10 Practical Tips for Becoming a Secure Single Income Family

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Single income family. That may sound scary as we start 2025, however our family has made the decision to pivot from a two-income family to a single income family. Over the last couple years, we’ve prioritized setting our family up for success so that I could comfortably stay home with our children full time. While this will still require some sacrifice, we are in a solid place and I want to share my top 10 tips with you to help you take steps toward becoming a secure single income family.

1. Track your current spending habits and compare this with the income that your family would be maintaining.

If you are not already keeping track of your expenses and spending in some way, you should start now. You need to know where your money is going – better yet, you will need to tell your money where to go. Once your family is down to living on one income, you can’t afford to be careless with your spending.

Below are some recommendations to better manage your spending:

Review all of your expenses

• Monthly bills such as mortgage or rent, utilities, insurance, etc.
• Food expenses such as groceries and eating out
• Miscellaneous spending (home projects, recreation, daycare costs, etc.)

Understand how much of your spending is a need versus a want. Ask yourself the following questions?

• Are we buying more of ‘x’ than we actually need? This could be extra snacks, paper products, etc. I once discovered I had 3 OPEN jars of relish in my fridge due to poor planning. This is a whole different subject that we can and will discuss in another post. For now, I’m just grateful these were $2 jars of relish and not items that cost significantly more.
• Why do we want to buy this? What issue is this solving – is it really solving any issue or would it just be nice?
• Is this purchase fulfilling a basic need? Will this expense provide you with shelter, warmth that you don’t already have a solution for, food that you do not already have to eat?

Identify your biggest spending categories and brainstorm how to spend less. Use the following questions to help you get started:

• Can we look into dropping our monthly bills by finding a different service provider? For example, looking into different insurance or phone and internet providers could save you hundreds every year.
• Can we make more meals at home? If you find yourselves eating out on a regular basis, you should aim to make more, if not all, of your meals at home. In almost all circumstances, eating food from home will be cheaper, not to mention healthier.
• In what ways are we being wasteful? When I was working my corporate job, I was so busy that I rarely had the time to go through and regularly keep my refrigerator and pantry cleaned. This is how I ended up with 3 jars of open relish in my fridge once I was finally able to clean it (not my proudest moment). However, I know I am not the only one who ends up accidentally shoving something to the back of the fridge or pantry and then the item becomes expired and I have to buy a new one. Or in the case of the relish, I end up buying items I already have.

2. Before you reduce your income to one source, practice only budgeting with the income that you will be keeping.

If timing isn’t a major concern, try giving yourselves a couple of months to test out living on the single income your family will be keeping. If you want to make it even more challenging, you could try this with the lesser income! Here’s the criteria our family adhered to when we were preparing to become a single income family:

• Test living off a single income for at least one month or more.
• Budget every dollar for that time period so you are directing your income to specific costs or savings goals.
• At the end of each month, review your spending habits. Did you stick to your plan? Why or why not? What adjustments do you need to make?
• Repeat this process every month that you can. Eventually, it will become habit and something you naturally do.

If you need a template to set a budget and track your monthly spending, you can access my FREE budget tracker and financial planner here to get you started. It also includes an area to set a monthly challenge for yourselves with a weekly check-in prompt to monitor your progress.

3. Build up a secure savings account.

I follow Dave Ramsey’s advice on this topic. Having a $1,000 emergency fund is crucial, but working towards a goal of six months of expenses, if you can, is a sure way to set yourselves up for success as a one income household. Depending on your current income, this can be challenging. However, knowing that you will have up to six months of expenses covered should the main income go away for a time, gives a strong sense of peace and security.  

Bonus tip: Use a high yield savings account to passively make additional income on the money you’ve saved. Our family will be making thousands just by simply setting up an account. We’ve enjoyed using Wealthfront!

4. Spend Less Money on Food

This is the area where most families spend the most. However, this is also a category where it’s easiest to reduce the costs, which is a huge win. Here are some key ways you can save money on food:

• Limit how many times your family is going out to eat (obviously).
• Shop your own fridge, freezer, and pantry first before buying more groceries. Develop your meal plan around what you already have and only buy what is needed.
• Quit buying snack foods and sodas. Have you seen how much soda is these days? Absolutely wild. It’s terrible for you anyways, so definitely an ‘easy no’ when you know you need to save money. Most prepackaged foods are expensive and you can save more by avoiding those items.
• Focus on simple meals that use whole foods (meat, cheeses, dairy, fruits and veggies). Basically, stick to the perimeter of the grocery store. Your financial and physical health will thank you. Also by sticking to simple meals, you’ll buy less ingredients.
• Stick to your meal plan to prevent food from going to waste. You know I’m referring to that veggie drawer where those vegetables you HAD good intentions for go to die…

If you’re looking for additional ideas to help you save money on groceries, be sure to read this post that include ways to save money on groceries without coupons.

5. Become Resourceful and Buy Less 

Before you buy something, ask yourself, “Do I have something at home already that could fulfill this need?” For example, I wanted my fridge to be slightly more organized so I wouldn’t repeat the relish fiasco again. I’m certainly not one to have all my items in containers, but there are some thing that would work well being placed in a container.

Rather than immediately hop into my Amazon account and purchase some organizers, I was able to utilize some extra plastic food containers to put things like premade yogurt pouches in. Game changer and it was free!

6. Pause before you purchase

I’m guilty of not doing this. I’ll see something interesting or something that feels like it’s impossible to pass up and impulse buy. I’ve really had to work on pausing and it’s still something I am working on. One thing that my husband and I are doing is having a shared note where we can have a simple list of things we’d like to purchase, but it’s not a NEED at this moment. It helps to have that list because we can use that as reference when thrifting or for when we hear of a good sale. Or it allows us to come back to it later and say, “You know what. We don’t really need that. ‘X’ will actually solve this problem.”

7. Be confident in knowing why you are wanting to live on one income.

Becoming a single income family is not an easy task. It comes with sacrifice, but also so much reward. However, you need to know why you want to do this. “Saving more money” is simply not compelling enough. Maybe you want to be able to stay home with your children or homeschool or maybe you will both still be working but one income is solely going to be put aside to pay off your home much sooner. Imagine being mortgage free…how freeing would that be? Whatever your reason, make sure it’s a strong one or you will give up quickly.

P.S. If you are still in the decision-making process and are discussing this possible new life change with your husband, I recommend you take a look at my friend Jillian's post from Sprouting Arrows about talking to your husband about becoming a stay at home mom.

8. Practice Gratitude 

Everything we have, tangible and intangible, is God’s gift to us. Recognize all the blessings he has provided and thank Him daily. Posturing our heart to live in a grateful state will make such a difference. It will also help with tip #9 below.

9. Be Generous

We are made to create. Let’s shift our focus to using what we have (time, talents, money, etc.) and using that for good. We need to steward the gifts God has given us and put them to good use. If you have time, serve your church in some way. Gifted with photography? Offer to take photos during special events. If you are great with children, offer to pour into the children in your lives, give another mom friend a break or volunteer in your church nursery.

When we focus on what we can give, instead of what we can receive, our consumerism mindset begins to fade and we become more of a producer of good work, which is so much more fulfilling than buying more things we don’t actually need. Plus if we’re busy helping others, we’re spending less time online shopping or scrolling.

When my husband and I started tithing (actually setting aside 10%, not just a comfortable amount like we had been) about a year into our marriage when we made a very small income, it was scary and logically seemed like something we shouldn’t do. However, Malachi 3:10 says, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.” (NIV)

We started tithing and the Lord has so graciously blessed us. Not once since we started has our generosity been unworthy. It has blessed others and we have been so blessed since. Before we went down to one income, in a few years time, our household income doubled.

10. Pray  

With gratitude for what you already have, ask the Lord for wisdom. As James 1:5 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” (NIV)

When you are struggling with managing your finances or are nervous about something, ask God for wisdom. He will be generous and direct your steps.

I hope you found these 10 tips helpful on your journey to becoming a secure single income family. It’s not an easy assignment, but this mission is truly fulfilling with the right mindset and habits.

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