Yes, You Can Live On One Income!

 This is a post which I have been planning to write for more than a year, actually right before the whole corona stuff started last spring.

As we all know, the reason many married women work is to pay the mortgage, especially with the modern real estate prices. However, as I have said so many times already, while a big house is certainly a bonus, you don't always need it. And lo and behold, in 2020 IKEA made a catalogue featuring 3 families living in small spaces.

Now I'm not saying that all these were 1 income families (though the folks with many kids probably are), in fact, I don't know anything about them at all, however, this IKEA promo gives you an idea of how you can manage.

Family number one, 3 grown-ups (parents +granny) and 2 kids:

I'm afraid the quality of the pictures isn't great, but if you look closely, you see that the youngest child sleeps together with his parents in the master bedroom:

 

 while the little girl and her Grandma share a sofa bed:

The next family have 5 kids, with at least 1 teenager:

The living room becomes the master bedroom at night:

Three eldest children sleep in one room (the one on the right below), with the oldest sister sleeping in one corner behind a curtain:

 

 and a sister and a brother  sharing a bunk bed 

The two youngest ones share the room with 2 beds behind each other:

 

The third family have the smallest accommodation of all, a house on the ground floor with a tiny back garden:

It has 2 rooms, a living room and a bedroom. The living room also functions as a guestroom for the grandparents as it also has a sofa bed:

The son shares the bedroom with his parents (a small bed in the corner on the floor plan):

 

Have you noticed anything special about these families? Being of minority origins they apparently don't think they are entitled to a castle...

P.S. I couldn't find any copyright statement and anyway, the catalogue was only valid till 31 July 2020.

Should You Buy 2nd Hand Clothes?

 Several years ago I'd say, yes. Now I'd probably say, no, unless you are in reduced circumstances.

First of all, the clothes which end up in these stores are nearly never new (sometimes they get some new stuff from big retailers, but it doesn't happen very often). Mostly they are well worn out, and you can see it.They generally don't look very nice per definition, unless it's a well-known quality brand whose  owner only put it on a couple of times (granted, this happens, too).

Next, of course, I'm aware that they all get washed and disinfected and what not, but have you never noticed that people generally leave some imprint on their surroundings and the things they use? Like, for instance, in some houses you feel sad while in others you will feel happy? 

I realise it sounds a bit new-agey, but you have no way to know what sort of person wore this item before and how it could influence you. I would say it's different with the big stuff like furniture, but clothes is something you put on yourself, close to your skin and then have on a couple of days or even longer, if it's something like a cardi, for instance.

2nd hand clothes are usually quite cheap. Herein lies the problem. You aren't on your guard around cheap things, hence you are much more prone to impulse buying than normally. After regularly visiting a thrift store, you can easily end up with lots of stuff you don't really need or like which later goes direction the garbage can anyway, and you waste more money than buying some new item from a regular store.

Also, nowadays you have cheaper retail and markets which sell decent-looking, average quality clothing which is quite affordable, and doesn't look like something out of Granny's closet. I do think it's different when you get stuff from family and friends, especially for kids who are growing very fast so they only wear these donated items like several months or year at most. Grown-ups are a different matter.

That said, I still enjoy visiting thrift stores. I just noticed that of all the clothes I bought there over the years I only kept like 2 things total, all the rest was like a couple of months on average and then out it went, while most of the new things I buy I keep wearing until they start falling apart. There are exceptions, of course, but still...

Any thoughts?

Low Income Meals

 From my favourite housewife. She gives tips on weight loss, too:

 

Cooking isn't a chore, it's art!

Pandemic 10$ Shopping Challenge

Another great video from Quaint Housewife:



She is so creative and inspiring, I always enjoy watching her.

Eating Organic For 20$ A Week

Another great video from my favourite housewife:



It's truly amazing how she keeps coming up with these menus and recipes which are budget and still quite balanced and nutritious. So inspiring!

How To Survive on 10$ A Week

Those of us struggling financially will probably find these videos interesting:

How to Eat for $10 a Week Part 1

Part2

Check her 1$ meal series, they are good, too!

If Money Is Tight

Here is an example of what you can do to stretch your dollar/euro:

Living On One Income Vs Your Consumption Level

According to what children study at school, my country has about 70% of the population thinking that mothers/married women shouldn't work. Yet, there are more than 70% women working currently. How comes?

Though I didn't spend much time behind computer last week and couldn't bother to write something long and sophisticated, I did read some discussions. One of them was on an American twitter feed which is also regularly visited by my countrymen. It was in Dutch and the topic was whether women would be happier as housewives. They finally agreed that it was probably so, but "impossible nowadays because we are oh so poor compared to the 1930s and 50s, when it was the norm."

This statement is one I come across regularly on Dutch right-leaning resources. Is there any truth to it, though?

So how did people live in those times? We can find out simply by a) talking to the older people; b) reading books, magazines and watching TV programs from that period. For instance, my husband's paternal grandparents rented (not owned) a 2 bedroom apartment their whole life though his Grandfather had a very decent job. Their two children (they had more but they died in infancy) of different sexes shared the same bedroom. They didn't go on luxury vacations, either (needless to say, Granny was a homemaker. Long after the children left the house.) You get my point?

Some years ago there was an American lady who ran a blog about her life as a child  in New York City, in the years 1950s and 1960s (she was later forced off the internet by tolerant progressives). She mentioned, among other things, that in order to reduce their water bills, they didn't flush their toilets quite as often (usually mostly for number two if you know what I mean). Again, no vacations, either. BTW, the new consumerist trick promoted in my country is the idea that your children won't develop properly if they don't regularly go on vacation in far-away countries ( I shudder to think how our ancestors survived without flying 3 times a year to some hot place/ski resort. Theirs was a tough life!)

Enter Miss Silver stories, describing life in rural England in the 1950s. Wealthier people go on vacation to the sea-side, in their own country. (Children used to be sent to the village to visit Granny during summer vacations too, in those times). Most women, even childless, don't work when married. A one couple like this the book describes lets one of their rooms (most single men of modest means didn't own or rent a house, they rented a room (and here you can still see it shown in the TV programs till the 1980s) and they have a couch in their living-room which the wife bought with her own earnings before she got married, 30 years ago!

(And not to forget, that in the beginning of I Love Lucy Lucy and her husband rented a 1 bedroom apartment and in Honeymooners the working class couple rented a 1 room apartment where their kitchen functioned as a living-room).

The only entertainment of the lower classes in these times was going to the cinema on Friday night, by bus, as most people didn't own a car.

What I'm trying to demonstrate is that folks in these times weren't wealthier at all, their demands and their level of consumption were lower, except for the very rich. While Western governments constantly *itch whine about saving the environment, they simultaneously promote a 2 income lifestyle with a high consumption level, which is supposedly good for the economy (but bad for anything else).

Which way Western (wo)man? You choose. Just remember that you have a choice!

Home Cooking Saves Money

And prevents you from turning into a bugman:

We found on average, it is almost five times more expensive to order delivery from a restaurant  than it is to cook at home. And if you’re using a meal kit service as a shortcut to a home cooked meal, it’s a bit more affordable, but still almost three times as expensive as cooking from scratch.

Read the whole article over here. 

Christians And Thrift

I hope that the majority of my readers will agree that being a "soulless, rootless" consumer is not the way to go through life:) While the consumerist lifestyle is currently being promoted by the "powers that be", it caused quite a bit of reaction. Some of the opposite trends are minimalism and (extreme) thrift. So I wanted to say a couple of words about it.

There is nothing wrong in itself with being a minimalist/thrifty person. The real problem with minimalism as I see it is that it's often promoted as a pseudo-spiritual movement, a quasi-religion and tends to attract people like vegans, New-agers and the like. Then it becomes another attempt to find a meaning in your life through things, but unlike consumerism, this meaning comes not from accumulating stuff but rather from throwing it away for the sake of saving the Earth or something similar. This should make Christians rather wary since we know that it's Jesus who gives us the meaning (and salvation).

It's a bit trickier with practicing thrift. Any serious Christian will at least give some thought to what the Scriptures say about the family life and labour division. For many of us, especially in the countries like the USA where so many women work full time, giving away half the family income often means a substantial lowering of the standards of living. Plus, such families tend to have more than an average number of children, too. Being thrifty and creative is the only way to go forward for them and I think we should all admire the sacrifices some of them make to live according to their principles and give others an example of it can be done!

Yet, on the other hand, there are also families where the husband's salary alone allows them to live quite comfortably, own a nice size home and even enjoy vacations. I'm afraid that they are sometimes made to feel uncomfortable for not being "spiritual enough" for not adhering to the rigorous thrift routines like not growing all of their vegetables, e.g.

Being thrifty for the sake of thrift isn't really much different from spending money for the sake of keeping up with the Joneses, imo.  People should be pragmatic and shrewd when dealing with money matters. They should plan ahead and not take more debt than they can afford, like taking a huge mortgage which they can ill afford on two full salaries all the while complaining that "the society" doesn't allow mothers to stay home or wasting a student loan of 50.000 on a degree in basket-weaving; however, going the opposite way may turn you into a Scrooge, which is nearly just as detrimental.

I sense a certain streak of Puritanism in some fundamentalist Christians who are, unfortunately, nearly the only ones left promoting traditional family values so that those who may stumble upon them will think that this puritanical avoidance of all nice things in this world is what the real Christian should do. It's right along there with claiming that a mother can't relax in the garden with a nice book but should work at some home business instead, "to be like a Proverbs 31 woman".

I just mentioned mortgages. In fact, I talk quite a bit about mortgages on this blog, because that's what keeps most wives and mothers working. I have pointed out lots of times that houses are getting bigger while families get smaller and that you don't really need a big house to be happy. On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with having a big house, either, if it's a financially prudent thing to do. And whatever house you choose to buy, for most of us it will still mean taking a mortgage. So I don't believe that mortgages are evil or sinful and should be avoided all together.

Because for most folks, it would realistically mean that they can't afford a house at all. Of course, you can always rent and save and may be, buy a piece of land and build later or live in a trailer. Realistically speaking, most people will still need to get some sort of a loan and if a trailer is all a young family could afford, may be they should wait a couple more years before getting married.

The same holds true for many other things. I do visit thrift shops and buy second-hand. I also regularly buy new clothes. I wouldn't buy second-hand shoes as you can't make them really clean, but the clothes you can just wash at high temperature. I don't think owning second-hand clothes makes me a better person  or more spiritual. It's just a choice I made. I could choose buying less clothes of better quality but I like changing them often:) We do other things which are probably a bit wasteful but which we can afford.

In my opinion, that's the real key to one income, traditional family living: do only things you can afford and try to save money for eventual hard times. For one family it'll mean only wearing second-hand, for another not going on ski vacations quite that often. We are all different and it will always stay so. And thank Heavens for it!

Some Advice For Pet Owners

Continuing the topic from the previous post:)

I don't have much experience with dogs, so I'll talk about cats, but I would imagine there isn't much difference...

I think all of us animal lovers will agree it's very unpleasant when your pet gets sick. And the costs of taking him to the vet are often prohibiting, too. Of course, sometimes it's unavoidable, however, through the years I have found out that certain home remedies can help.

For instance, I had a couple of tomcats and as you probably know, one thing they enjoy the most (apart from chasing females) is fighting.So they often come home with all sorts of injuries and some of the wounds tend to get inflamed, too. In this case, if it's not that bad, a simple betadine antiseptic can help. (BTW, I got the idea from the vet himself.)

One of them used to fight all the time before I finally had him neutered. Once he had a rather nasty inflammation on one of his legs. The wound closed, but there was a lot of swelling and it looked scary and caused him trouble. I kept on praying and covering it with a thick betadine lotion (he kept licking it away, of course), and oh wonder! The swelling disappeared in the course of a weekend. Saved me possibly about 150 euros.

Another one kept fighting, too. I had him neutered after his eye got damaged. Not the eye itself really (thank goodness!) but the skin around it, but it often looks red and irritated. The vet gave him drops, which helped somewhat, but the irritation returns regularly. So I went to a store and bought generic eye drops which I use when it gets worse. Appears to help and the cat doesn't mind it much. The cost of the generic drops: 4 or 4.50.

Also, if a cat is particularly fluffy, he can get problems with a hair ball. Typically, he will stop eating and using his litter box, obviously. I had to deal with it once, recently (not with the cat above, as he doesn't shed so much).  The cat in question was hiding himself and was in general poorly. Before taking him to the vet, I tried some home remedies. First of all, I fed him some virgin olive oil which didn't work, but since oil is full of calories (and moisture), he started getting more active. At this point, I tried special food (which he ate and it didn't help), and a laxative tea blend from the supermarket. Didn't work, either.

So I moved on to  stronger stuff and purchased a  laxative which can be used on babies (cost: 6 euros or thereabout, I forget). A cat weighs much less than a grown-up, so naturally, you can't use normal medication because it will be too strong.  I started with the minimal dose,which I gave him twice, with the tea in between, and this time, his problem was solved.

I hope this info may be helpful for other cat owners, but please keep in mind: I'm not a vet, I only share my experience and I'm in no way responsible for the health and well-being of your pets. As with any other internet advice, use common sense!

More On Living On One Income

Just a couple of thoughts on how to buy a house when you are planning to be a one income couple. Whatever happened to saving money beforehand? Instead of moving together and taking a huge mortgage, why can't young people stay with their parents longer and save their salaries for the down payment on the house? The law currently requires 10% of the price (I think, could be lower). Why not saving more?

Girls used to bring money into the family through dowry. Upper class girls got a sum from their parents, lower class girls often worked before marriage and saved up. Nowadays, they most probably will bring their student debts instead. With young men, it's not much better, unfortunately.

How much money is spent on clothes, vacations, video games and simply getting drunk in a bar regularly? All these things aren't cheap. I'd like especially to talk about the "vacations" some of these people are taking. They chiefly consist of going somewhere to Spain or thereabouts and spending nights in clubs where the entrance can cost anywhere from 50 euros and higher not counting the drinks; getting wasted, using drugs and hooking up. It's gone so bad some churches started organising missions to try and reach some of these vacation-goers.

I've also known guys who spent thousands of euros on the newest games. Again, as with everything, it's a free choice that you make. You can choose to practise thrift and live frugally and save or you can choose to blow it all up and take on a huge amount of debt for your dream home, to keep up with the Joneses. I'm not even going to point my finger at anyone. I'm just trying to show the alternative. Where's the will, there's a way:)

Living On One Income

Can you live on one income? Can you buy a house on one income? Many people will tell you, no, that's not possible. Yet what about millions of single/divorced men and women? It's not like most of them are living with their parents, though some probably do. Most, however, can afford to buy or rent a house. The problem is, for many of them, this house won't be big.

I went to IKEA several times in the past few months because I was looking for new furniture for our bedroom. I'm not sure about other countries, but our IKEA has several show apartments which they use to demonstrate how their furniture fits into small living spaces. So far they have a 55, 35 and 25 sq.m. apartments.

 Now, of course, a 25 m2 apartment is tiny, so I'll leave it out. A 55m2 one they divided into one lounge and 2 bedrooms which should be basically enough for an average family since the average family only has 2 children who can share the bedroom, especially if they are either both boys or girls. (The strange thing is that just as families get smaller, the houses get bigger.) In fact, it was fairly normal in not-so-distant past. I know families like that and I'm not talking about 1930s, but rather late 1990s and even the present day so it isn't some "Dark Age" stuff.

A 35m2 apartment is a tricky one. It is small, but IKEA folks still divided it into a living and a bedroom. Guess what, the same store and many others sell convertible sofas, like that. So you still get you 2 bedrooms. Come to think of it, a convertible sofa can change a 2-bedroom one lounge apartment into a 3 bedroom one at night, which mean that you can live in a 55sq.m. house with 3 or even 4 kids!

Is it convenient? No, not really. Could it be done? Not only could, it's actually a reality for many people. This site offers a comparison chart between different countries. Notice how an average USA home is more than 2 times bigger than in most Euro countries.

I always chuckle when I read bloggers from the Right complaining how women are "forced" to work nowadays as opposed to the Golden Age of the 1950s, when everybody was incredibly wealthy. Except that that their houses used to be twice smaller (3 times in the case of the US).

As a couple, you can choose to work with both of you for your mortgage and bring your children to daycare/granny/nanny. Not only you are free to chose such a lifestyle, you'll be lauded for it by the media and your relatives will be able to brag about your material success. Just let's be honest about it, having a big house is a want not a need. It's a choice.

How To Be A Housewife

As one of my commenters recently pointed out, there is a lot of ignorance nowadays about housekeeping and all things domestic; while, on the other hand, there are probably many couples out there who long for a more traditional relationship but don't know how to switch from two incomes to one, so I thought it could be a good idea to devote a couple of posts to this topic.

Here is the link to a radio program which gives financial advise to people. The title of this particular episode is Yes, You Can Afford For Your Wife To Stay Home and the radio host gives a detailed analysis of a hypothetical situation which features a two income couple where both earn 60. 000$ and what would happen to them if the wife stopped working.

I'd like to highlight some of the points he made. First, he rightly points out that the decision for the wife and mother to stay home is not so much financial as it is a lifestyle one, that is, if the couple are determined to make it work, they'll probably find a way, however, most people nowadays see it as their objective to earn as much money as possible, even at the cost of the relationship with their own kids.

He states that it's so important for him that if necessary he'd move to a very cheap house and work three jobs in order for his wife to be able to take care of their children.

Another thing to consider is that while a one income family will obviously have less money to spend, their quality of life will be higher since the wife won't be stressed by working outside home and will be more relaxed and thus the atmosphere at home will be much more peaceful. What you lose in terms of money, you win back in terms of time.

Obviously it's a couple's decision whether to be a one or two income family, yet strangely, there is a lot of animosity towards traditional families, and he mentions a recent article in an Australian newspaper claiming that it should be forbidden for the wives to stay home since, guess what? They are not doing their duty towards the economy!!! Apparently some lifestyles aren't tolerated all that well in a liberal society.

It's a sad commentary on the modern West that the most prosperous societies that have ever existed since the beginning of the world value money-making and abstract "economy" above such things as marriage, children and family. Anyway, the good thing is that many people still do have a choice and the guy in question can probably help some of them to figure it all out financially.

A Question For My American Readers

This morning I have been watching one of those homemaking videos I wrote about and the lady said they were using something like 3 kWh per hour when their heating system was on. I was like did I hear it good, because we use 3 kWh per day on average (yesterday it was only 2 actually). Of course, we heat with gas which is quite expensive,too; but still utility bills in the USA must be huge. Can anyone enlighten me about this issue? 

Saving Money On Groceries

Just a couple of thoughts on healthy eating and cutting your grocery bills.

First of all and most important is to learn to cook without cookbooks. Yes, you heard me well. A basic cookbook which teaches you how to make a simple soup and how long to cook your vegetables is fine, but all these modern, fancy cookbooks and cooking magazines which cost you a lot of money really contain very little useful info. Many of the dishes they feature are of a type that you could think of yourself, like all the summer salads, for instance.

They are great for giving you ideas, they make a good present, they encourage you to spend more time in the kitchen, which is all fine, so if you have enough money why not buying them, however, they aren't really essential, except those containing baking recipes as unlike with salads, baking often means precision.

Plus, they often require exotic ingredients and entice you to go above your budget. And sticking to your grocery budget is the most important thing to do if you really want to trim your expenses.

Second, remember, you don't need to be a millionaire to eat healthy. The experts all agree that "healthy" means above all, ditching all or most of processed food. The more you cook from scratch, the better. Nearly all vegetables and most fruit are healthy. Every week supermarkets offer a discount on some of them, so that every week you have your chance to try another sort of healthy veggies. Some of the  healthiest things out there are dirt cheap, like onions and garlic (and it will protect you from vampires, too:).

The same is true about meat. Fish is trickier, as it's quite pricey over here, but it can be acquired frozen or canned (avoid canned in sunflower oil, though. Olive oil appears to be better). If potatoes are expensive, they can be substituted by rice, which is usually quite cheap.

Third, here we come to dessert, which is too often bought ready-made, and full of unhealthy stuff like too much sugar. Be creative! Yogurt with honey makes for a great dessert and it's not expensive. Substitute store-bought things for homemade. The same goes for all the baked goodies from a supermarket which are too often made with margarine instead of real butter and have an amount of sugar and conserving agents in them enough to prevent one from reaching 90 after 2 times use.

Strictly avoid wasting money on sodas, chips and similar, except for birthdays or treats. Dark chocolate with high cacao content is better than candy bars, btw. As with all other things, moderation is the key, so you don't need to deprive yourself of all pleasures of life, just change your eating habits slightly.

You, Too, Can Live On One Income!

I'm always sorry to hear the news about someone staying home for years and then deciding to go back to work. The reasons cited more often than not are economical. Of course, it may happen that one's husband loses his job or becomes unable to work, but it's not always the reason. Let's be honest, Western economies are not exactly doing fine right now, prices grow higher, various forms of subsidies people in Europe grew accustomed to are disappearing, medical care becomes more expensive, etc etc.

Does it mean that you can't live on one income any more? I'd like to stress that here I'm talking about middle class families. Even a lower middle class man will earn the amount of money which the working class couple normally earn with two of them (since most married women over here only work past-time) , and yet there are enough of these couples having children and living just fine. Which means, if they can do it, you can do it, too! As someone pointed out to me, often it's not really the question of needs unmet, but rather about preserving a certain lifestyle.


When the family finances start going south, the temptation is often strong to try and keep up appearances, even if it means the wife and mother getting a job outside home. Middle class couples often have a certain standard to maintain, which becomes more important to them than anything else. Of course, it's my opinion, that even an average working class couple could live on one income considering the fact that they still qualify for some government freebies, but it would take a great deal of good management.

On the other hand, when money is not so tight, it's easier to become careless and start spending it like water, which will always ruin you in the end, no matter how much you earn. I'll just give you a personal example. I normally received a certain sum of money from my husband for weekly shopping and I managed to save enough that I could afford to get out and lunch with my friends from time to time.

We really didn't need to economise so I asked him to give me more money. My idea was to save it for hobby purposes (yarn, fabric, knitting magazines) and I was quite enthusiastic about it, however, after a couple of months I noticed that by the end of the week I had less money left than before, when the amount I received had been smaller. I just started buying more expensive brands and overall became more careless, which proves that if you don't exercise tight control on how much you really give out, you'll come into trouble.

If the family are committed to living on one income, they should take some tough decisions beforehand, including where they are planning to live, which school the children will attend (commuting is expensive), which car they are going to drive etc.

I remember reading a story in comments section of a newspaper about a guy who said that though his wife was a SAHM, by the end of the month they had more money over than his two-income relatives who were pretty resentful about the fact. He rented while they had a huge mortgage, he didn't need to pay daycare for his kids since his wife was home, he paid less taxes since he was the sole provider and thus lower income, his family didn't eat out so often, his vacations were probably not so luxurious and yet he and his wife were happy while the other couple were bitter. Priorities are everything!

In the end, it doesn't depend so much on what your husband earns, but rather, on what's more important for you. If it's your conviction that a married woman's place is her home, you'll do everything possible to make it happen. If you believe otherwise, well, it's a free country, after all. For those falling in the first category, I'd like to recommend this great article which also gives detailed suggestions on how to reduce expenses so that you, too, could stay home:

How Can I Afford To Stay Home?

Feminine Clothes Don't Have To Be Expensive

Feminine clothes don't have to cost a fortune!

The result of my visiting a Goodwill store last week - the cardi and dress together cost under 20 euros.  The cardi is made from mohair blend, and it is very warm and cosy. If you have always wanted to dress more feminine but lack money to buy expensive stuff, a goodwill type of store is a real solution, and since it's basicaly recycling, it's environmentally friendly, too!:)

Saving Money On Groceries

There are several things to keep in mind if you want to save money on groceries. First is the necessity of budgeting. I have written about it before in detail in this article. If you work out a budget and stick to it, it will considerably reduce your expenses.

The second thing to do when money is tight is to try and reduce your consumption. To do it effectively you'll need to differentiate between needs and wants. For instance, potatoes are a need, a bag of potato chips is a want. The same goes for candy, chocolate, chewing gum, soda, alcohol and the like. Those things are not wrong in themselves but they are not necessary for your daily functioning, either. A glass of wine by dinner is a luxury, and no child ever died due to being deprived of snickers and cola.

Third, you can try to switch to cheaper brands. A supermarket usually has its own  brands which tend to be the cheapest. The difference in price is often considerable. For instance, biological jam in a special shop can cost as much as 3 euros per jar, while the cheapest supermarket brand is 85 cents. The same goes for coffee and other things.

Convenience foods and ready meals which need only to be heated tend to be more expensive. Also, sometimes it can be cheaper to bake your own bread. Learn to calculate the cost of the meal made of fresh ingredients and compare it with the convenience food equivalents.

Build your menus around sales. Don't go for fancy recipes with exotic ingredients. Simple food can be nutritious, too. Cook with the ingredients which are in season. You can also try farmers' markets which often have lower prices than supermarkets.

Substitute cheaper ingredients in your recipes for more expensive ones. There are some things you won't wish to go without, like fruit, but if it's very expensive, you can substitute it with tomatoes, or dried fruit which can be used in breakfast cereals. Switch to low-fat milk and if money is really tight, consider using margarine and various bread spreads instead of real butter.

If you have small children, make your own meals for them instead of buying insanely expensive baby food. If you don't know how, Google is your friend. The same goes for pets, you don't really need to buy expensive pet food. I'll admit that it's convenient, but if it really costs you a lot of money, you'll probably want to consider cheaper equivalents or find out how to make your own.

Don't buy paper towels, use cloth instead. You can also use old newspapers or advertisement fliers. Instead of buying juice for your children, think of using syrup which can be mixed with water. Plastic bags for cat litter boxes tend to be rather expensive nowadays, but can be substituted with regular garbage bags. Soap bars last longer than liquid soap in bottles, and meat from the freezer is cheaper than the fresh one. The same goes for vegetables, if the fresh vegetables are too expensive, buy canned or frozen instead.

When a product which you regularly use is on sale, stockpile on it. Potatoes can be expensive, too, but you can substitute them with rice, beans, pasta or bread. You could also consider reducing the amount of meat you eat as a family. While meat is important, and I would never suggest going completely vegetarian, you don't have to eat it every day to stay healthy. It can be substituted with fish, eggs or cheese, or you can reduce the amount of meat per portion but add cheese or eggs to your dish to compensate for the protein loss.

When you are doing shopping, have a list of all the things you need and stick to it, avoiding the temptation to buy unnecessary stuff only because it's on sale. Practice self-control and learn your children to do the same. A good housewife is a good manager who can make her husband's paycheck go a long way, if necessary.

 We all have been through difficult periods in our life when we had to watch every penny. Saving money is an art, and if you have a proper mindset you'll start finding your own ways to economise. Remember, a penny saved is a penny earned!

Homemaking Is A Matter Of Conviction, Part2

Seeing that my previous post on this topic has attracted a lot of attention, I decided to write a sequel. Since it's raining I can't use my coffee break to sit outside reading a trashy novel anyway, so I could just as well do something productive instead:)

In her book "Fascinating Womanhood" Helen Andelin has a chapter called "The Feminine Role vs. The Working Wife", in which she discusses a number of situations where the wife may be justified in working. Those situations include husbands being disabled and compelling financial emergencies. That's about how I see it, too.

A sudden loss of income due to unemployment or sickness/disability can happen to anyone, but that's not your typical, everyday situation for many two-income couples. A lot of wives who work do it "to ease the pinch", as Mrs Andelin puts it, or to afford luxuries. That's what she says on the issue: "You may not have enough money to cover expenses. There are too many things you need and can't afford...you seek employment, perhaps with your husband's approval. The problem with getting a job is that it's not worth the price you pay...Instead of going to work, cut expenses: Move to a less expensive home, sell one car...buy clothes at second-hand shops, and in other ways be thrifty." (p.284, Bantam Books, 1992).

Whatever your level of income is, if you don't manage your finances well, you still may end up in debt. I'm not talking about mortgages or students' loans, but about consumer/credit card debts. It's very easy to overspend, and it doesn't have to be a huge sum at first, but if you overdraw your account every month just for a small sum of money, by the end of the year you will be in a serious trouble.

Another reason so many women work is the desire for luxuries. To quote FW again: "You may work for...the latest household equipment, new furniture...a better house, or better clothes. Your husband may encourage you to work to satisfy his taste for luxuries - a boat, swimming pool, or cabin in the mountains. Or you may want greater advantages for your children...Justified as these desires may seem, the sacrifice is too great. It's better to trim the luxuries." (idem).

It's interesting that it's often people with high income who complain about life being so expensive that they both have to work. It seems that a bus driver can afford for his wife to stay home, but a surgeon can't.

The way to financial success is the good money management. To quote Helen Andelin again: "If  your husband's income is low, you can be the key figure in the financial success of your family, being in a position to make him or break him. Families with low incomes sometimes live in more comfort than those with more, due to the skill of money management." (F.W., p.146, Bantam Books, 1992).

I think that it sums it all up quite nicely. Women used to be proud of their ability to stretch their husbands'  paychecks as far as they could and men used to be proud to be the breadwinners. I'm sure that this way of life is still possible for most people if they only would give it a try.