Updated Post: Financial Tips to Thrive on a Single Income Household, whilst highlighting a few Pros

I am very much OCD, but have my moments when I just want to get things done, like I did with this blog post. Then, upon receiving a valuable comment from a Facebook friend I realized that my blog post actually should have been titled "Financial Tips on Thrive on a Single Income Household". Because even though I discuss some pros and cons, I didn't get into half of especially the pros that I wanted to highlight.

So thank you Jacqueline Johnston for helping me realize this. I have decided to include some more pros in my blog post :)

When my husband and I decided to start a family, I felt the need to raise my kids myself. So I resigned from my job and became a stay-at-home mom. I worked as a Reliability Senior Engineer at Eskom Distribution. This was one of the best decisions I ever made.

However, the cons for single income households are obvious, one less salary coming into the household. The implications are of course especially, less disposable income, so you can't eat out at restaurants all the time, clothing and home related expenses need to be planned carefully. By home related expenses I'm talking about expenses related to home maintenance and home improvements. Expenses related to kids activities, especially because these tend to be quite emotionally driven. You don't want to feel like parents that deprive their kids from experiences in life due to a lack of financial means.

But something myself and my husband agrees on, is that if you are willing to make certain lifestyle changes, you'll not only cope, but actually thrive as a family. We also feel that it is in fact good to cut certain luxury items from your kids lifestyle and avoid them from turning into entitled and spoiled brats.

Home cooked meals are healthier and more nutritious for your family than restaurant food, plus family communication and interaction without any disruptions and distractions that comes along with spending time in a public domain. Home baking with kids not only teaches them the concepts of volume, measuring and weighing different items, but it also teaches them to make things for themselves and which ingredients go into certain foods. They learn to follow directions and about having patience. They learn baking is fun and you get some yummy treats at the end of the day. Can you tell I love baking :-)

You don't need a big fancy car, rather invest in a lovely family home instead. If you have some spare cash, buy an investment property. You don't need to buy your groceries at Woolies. Yes they claim to have the freshest, best quality, organic foods. But we feel you can get some good food for your family at Checkers too. We feel Checkers is the best priced grocery retailer out there and if you have a budget to watch, then why not right.

We don't buy nuts, dried fruit and snacks from the Grocery store, it simply costs too much. We have a factory shop in Athlone, Teddies, where we buy almonds, peanuts, dried fruit, etc.

We don't subscribe to DSTV instead subscribe to Netflix. We pay a mere R58 for 50GB of WIFI data at Axxess. Yes, Netflix doesn't have the latest movies and shows nor live sports events, but I guess you need to set your priorities, right?

There are so many pros to having mommy home for the boys.

I get to pick them up from school midday and we get to enjoy a delicious lunch together, they have a afternoon nap and then we enjoy some constructive activities together, may it be colouring, numbers, letters, drawing, etc. So that by the time daddy comes home from work we have two settled boys, with homework complete and more, plus supper going, dishes done, laundry done, etc. No rushed nighttime routine. I get to attend extra mural activities with the boys, which helps boosts self confidence and is just an all round pro. When they not feeling well, I don't need to hesitate about keeping them home and being able to take them to the doctor if need be. I am able to care and nurture them back to health as need be without feeling guilty about sick leave stats. I'll update these pros as my Facebook followers remind me of some more.

We aim to live a simpler, humbler life without the bells and whistles mostly to raise kind, considerate, humble young boys.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this matter.

Lynn

xoxo

#SingleIncomeHouseholds #Checkers #Teddies #Restaurants #HealthyEating