Living on Less Than $28,000 A Year: How our family of six survives (and even thrives) on an income that is less than half the national median income, and what the government calls “below the poverty line” (less than $29,990 annually) for our family size. [Read other posts in this series here.]
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Every parent knows that there are two things that just don’t mix: baby diapers and swimming pools.
What is the one area of the budget that can expand like a diaper in a swimming pool?
Food.
Don’t get me wrong, eating is one of my top priorities and I am absolutely not telling you to stop eating. What I will tell you is that we look at food differently in our home: there is necessity food and entertainment food.
Necessity Food- What our bodies need to function properly each day:
*Some form of protein
*Some vegetables
*Some fruit
*A little grain
*A little fat
For the sake of discussion I will boil it down to these simple elements. The amount we need is determined by our activity level and metabolism. (This is not a discussion about nutrition, so please don’t flood me with comments about the latest research on what we need to eat. 
)
Entertainment Food-Food we like to eat, but we don’t need:
*The 10:00 a.m. coffee break doughnut
*The 10:00 p.m. t.v. watching munchies
*The midafternoon “Mom, I’m bored. What’s in the fridge?” search
*Popcorn at the theater
*Friday night pizza delivery
*Saturday night dinner out
*Dessert
If our family has any confusion on the difference between necessity food and entertainment food, we either eat a lot of potatoes for the next week or something doesn’t get paid. Friday night pizza delivery sounds wonderful after a busy week, but not so wonderful on Monday morning when the power bill is due.
In our house, we buy necessity food first because we have decided that we don’t want to trade something temporary (food) for something eternal (my ability to stay home and raise our children). For our family, spending too much on entertainment food means I have to get a job.
Having said that, you should know that we do not sit around at home eating beans and rice. My husband and I have a weekly date night (read our cheap date ideas here). If ice cream is on sale we may have dessert that week, but it comes out of entertainment money (leftover after we put aside bill money), not the grocery budget. If we receive birthday money and we have a Living Social discount, we may go out to eat as a family. Eating out and having dessert are not the norm, however.
Remember my little blurb about being non-judgmental in part one of this series? Still applies.
If eating out is an important part of your life, please continue to do so. Just make sure that you can actually afford it and make the choice consciously. Realize that by “eating” that money you can’t spend it on something else.
Practical Application:
If you have lots of money but wonder where it all goes, take a look at how much money you spent on eating out last month.
If you don’t make very much money, or you would like to do more with the money you have, stay tuned for a new post in this series when I will reveal several practical ways we save on the food budget.
Feel free to leave a comment, but please remember to play nicely.
next post: A Look At Our Paycheck This Week
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Thank you so much for writing this series! We are also a single income family (by choice so my husband could stay home to raise the kids), and now that they are grown he is disabled and cannot work. My job has recently taken huge wage cuts and we are having trouble with the bills. Food is our nemesis! We try very hard to eat healthy and want to eat organic, but it’s just so expensive. We’re vegetarian, which saves us on meat costs, but my old recipes often call for ingredients that we just can’t afford anymore. Can’t wait to read more of your tips!
Aimee, have you tried starting a little garden for yourself? I was overwhelmed by organic food prices and was able to cut my summer food budget by at least 1/4 by starting my own garden. There are some plants that will grow just about anywhere, and many that grow very well in pots, if you don’t have the land/desire to dig up a plot. The library and internet both have lots of books and articles on how to garden organically and frugally. Virtually any type of container can be used to grow something in (make sure to drill a drain hole), and all organic(carbon based) foods except for fats can be put directly onto plants as a fertilizer, or into a small container or pile to break down, just be sure to keep it reasonably moist and warm. Also, you may want to look for substitute options for your recipes, here is a great website for common items: http://allrecipes.com/howto/common-ingredient-substitutions/
I wish you and your husband the best of luck!
-Rachel
I completely agree!!! I have people ask me all the time about budget tips and when I tell them to nix the eating out (or at least cut it to once a week instead of 12)…and cut out unnecessary (and unhealthy) foods like sweets, pop/soda/whatever you call it!, and chips…it’s not an option.
Those foods are SPLURGES in our house…they are treats, and only when they are deeply on sale or if there is extra money somewhere.
Also, I see you talk a lot about getting bills, so I thought I’d share what my husband and I do. He gets paid twice a month on the 15th and 30th. Most of our bills actually come out around the first. So, if I didn’t “finagle” we would end up with 1150 or so coming out in necessary bills when we only get paid about 1100…not gonna work. So, what I did was to sit down and make a very detailed monthly budget, with every single expense (dave ramsey style) and all the money budgeted. I did this so that I could control when things are paid more so that the expenses are more balanced. I moved some things around so that some bills actually get paid early. I have most things auto deducted at the “right” date, but when we get paid, I sit down with the check book and document everything, so that we know that money is gone…but the bill is already paid as well, so there is never an instance of getting a bill that we don’t have money for. I know you do a similar thing with your surprise expense spreadsheet thing, but just thought I would throw that out there. It has helped us a lot.
Thank you so much for these articles. They have inspired me to save. We just learned that we have to pay $4400 to the IRS for 2011 taxes. What a surprise! Now, we must budget to avoid the same thing for this year.
We are both retired. I will be following all of your advice. I am also a paper and pencil person.
Thanks for your inspiration!!
I just found your blog and am REALLY enjoying this series. I became a stay-at-home-mom almost a year ago and my husband and I have been working hard at staying within our budget. We’ve used a lot of your tips, especially dealing with food. I plan our meals for the week, make my grocery list, and as you said, unless something is on sale, I only buy what we need.
My MIL brought over ice cream and some chocolate covered ice cream treats-we NEVER buy things like this because we have to make sure we can have enough grocery money at the end of the month for fruit and milk for the kids etc. So funny how we prioritize wants and needs differently on a budget.
OMGoodness! I have done just that; kept track for a month and figured out how much money was “wasted” on fast food! While it’s tough to cook for one—since I learned how to cook from my grandmother (who had a family of 5 and worked in a school cafeteria), there must be SOMETHING I can do so that I’m not eating the same meal for the entire week. If you ever run across any “eating for one or two” type blogs that would help, I’d be really excited to see them!
<3
Have you thought about using my ground beef plan here and my chicken plan here? You basically buy meat on sale and then prepare it ahead of time for the freezer. You can use it to make quick meals without eating exactly the same thing every day. Let me know what you think.
Jennifer, I am there with you! I cooked for my family of 5 when I still at home and I have a hard time not cooking that much because then it all goes to waste because I’m tired of eating the same meal. That’s when I get bored with cooking and order out. That’s something I need to cut back on… the eating out.
Thank you so much for this series. We are a dual-income family, but I recently changed to a part time status, rather than full time. I love being at home with my children more, but this has meant we have had to make a few adjustments…the primary one being that we cannot eat out as often as we had become accustomed (“It’s supper time, honey, what do you want to eat?” “I don’t know, let’s go to xx restaurant because it’s so much easier.”) We’re still adjusting, and I’m thankful to read your journey!
You are very welcome Elizabeth. I just want to encourage other people that they can do it.
I’m glad that you are setting limits on the posts, making everyone play nice. One of my favorite frugal bloggers quit posting because of all the mean comments and I miss her.
We eat out about 10 times a year. Each one of us gets to go for our birthdays and then I have occasional mom’s nights out.
That’s too bad that a blogger quit because of comments. I try not to take things personally, but it’s hard sometimes. It’s fine to have a different opinion, but there is no reason to be uncivil just because you disagree.
By the way, I’m all for mom’s night out.
“Friday night pizza delivery sounds wonderful after a busy week, but not so wonderful on Monday morning when the power bill is due.”
When I read this, I teared up. I have SO MUCH trouble saying no to myself when it comes to food that I want. Thank you for this series and the support you are providing me! <3
You are very welcome Diana.
I wish the internet was around when my husband and I were first married and then had our children. Blogs like yours would have saved us tons of money and stress!!! I guess better late than never and the money lessons we are passing on to our children. Maybe they won’t have to struggle as much as we did. Thanks for the help!
Well Kimberly, pretty much everything on the site has been learned the hard way–LOL! I just hope someone else can benefit from my stupidity.
im a single mom living with another single mom. we are both a little spend happy (she definitly more than me) so we have set up a “rent account” we get paid 2x a month and from each check i put $300 into that account. the check we recieve right before the 1st of the month she gives me her $600 and with my $300 there is rent. the $300 from the other check in the month goes toward utilities. it doesnt matter how much they are i put $100 towards gas, water and electric and usually have a balance forward on the gas and water. that way if there is ever a month (like summer time in az!!) that something (electric from the a/c) is more than $100 i dont have to worry about not paying the gas or water (because there is already a balance forward there) and i can use the extra money toward the electric. it has made my stress level decrease sooo much having that little bit of a buffer on those accounts and its already paid to the company so i dont have to worry about seeing “extra” money and spending it!! thank you so much for sharing your money saving strategies!!
Great idea Nikki!
food as entertainment is a perfect example I am frugal and having trouble explianing to grandma that pop is not in my budget… She said I have gas and need it to burp and I can not get her to understand it is not in the budget for now…. However there are 6 2 liters of generic pop she could drink…She is diabetic and eats what ever she wants… she cleaned out a 1/2 cocunut cake lol.. see what i am working with
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