Are You Able To Survive On Your Income Alone?

[Unregistered]

I have been since time began. Well, almost.

[AmyKidsCo]

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The funny question you ask!

Not a chance. It's not easy with hubby's teaching salary plus mine; no way we could make it on mine alone. Or his alone, for that matter.

[Crazy8]

We support ourselves on my income. DH's income is for extras, savings, sports (this is our biggest extra expense) for the kids and vacations.

We are the exact opposite here - we could survive on DH's income alone if we had to, mine is for savings, all the misc. shopping, sports, vacations, etc. I feel like we *need* my income but it does help to know that we will still be ok if a child leaves, etc.

[suehelen]

Yes. My husband is my partner and we do very well.

We bought a brand new truck last year that will be paid off this year.

Our house will be next.

We have private health insurance.

We have at least 6 months of expenses in an emergency fund.

We've been fortunate and business has been good but we're looking ahead to next year when our preschoolers head to kindergarten. That's why we're concentrating on paying the truck and the house off within the next year and a half. We could live comfortably on less than half of what we make right now.

[DaveA]

My wife makes dramatically more $ than I will and handles most of the bills. My money goes for groceries, savings, and the eternal little odds and ends that crop up with kids. It is also building my bladesmithing business so that if/when I switch to doing it full time I'm starting out in a good place. Don't tell anyone, but I plan on being an overnight success 5-6 years from now.

Could we? Yes- but it would not be pretty. As a family we're set up for 2 incomes.

[e.j.]

We couldn't survive on my income alone. My husband pays our mortgage, real estate taxes and health insurance, we share heating oil expenses and I pay for food, utilities (tv, phone/internet, electric and water), car and home insurance and any expenses for the running of my day care. We each pay for our own vehicles and share medical expenses beyond what insurance covers. We don't eat out very often, we stay home for vacations and don't really spend much on "extras". We're paying our bills without trouble right now but I worry constantly about the possiblility of my husband getting laid off, about me not being able to fill day care spots or either one of us getting sick and being unable to work at any given time. It wouldn't take much for us to start experiencing financial problems.

[Cat Herder]

I could definitely survive on my income alone..I did for years.

I simply could not (um, would not ) also support another "fully capable of working" adult on it. (yes, this goes both ways, my DH is awesome )

If the "fully capable" was jerked out from under him, I am confident that with a few tweaks of our working budget I could find a way. I strongly feel he would do the same. (again, he is awesome lovethis)

Plan B, and C, and D is kind of what my head does when I try to sleep... ::::

[Unregistered]

yes
I am a singe parent with a small mortage
this year I am doing well
I have many animals , one child of my own . a truck on road and day care van and now a moter home
to make it all work I also have two other little wee businesses
I write almost everything off
I advertise "critters and crafts " so half the pets or writen off and the small farm animals pay for themselves in sales
the truck is half writen off towards the farm end and personal
I have some money in the bank but still poor in the tax mans eyes
most my clients now are here over a year so I feel secure right now

3 years ago it was a different storey ....I had no kids closed the day care and blew my shoulder gardening for work and couldnt do a thing ...only thing that kept me going was mortage insurance...I went into a year of depression
I missed the day care and reopened ...took a year and was full again
I work from sun up to sun down and I feel it every day ...but it is paying off and hopefully I can retire in less than 10 years ........I am getting too old for all this

[LoraJenkins]

I am really down in numbers right now. If I were full we would have enough to live on for a year or so because of savings. If something hapoened to my husband's job past that time frame, we would be hurting.

[Unregistered]

I currently have four children in my care; two full time and two part time. It works well with our homeschooling and my doula work but it absolutely does NOT pay our bills. It covers groceries and the various memberships/outings we take. That's it. I work 3-4 shifts per week as a per diem nurse and that is actually enough to pay our bills with excess. My husband works full time in IT support and his salary is enough to support our family solely, but it would not allow much for extras. Between it all we are finally comfortable but it took us quite a while to get here and I am so thankful to God for this opportunity to start a savings and not shoulder the finances solely any longer. Soon, I'd like to cut down my nursing hours a bit, too, but realistically that's 3-6 months away when DH gets his next promotion.