At the end of the month I will be the sole breadwinner in the family

[MRT144]

Anyone have any experience with this?

What's hard about it?
What are some benefits?

[pchang]

Anyone have any experience with this?

What's hard about it?
What are some benefits?

Obviously, no income from the spouse means less money and that can be hard if you budgeted based upon both your incomes.
The benefit is that the spouse will be free to do other stuff with her time and might be happier in general.

[MRT144]

We've already drawn a new budget and will be mostly fine on that. Less saving and less eating out, but generally everything else remains the same.

I'm kind of worried of micromanaging our spending habits and being a dick about it.

[The Mad Monk]

As long as the spouse can cook and doesn't have a problem with it, you might not miss eating out.

[SlowwHand]

That's so hard to believe.

[MRT144]

As long as the spouse can cook and doesn't have a problem with it, you might not miss eating out.

Well yeah, my wife loves to cook. she just gets tired of it after 4-5 days straight.

[BlackCat]

Don't accept any "headache" excuses now when she has chosen to be your obedient servant.

[MRT144]

Don't accept any "headache" excuses now when she has chosen to be your obedient servant.

I'm usually the one with the headaches. Two pints is her warmup and my nightcap.

[snoopy369]

lol...

I feel like i'm the sole breadwinner sometimes, but that's just because my wife (despite being a PhD working in her field) is in academia and makes just about enough to offset daycare costs, but not quite. It sucks, honestly, because budgeting is _hard_ if you have to start doing it after a long time of having a flexible budget. I know it's possible (I mean, my dad's sole income was 1/3 mine and my wife's combined, and while we did live in a lower CoL area and 30 years ago, inflation and CoL adjustment isn't more than 3x; and they had more kids), but it's really frustrating for a while. Spreadsheets help. Spreadsheets and either no plastic, or all plastic and very careful tracking of spending on it (that's the nice thing about plastic nowadays - you can download everything into a tool and see exactly what you're doing where).

[MRT144]

lol...

I feel like i'm the sole breadwinner sometimes, but that's just because my wife (despite being a PhD working in her field) is in academia and makes just about enough to offset daycare costs, but not quite. It sucks, honestly, because budgeting is _hard_ if you have to start doing it after a long time of having a flexible budget. I know it's possible (I mean, my dad's sole income was 1/3 mine and my wife's combined, and while we did live in a lower CoL area and 30 years ago, inflation and CoL adjustment isn't more than 3x; and they had more kids), but it's really frustrating for a while. Spreadsheets help. Spreadsheets and either no plastic, or all plastic and very careful tracking of spending on it (that's the nice thing about plastic nowadays - you can download everything into a tool and see exactly what you're doing where).

Yeah, I have a huge spreadsheet with various tabs for income, expenses, debt, savings, investments and 401K.

We are doing all plastic because I view cash as free money to go insane with. I micromanage with credit cards.

[BlackCat]

On a more serios note, I would suggest as the first three points :

1) pay your bills
2) pay your bills
3) pay your bills

Plan your meals a week ahead and go to the grocery for that and nothing else once a week.

Fun stuff ? Plan for it, don't go on a whim.

[MRT144]

Yeah, meal planning is going to be coming back something fierce.

[DaShi]

Anyone have any experience with this?

What's hard about it?
What are some benefits?

What's hard about it? Having to manage two jobs.

What are some benefits? Power! Unlimited power!!!!

[Traianvs]

I have noticed living a simpler life without 'consuming' (and thus paying) much makes people, including me, happier.

There you go, Alain De Botton's bestselling books summarized in one sentence.

[Aeson]

I've been in that situation to some extent for the last 3 years. Family of 9 on ~$500/mo budget. (Pa works very hard taking care of rice fields, but it's not much in the way of income.)

The hardest part is making sure you don't end up causing problems over money. If the thoughts "I've been working all day and I just want ..." or "It's my money ..." or "oooh... that looks cool I'll just buy it without consulting anyone" or "why did you buy that?" or "don't you know we're on a budget" ever enter your head ... promptly slam one of your fingers in the nearest doorjam.

Strangely enough, it's those type of things that cause much more problem than the amount of money. Even with such a small income we always find enough to get by (while having a good time) even on such a small amount. (And it's a rather large income compared to a most of the neighbors.)

Net and I go over a budget at least once a month, budgeting on the safe side, and then try not to stick to it too much. If there's something someone needs, we find room for it.