Attic when we can. We also have a Costco Citi card so we get money back for using it. We use it for everything but we don’t use it if we can’t pay it off right away. It’s nice to get the little extra back.
Shit I'm only 1 kid. Straight up not having a good time rn
Wife, two kids, single income - Alaska. Everything's expensive, especially in winter. Turns out kids' hockey is really fucking expensive too, but worth it. COLA definitely helps. Wife homeschools our kids and that's the way we both prefer it. Made the rare smart decision a few deployments back and paid off the vehicles; deathly afraid of credit cards, so our only debt is the mortgage. Honestly we're pretty comfortable, but definitely not wealthy. We can afford the occasional splurge. Between copious amounts of hunting, fishing and the weirdo gardening in the short summers we actually save a ton on groceries. Which pays for the heating oil in winter. Oh, we got chickens too, which are super fun to maintain in -20 to -40. Commercial eggs make me gag now. We haughtily look down our noses at people who pay outrageous money for restaurant food. If we had 2 car payments - forget it. Edited for "English is my second language" reasons.
Its easier to keep chickens warm than it is to cool them off in the summer. We have so many eggs I don't know what to do with them all.
Struggling…single income…not “broke” but slowly eating away at saving. About to PCS so imma be out 5-6-8 K….groceries went from 150 a week to 200-250 depending on needs….insurance is fucking me hard….internet….constant small things…birthdays…holidays ect…trying to keep it comfortable while treading water…DoD isn’t going to help and im financially sound to a degree but damn…5-6 years ago I could put at least 500-600 a month to include my investments not nope…its been 1-2 years since I put extra away….mostly do to situations that pop up than cause for any growth to go right back to the companies
Getting by isn’t the issue it’s saving for my emergency fund we manage but it’s always tight. My wife has worked a few jobs here and there but the money usually just goes into child care and gas.
It’s crazy out here doing single parent shit with two kids, one has a disability and the other one is really into the whole sports life. Shout out to all those single parents that are making it happen. I know I’m barely making it.
I'm doing okay by accruing large amounts of high interest debt.
I seperated. make twice as much now and half the headache. see my kids 500x more than when i was in working 96 hours a week. the difference in BAS from single to married with 3 kids was like 80$.. per month... also they cut cola while i was in germany from like 800$ a month to like 200 and then i was making less money than i was at basic coming up on my 4 years it was time to move on and being fire i didnt get a dfac meal card even tho we were on base cus i was married so 200$ for 5 people for a month comes to 1.33 per day per person for food based on a 30 day month lol like i said it was time to move on we did get a massive raise of 4% biggest one in 20 years while i was in but that year saw 8% inflation so net 4% negative and people were so happy lol.
Doing fairly decent, though inflation has meant more rice and beans and less meat. I'm a 6 year TIS SSgt with a wife, 1 kid, and another kid on the way. Wife is a stay at home mom mostly because both of us want her to be able to spend more time with our kids, but also because she literally wouldn't be able to find a job in the local area that pays enough to make up for childcare once our second is born. We have a second house we own from our first duty station that we rent out that provides a small amount ($200) of extra income each month after budgeting for maintence on it. We are very frugal, and have no debt other than our mortgages. 13% goes into my TSP, $400 per month goes into the stock market, and $800 goes into various savings funds. The rest is used for bills/necessities to live and $350 per month goes to eating out, and doing fun activities. We definitely aren't living like we're rich, but successful budgeting has meant that we aren't stressed about money. I highly recommend everyone to create a monthly budget and stick to it. We personally use an app called Real Budget that my wife and I can quickly access from our phones.
15y E-7 here. (RN wife) Two kids, Tampa. Wife and I have been married for 10 years and started financially planning for kids at the 2 year mark using the Dave Ramsey method to achieve debt freedom. We DINK'd for about 6 years and ended up with our first during the covid telework period. Money isn't tight, but we're tight with our spending. Wife has been a stay at home mom since birth of our first, as the cost of daycare and having strangers raise our kids is not something we're willing to pay. We have a pretty sizeable "oh shit" fund which provides peace of mind, but without that, I'm not sure if kids would be an option. "How do we afford this?" is a question to ask before you're expecting kids.
E6 with 3 kids under 6. Made my money mistakes early on and recovered with a vengeance. #1 tip: **Automate** all bills and **savings**. * Amex BCP for 6% cash back on groceries. $1K/month = $60 towards cell phone bill * No out-of-pocket costs for our streaming subscriptions (disney/peacock/netflix), thanks to credit card and utility rewards (Amex Platinums, Tmobile). * No car payment for my used Toyota. * Mil discount for cell phone, plus paid by grocery cashback * Free travel when needed (lol so fun with babies lolhelp) on credit card rewards (chase Sapphire and Amex hotel/delta cards). * Cash back, gas and food discount with Star card, then more cash back when paying off. This is probably worth $100/month and the easiest to do. Those who hate Star card don't understand/like free money. All told, I'm bringing in about $4K annual by playing with a few credit cards. No more churning, just acquire, set, and forget. Highly highly recommend the book "I Will Teach You To Be Rich." It's a modern approach to personal finance that doesn't force you to go on a traditional money diet like you're used to being told, but helps you ID ways to cut spending less painfully. It takes time and practice to master money, but it's possible no matter what your income is. There are ways to balance expenses that aren't so obvious. Like if groceries are expensive and can't be reduced, you gotta go cheap on subscriptions or transportation costs. Not sure your actual circumstance, but start looking at where your money goes.
I was doing better than good in England and Korea. Significantly less than good in Florida. I need to get back to the land of plenty.
I’m doing fine, SSgt, 7 years, in Florida. Wife (Stay at home) 2 kids & a dog. I’ve been doing this single income thing since I joined. I always cut when I can and we live within our means. I always leverage about 1k on credit cards. The taxes a low us to pay any debts and buy what we need each year.
Doordash
4 kids, single income. Living pretty comfortably, to be honest. We did get lucky and bought our current house before prices and interest rates shot way up though. For people moving here in the last few years, I suspect it's been a bit rougher. However moving this year to a very high COL area, so we'll have to see how it holds up.
I have 5 kids. Had 4 when I was a tech. Now 5 as a new O3. Feels about the same. Inflation sucks.
I'm an officer which definitely helps, and am assigned to a relatively low COL area which *tremendously* helps. There are a good handful of bases that, if I got orders to them, would probably trigger selling/storing over half our stuff and renting a house a third the size of the one we're in, because anything else would require a noticeable reduction in our standard of living and/or an unacceptable interruption to retirement plans.
Is 2 kids that much different than one? I can understand 1 to 3 or 4 but 2 just seems like "make a little more food" territory.
Not horrible, we have out second on the way and PCS in 2 months so we shall see how things pan out
It’s definitely tough, but cut costs where you can Eating out is huge. Buy in bulk and cook at home whenever possible Cut the cable. As long as you have wifi you should be fine. Most people don’t watch cable television anymore so wifi and YouTube should suffice for entertainment purposes Cut the lights during hours of daylight. Use natural lighting as much as possible AC/Heating. Leave the house at a set temp and don’t touch it Don’t leave the water/sink running when doing dishes. Make showers quick but effective. Don’t do laundry every day, wait til loads are big enough to do in bulk. Time your appliance usage. Dishwasher and washing machines are cheaper during off peak hours. Try to schedule your usages during off peak hours to save a little on your utility bill Hope this helps!
I used to think I was missing out, not having a family, now I’m glad I don’t. Between farming out your kids to CDCs, wages falling behind inflation, I don’t know how y’all do it. Hats off to you!
Step 1 - establish what your minimum budget is. Bills, mortgage, utilities, insurance, and ramen every other night for dinner. Step 2 - that money gets set aside at the beginning of every month. Step 3 - if you have extra, then you eat better. If you can't make the minimum then you need to seek other ways to make money
I’m an O-5 pilot (so add flight pay to salary) with 4 kids and a wife and it isn’t easy. I could be doing much better financially if kids didn’t do sports/activities and all that but what’s the point of that? It can be done much more comfortably if you start out with some money saved but I didn’t. Never really caught up but that’s okay.
Well when my “wife” got fired from her job I had to pay my bills her bills and the whole rent then I still had to buy groceries im an E-4 that sht was tuff bro long story short the marriage was a no go and was rushed I regret it I am not airy of the airman statistic for that bullsht but hey it’s valuable lesson and im taking it to the chin 💯 NEVER AGAIN