CM107_unit_4.docx CM107 Budgeting a Single Income CM107 College Composition In todays

CM107_unit_4.docx  CM107  Budgeting a Single Income  CM107 College Composition  In todays world, parents are forced to make a difficult financial decision regarding family and childcare, and when it comes to my husband and I, we are no different. Like every other couple, we had to discuss our financial future before each child. Of course, my dream as always, is to stay at home for at least the first 2 years. However, with every child, that dream was getting almost impossible. Can a family still manage to live on one income in the 21st century? That was something we had to figure out.  We had to put a lot of time, planning, and effort into making it possible for us to live on one income. We had to set goals and limits: planning, paying down debt, shopped around, budgeted (for me was making a list and crossing it off), made sacrifices, finding ways to supplement some money, and last but not least taking advantage of gift cards. When planning, we had a target number we had to stick to. We had to learn how to pay all housing-related monthly expenses on that one salary. That meant when looking for a home, things like mortgage payment, homeowners insurance, and property taxes all had to be under a certain amount. With a little restraint, we were able to buy a house. We had to pay down debt. Theres no way I would have been able to stay home if we were drowning in debt. We had to learn to shop around. We had to do things like switched our car insurance, cell phone provider and plan, and our health