re: I managed to save $30k

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Do you have a kid and a wife who doesn't work? Do you think OP had a house that was paid off right out of college? You're also almost 50% above his claimed spending at the very least. It isn't that easy. OP is also full of shite

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My Wife does work, and we have a 3 year old daughter. My Mom helps some with our daughter, and my wife can take her sometimes with her to work. Now and then she comes with me in the truck for a few days.

My Wife's Mom will be moving here from The Philippines fairly soon, and that will help us even more.

Edit to add: We have a pretty big, older house, and our utility bills are a big chunk of that $1,800 monthly. If we lived in a smaller house, and had the same mortgage, the difference in the utilities bills and smaller insurance payment, would probably bring that down by a couple hundred bucks each month.

I think that most people can do it if they really put their mind to it, and think about things in different terms.
My wife doesn't make a lot of money, but the benefit of being able to take the kid to work with her is huge.
When it comes to jobs, most Americans think in terms of salary numbers, but it's not really about how much you make, it's about how much you spend, and more than anything, it's about the things that you do spend your money on.
I don't want to give the impression that we never spend money, because we do, but, we spend mostly on good musical instruments, guns, antique furniture, tools sometimes. I don't include that stuff in the household budget that I gave, because it is actually more like a savings account, because those things hold their value more, and actually appreciate in value a lot of times, but at the same time it satisfies that urge to go spend some money. Rewarding yourself.
We don't have big screen TVs, or really fancy appliances, everything is pretty basic around our house.

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That’s 30k a year and you managed to save 15k/year so you lived off 15k per year? That’s $1,250 month for house car gas clothes food etc If true that’s crazy

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You might be surprised how easy it really is, if you have a wife that's not a money spender, and neither one of you are suckers for the newest and greatest trends and merchandise.

We spend less than $1,800 per month on our household expenses on average right now

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It is not easy, at all, especially if you have a kid.

Three meals a day times 3 mouths is 270 meals per month. How cheap are your meals? Can you keep it under $1 each? Even a bologna sandwich costs 50 cents. Are you eating ramen noodles every day? Let's say you eat bologna sandwiches and ramen every day, drink only tap water, and occasionally splurge on a turkey sandwich to average about 75 cents per meal, $200/month.

You have one family vehicle that was GIFTED to you, and it gets great mileage, and you drive less than half the national average. It never has trouble. You also get extraordinarily great insurance rates. $40 gas, $50 insurance.

You were GIFTED energy efficient lighting and appliances, and you never waste electricity, gas, or water. Your utility bill is $75.

You live in a shack that somehow has quality insulation to keep the bills down and never needs repair. $500/month

You have one cell phone for the family, and you have the dirt cheapest plan ever at $20 flat.

You have no life or health insurance, and you never get sick.

You have no pay TV of any kind, no entertainment, and no internet service.

The whole family only needs 1 new article of clothing or shoes per month. $20

You buy the absolute cheapest household cleaning supplies, toilet paper, paper towels, etc. $20

Depending on age of the kid, whether it's for diapers, school supplies, gas money, or whatever, somehow you manage to keep the kid's expenses down to $50/month.


That stuff totals $975. So yeah, I guess if you live in a shack, eat bologna and drink tap water, were gifted the most amazing vehicle ever, rarely drive, are incredibly frugal with your utilities, have no insurance and never get sick, have no entertainment and no internet access, wear rags, and deprive your child of most extra-curricular activities, I guess you could get by on $1000/month.

We do eat a lot of rice and beans, and chicken and noodles, and spaghetti stuff like that, grill some salmon or steaks now and again. sliced cucumbers or tomatoes with some seasoning on them for snacks. We love that stuff.
We don't spend much on snack stuff, although I recently tried The Golden Flake Jalapeno and cheddar cheese puffs, and those might turn into a problem, they are damn delicious.

I do have a kid. I'm in my late 50s with a 3 year old.
All of this stuff that you think you have to buy..that's for spoiling yourself, not he kid. Think about it.
Go ahead, make everything easy on yourself, quick and easy.
You get what you put in.
If you think everything is always about dealing out money, and thinking in that frame of mind, That is always what you will be dealing with down the road.

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So your grocery bill is probably closer to $400 rather than my bottom dollar estimate of $200?

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My wife manages a restaurant, and I am gone quite a bit.
We probably only have 8-10 family meals each month.
When I am away from home in my truck, I usually heat up some canned beans or peas, with some minute rice. throw some canned ham or chicken in, or bacon jerky. It's cheap and tasty.

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My wife manages a restaurant

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So she gets free meals?

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We probably only have 8-10 family meals each month.

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That actually makes the food bill higher for most people since you're not all sharing one cheap prepared meal.

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When I am away from home in my truck, I usually heat up some canned beans or peas, with some minute rice. throw some canned ham or chicken in, or bacon jerky. It's cheap and tasty.

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And what about the kid?

And none of that answered the question you quoted.

I'm starting to think that you have no idea how much your family spends on food, much less clothes, insurance, etc.


Plus look at your argument, this is what you're saying:

It's easy to live on $1200/month like OP claims. The first thing you have to do is spend 50% more than that. Then you have to have jobs that allow you to take the kid to work, and have family to watch them when you can't. Then your wife has to get free food from her restaurant job, which feeds the kid too. Then you have to be a truck driver so you don't have a fuel bill, and you're away from home so much that you don't use much electricity, gas, and water.

See? Easy-peasy.

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What are you talking about? I listed ONLY expenses that MUST be paid just to survive. I excluded ALL forms of entertainment. I excluded insurance, all household repairs, all car repairs (and the car note!), internet, multiple phones. If you remove anything else from my list you will either die of starvation, be naked, or have to wipe your arse with leaves. I was really just trying to tell you that you might want to review your monthly expenses, because there's no way it's only $1800 if you live anything resembling a civilized life. That's federal poverty level spending for married with a kid. Unless you specifically said "household expenses" in order to exclude certain things to make OP's story more believable for some reason.

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I know our numbers .Do what you want. You may not even know that there are other ways of doing things, besides what they advertise on TV.
When I was a really young kid, we lived in a shack with no electricity or running water. By the time I was 16, I was driving Cadillacs and Muscle Cars To school everyday.
I know what can be done with some fricking effort. I've lived it.
Thank God, that I never expect anything to be easy.