Yep, you better believe it! Our small (or large) family depending on how you view us, can not only survive but thrive off of $30,000 annually. That is living off $2500 a month.

You may be thinking it’s because the house is paid off. But that’s not the main reason why. The main reason why we can live on a small amount monthly, in all honesty, is that I recently became a stay at home mom (SAHM). And so far it’s been rewarding. Not only do I get to spend more time with my children and help my husband with business items, but I also get to work on my special projects as well. Whether it’s DIY, reading, or writing on the blog, I feel refreshed being home.

Don’t get me wrong, it is hard work most days. I spend a great amount of time with my almost 2 year old and she follows me everywhere I go. But she is a great helper when it’s time to clean up and I noticed she’s picking up some great habits from home like using good manners.

You may be thinking, how staying home helped me reduce the budget to 30K annually from almost twice that when I had a job. Well, let me share.

We removed the kids from daycare/aftercare

Just to give you an idea, our cost to put 3 kids in daycare or after school care was more than the cost of our mortgage. Please don’t get me wrong, I am all for someone caring for our kids. My kids were in such good care. But I’m finding after I left my job and worked with my kids at home, they became a bit more attentive, resourceful and we’ve established a routine. For example, I have my kids search the dictionary if they don’t know how to spell a word or don’t know it’s meaning. Why, because we have the time to do it and I want the kids to learn how to search for things on their own. Oh by the way, by removing the kids from after school care, we’ve eliminated about $15,000 in our budget for the school year and/or $20,000 if we include summer camp.

I make more items from scratch

I am able to save on cost by making more items from scratch like certain foods and household products. At times I would buy more premade ready foods (which cost more) and now I just make it myself. I’ve even made laundry detergent that lasts for about 6 months to a year using borax, washing soda, and bar soap. There are so many recipes for this, but I like this one if you want to take it up a notch. When I worked full-time, I didn’t have the time to do this much because my days were limited to just the weekends, now I have 7 days a week I can spend on creating.

We maintain our own home

We have a pool, but we clean it ourselves. Oh, and our lawn, we cut it ourselves. We do light plumbing work and electrical when necessary. We can easily have someone come and clean our house, yard, and pool but we don’t feel like it’s necessary at this stage of our lives. Plus, we do like working with our hands so some tasks are actually enjoyable.

We utilize more resources for free

I like the library, my kids like the library so we go there from time to time. It also provides fun activities for babies, toddlers, and kids at no cost to me. I also joined a neighborhood app that lets me know of free or inexpensive events happening in my community or a nearby community.

I’m not saying we bring home 30K annually, our income is greater than that, but we live off 30K even though we don’t have to. Why is this important? Well if I or my husband want to both work part-time, we can do so. Or if one of us wants to work and the other stays home, it’s possible. We like the flexibility and the options that we have.

Though not having a mortgage helps to greatly reduce our monthly costs, it’s our everyday savings that truly add up. We do not feel deprived at all. In actuality, I feel full, my heart feels full because I am spending more time with my family and I’m using that time to maximize what is accessible to me. I implore you to find your number. The number that your family can live well on if one of you chooses to leave a traditional job to work on your passion. It may be lower than you think.

So what’s your number? Does it need to increase or decrease based on your lifestyle? Comment below.