Living on One Income

Since living in a one-income family, we had learned to cut down on a lot of things. We have also identified a lot of areas in which to minimize our spending. I have listed most of them here:

• I always carry snacks when i go to work. And i don't eat out. I also take advantage of the budget meal offered to staff in our office, which is really cheap but a complete meal already.

• To save on gas, i just commute to work. The heavy traffic that i encounter everyday can take its toll on our budget for gasoline, so, this is where i am very careful.

• As in my previous post, i have identified switching from branded products to store brand products as one of the best ways to save on grocery expenses. The quality of these products are now at par with the name-brand products.I even know for a fact that some grocery stores get their products from reputable companies, and stamp them with their own brand, thus, making it cheaper, because these companies don't need to spend on advertising.

• We are also extra careful on how we use the electricity in the house. The kids are trained to always turn off the lights which are not in use. We have also minimized the use of our airconditioner, although of course, sometimes when the heat is unbearable, we couldn't sacrifice the health of our kids for this.

• We have stopped using the rice cooker and just cook our rice in the range. This saved us a lot because hot plates consume a lot of electricity.

• We don't have a microwave oven in the house, because, again, this can eat up a lot of our electric bill.