How to live on one income

Someone once asked Richard how we could afford for me to stay home with our kids and live on one income.

This is how we do it:

We don't buy clothes.  We just renew and maintain the good relationship we have with the clothes presently in our closet.  Every once in awhile I get pregnant which means rediscovering clothes I have not worn in years.  Once a year Richard buys shirts and shoes and makes them last.

 

We don't go to movies.  Everything comes to redbox so why spent 20x that amount seeing it on a big screen.  All I have to do is sit really close to the TV.

We don't go out to eat. I learned to cook, and now I prefer the food I make to 90 % of the food in restaurants.

We don't go "out" on dates. I look forward to our "date night in" when we put the kids to bed, make a pizza or nachos, and watch a movie together or play games.

We don't have expensive hobbies like skiing, rockclimbing, biking, or shopping.  We spend our family time going hiking and to parks and making home-made pizza.

We don't change or update our furniture or housing decorations (unless its free) Everything will get ruined while our kids are young anyway, so why spend money on something that will end up covered in Tinkerbelle tattoos? (We put colored water in Mason Jars for an equisite kitchen update :)

We don't enroll our children in much.  We have one museum membership and we participate in a cooperative preschool.  WE actually took Anna out of a dance class-- not because she didn't love it, but because at three years of age, she has plenty of time to take classes later when we have more financial wiggle room.  If she starts classes again at 4 or 5, I doubt she will be handicapped by her previous absence from the sport.
We use the library and reading books for entertainment (I do have a problem with late fees though...)
We use babysitting exchanges with other parents instead of paying a babysitter or we wait for Richard's mother to visit :)
I learned how to cut Richard's hair and I no longer stink at it!
I don't dye my hair or get it cut often.  I paint my own toenails

And last but not least, we review our budget often!