r/stayathomemoms • u/Consistent-Credit423 • Dec 19 '24
Question How much does your husband make
Does anyone have any advice on how we can save money? We make 100k a year, but it feels like we're struggling to make ends meet while saving to purchase a house. Additionally, we need to kickstart a college fund for our child and plan to have another child in a couple of years.
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u/chopstickinsect Dec 19 '24 edited Dec 19 '24
Hey obviously I don't know where you live, but where I like $100k isn't that much, so I feel you that it's a struggle!
Admittedly my husband makes a bit more than you (900k), but we had a lot of years of struggle before we got here! This is the saving system we use, and from what I've read it's the easiest saving system for most people. It's called a 50 30 20 budget.
50% of your budget is going to go on your needs. Needs are bills, food, rent, transport etc.
30% is going on your wants. Wants are new clothes (outside of winter coats etc which are needs), eating out, subscriptions etc.
20% is savings and debt. That's oaying off your car, saving for college, etc.
Now you can switch to 20% wants and 30% savings if you prefer, but for a lot of people that begins to feel really hard and austere.
I prefer to do this as a weekly budget, but you can do it per pay period, or whatever makes sense to you. But at the end of each 'period' ALL extra money in your account goes into savings.
Choose a high yield savings account, and money that goes in there stays in there. It only comes out for emergencies.
Agree a spending threshold between you and your partner, any purchases above that number must be discussed and agreed upon. For us that number is $1000, but pick what makes sense for you.