living on 20 grand a year-

[LeighB]

How? LOL, not very specific huh. Here's the story- I need to quit my job because the situation is not working out with the baby. When I quit we'll only have dhs income which us aroud twenty grand a year at the moment.
Bills are around $800, including rent. Am I ridiculous for thinking this is possible? Obviously we'll have to create a budget and stick to it.
Any tips?
Thanks!

[nolansmummy]

What is the take home pay per month? around 1400$? If so i think if all your bills only add up to 800, including rent, insurance, electric, water, etc, then its possible. Are you in debt? If not even better. You'd have 600$ left after bills to go toward groceries, and other items. We have lived off less.
Can you start saving your income now until you quit so you have a little in savings?

[dsaucone]

Definetly possible. Just make a budget and stick to it. Last year we had 20,000 but 5 of it was medical and taxes, so take home was more like 15,000, it's doable.

[RoadWorkAhead]

We're living on about aht much, if not a little less. Its tight but we make it. Have you thought about finding something very part time to help with it? For me, I run a paper route. It brings in after everything about 500$ a month (or if I wait and have tax taken out at tax time $650/mo) so makes ends meet, but I take DC with me on my route so no child care, and just not such a fun schedule (DH and I share the route though). Know that there are a few2 options for a little side $$ if need be, and see how it works

[phathui5]

We've lived on less. How many are in your family?

You'd qualify for medical assistance for the kids, so you can avoid paying for that. You can probably get WIC if you aren't already.

Is your dh looking at ways to increase his income? Maybe changing career paths or looking for a higher paying job in the same industry?

You could also look into doing childcare for another family yourself. I make about $1300 a month doing part-time childcare for five different families. Each kid comes 2-3 days, or half-days a week.

[irisheyes66]

I live comfortably on around that amount...granted, I am just one person, with almost no debt...but I do help out my daughter (19) with her college expenses back East.

I guess the most important question was already posed by the PP...how many in your family?

[LeighB]

Thanks for the replies!

It is just the three of us- Dh, me, and 3 month old.
We have very little debt, about $2000 from a student loan.

We are both in school, but taking it slow and we're hoping that student aid/loans will cover most if it this year.

I'm going to look for something that I can take the baby to- like another nanny position. But t may not be for awhile.

[Purplehaze]

Before, or after taxes?

If it is 20K a year after taxes then yeah, you are talking about $1670 a month take home dividing it by 12, or 8 months of 1540 and 4 months of about $1923 (those with 5 pay periods in them, if you are paid weekly).

I think this is doable, on an average 4 week month, if paying $800 housing, you would be left with about $740 for gas, food, phones, utils, eveything else... the BIGGEST single factor is, are you and your partner on the same page with it?- both the part about you staying home, and frugality, that is the one thing that has to be. The other things to consider are medical- you want to have decent medical covereage- and you might be eligable for state coverage, and you do want to have an emergency fund and to be debt free. Also look long term- home repairs, car replacement- will any of that be coming your way in the near future and if so, how to cover it...

[llamalluv]

$20K a year with one child should qualify you for EIC. Unless you want that big refund a year from now, change your husbands withholdings to reflect more of that money coming home every month.

For instance, last year, if your family had earned only $20,000 and had NO federal taxes taken from your paycheck, you would have still gotten a refund of over $3,000 ($2432 in EIC, $1000 in child tax credit)

You can run different scenarios through Turbo Tax online and see how it would impact you based on 2007 filing rules.

[Alkenny]

If your rent and utilities are only $800 a month, that's TOTALLY doable. After medical insurance, we lived on less than that and had a house payment, car payment, and credit card payment that equaled that much a month (plus utilities etc, on top of that!)...and had 3 kids.

Totally doable.

[cravenab00]

totally doable.

we are a family of 7 living on $25K and it works. Even with student loan debt coming out of our ears.