I am married with 3 kids. Our grocery bill is $400- $500 a month and I buy most of our food at henry’s or sprouts. Farmers markets in the area also have some great deals on produce. We don’t drink any soda and the kids don’t drink expensive juices since they can have a whole fruit instead. We drink milk and water. We eat meat sparingly and usually get chicken or fish on sale.
For children’s clothing, you can find nice clothes at resale stores. Check out http://www.childrensorchard.com or http://www.ouac.com . Children’s Orchard and Once Upon a Child are great! La Costa Kids is also a nice place with some of the designer labels. I get my kids clothes at those places and nobody can tell – they don’t look like thrift store clothes.
I was determined to stay home with my kids. When we had the first child my husband was making $9 an hour (full time) and going to college full time. It was a very hard time but we made it through it! Any chance we got to eat steak at our parents – we jumped at it! Of course $9 an hour was 7 years ago… I still stay home – I had thought about working part time but decided that my kids absolutely need me home instead of needing a yard (that is why we have wonderful parks to play at.)
My husband is 1 year out of college and heading back for his master’s in the fall. He is at the lowest earnings for his career and we are confident that his earnings will increase over time. He is getting a little under $50K now. Somehow I’ve learned how to make a dollar stretch. We also have a car payment, pay a full tithe , student loans and some credit card debt. The car and credit cards will be paid off in one year.
I would never ever cut out tithing. I truly believe that I’ve been blessed by paying a tithe. You have been blessed as well and will continue to be.
Also, many other churches besides Latter-Day Saints pay tithing (as others have posted). The comment someone else wrote about going back to Utah is silly. My husband and I were born and raised in San Diego and this is our home. Our own parents didn’t come from Utah either. If you observe your LDS friends and neighbors, you will see that most of us pay tithing and the women stay home with the children. There is a huge LDS presence in San Diego and we blend in with everyone else. If you met me in person, you’d see that I don’t have “Utah” written on my forehead and that I look like a normal mom.
Yes, I may have married young and had children young but I love my life. If I can figure out how to stay home and raise my children (while poor), I can do anything! My husband also always has made sure that wherever he has worked, we have had excellent health care benefits – we never applied for state insurance.
You can make your finances work. I went from being Daddy’s little girl ( I had everything I could want) to being dirt poor. I appreciate the small things. I don’t demand jewelry and roses from my husband, although they are nice surprises. My family is the most precious thing to me. See how much you can cut back. We also don’t have cable and don’t miss it.
