If you read my post the other day on what to expect here in 2018, you will know that we are “considering” moving again. And if we do move, we will be paying cash for the house again as well. Therefore, since I am a stay at home and my husband works full time, we decided to get extremely creative to save even more money. So, below I will divulge our game plan to live off one paycheck per month. Doing so, will rack our savings up dramatically.
Before I begin divulging our whys and hows of our decision to live on one paycheck, I do know it is definitely easier to live on one paycheck when you don’t have to pay rent or a mortgage. However, we still have expenses that others face as well. For instance, to get to this point of living mortgage free, years ago we had to reassess our expenses and find a better way of life. Thus, us selling our New Jersey home and our Cape May vacation home and moving to the South. Living in New Jersey and paying such high taxes just seemed unreasonable to us. Below is a picture of our current home. It would cost 4 times or more than what we paid for it in New Jersey – not to mention our house taxes went from $700/month to about $220/month:
Our Game Plan to Live Off One Paycheck Per Month
Our top reasons for living off one paycheck this year:
- Until now, we have done very well saving, but we simply felt we could do more of it. For instance, the hurricane last year did minor damage to our home. Even though we had insurance, our deductible was so high that it still cost us a few thousand in repairs. When Hurricane Irma hit, we were lucky in that we had minor damage compared to other homes – so next time, we want to be more prepared for it. There was no electricity for 2 days and we want to invest in a bigger generator should that happen again.
- We want to fully fund our son’s college education and any post education after college should there be any. We planned on doing this but we want to do it sooner so we can concentrate on our retirement funds.
- If we do move, we want our moving expenses to be covered as well as have enough money to put our touch on the new home in addition to furnishing the home as well.
- Since the area of Florida that we live in now does not have many high tech jobs for my husband, we have to be prepared for that should a job loss occur. We have 8 months of emergency fund in savings already, but it we would feel safer to have up to 12-15 months in our emergency fund.
Our Game Plan:
- Utilize all the ways I outlined in the 5 Super Easy Side Hustles for Stay at Home Moms Series (click on box located on sidebar for the 14 post series). I intend to utilize every spare minute to getting Amazon gift cards, gift certificates through mystery shopping, cash via Paypal, etc.
- Scour this house for items that can be sold through Ebay, Craigslist, Facebook groups, etc. I am considering sourcing items to resell as well.
- Possibly opening an Etsy shop too.
- Fine tuning our grocery budget even more so. We do great with this, but since we are eating healthfully now, I am considering starting a garden or finding a co-op for fresher fruits and vegetables.
I will keep you posted on our progress each month. I know that this might seem like an insurmountable goal, but if you take a chunk at a time, you will get there. If you are living paycheck to paycheck, start by going over your budget with a fine tooth comb and find the gaps. It would help also to prioritize what your needs are and put your wants on a separate list for a better financial time. And that better time will come, just start now.
Do you have any financial goals for 2018? How do you plan on reaching them?
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