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Living on One Income in a Two Income World: Part Two
by Teresa Higginbotham

Your Household Spending Because so many homeschooling families are also one income families, controlling household spending is vitally important. Homeschooling can take up the bulk of your day (why my house isn't all that clean!) but there are some things you can do to cut down on how much you spend keeping your family fed and taken care of. Grocery Shopping Keep track of prices--Do you shop at that super fab grocery store because it's so close and so well organized? Pick ten items you buy weekly and keep track of which store consistently offers the best price. Use coupons--They are a pain to cut out and keep track of but if you can find an item on sale and then use a coupon you really can get something for almost nothing. I get my coupons out and then check the sale pages to see how many "matches" I can get. I have even heard of people going from store to store to pick up the weekly specials. This only works if your stores are close enough together. Stock up--If you are careful you can find some great bargains by buying in bulk. If you don't have a separate freezer then start pricing them. You can save money and sometimes stretch a shopping trip to the end of the month by using up what's in the freezer first. Eat at home--I am amazed how many families eat out several times a week. Being a home educator and not at an outside job, you can still stick something in the crockpot--even on science fair days. Make eating out at a fast food place an academic treat. "If everyone gets all their spelling words right this week we will take a trip to get burgers." Of course at my house this could take a while. I better use history test instead. Try to plan out your menus week by week. If you already know you are making pork chops on Friday you won't be tempted to hit Al's Friend Chicken. Make a shopping list and use it. Here are some links for some printable shopping lists. Household Shopping List Meals in a Hurry Shopping List from Family Food Zone The Frugal Shopper List --One side is the grocery list, the other is a to do list Not only can you cook daily meals, but produce your own convenience foods. We bake cookies, make our own juice boxes out of recycled water bottles, have a special section in the freezer for homemade tv dinners and try to plan for those days when we are so busy we have no time to cook. Those are the days when it is very enticing to pick up a burger or order a pizza, having something cooking in the crockpot helps incredibly. Budgeting Do you have a monthly plan of expenditures? Are you creating college and retirement funds? All of these things can be done even on one income. The old saying "Those who fail to plan, plan to fail" is relevant here. If you know you buy curriculum at one certain time of the year, then plan create a curriculum fund account, (much like the old Christmas Club account idea). Save a little towards curriculum every month. We usually buy most of our curriculum in June for the next year. It hits our budget hard, so this last year I tried to buy curriculum over a three month period. Planning ahead for money crunches can be done for other things as well--dentist appointments, vet bills, house repairs, car repairs. Try to establish an emergency fund to handle unforeseen events. Even if you're just saving quarters out of the laundry, it's a start. Here are a few free printable budget forms to try to organize your monthly spending. Household Budget Excellent Budget form taking into account all those little expenses from the Denbigh Law Center Homepage Simple expenditure form-Bill/What you paid/what you owe. Finally, as we come to the new year, make one of your resolutions to find a way to put some money away this year. Make your to do list: Cook economically Yard sale, barter and think through purchases Budget Plan Ahead Would you like to read more on frugal living? Visit my other website Frugal Homeschooler and view over 100 articles on the subject in the article archive. © 2002 Teresa Higginbotham. All rights reserved. Re-printed with permission. This article originally posted on Suite 101.
Teresa Higginbotham is a frugal freelance writer and homeschooling mom from Texas

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