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How to Live on a Single Income - FF Ep 13
16 Plays7 days ago
In this episode we discuss strategies and ideas for living on one income as a family. Is it possible? Yes it is! Sometimes it can be pretty hard, but we believe it is worth the effort to make that happen. But what do you need to cut out of your life? Listen and find an idea, and hopefully some encouragement to carry on!
Email us! Dads@PreacherDad.com
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Transcript
Introduction and Purpose of Fatherhood Friday
00:00:01
Speaker
Well, hello everybody. Welcome to the Preacher Dad podcast. My name is Jared. I am the Preacher Dad and we are glad to have you here for Fatherhood Friday. And today our Fatherhood panel is going to discuss living on one income. All of the panel members live on one income.
Strategies for Living on a Single Income
00:00:20
Speaker
And we are excited to share with you a little bit of our thoughts, some strategies, tips, things you can do to be able to live on one income. Is it important? What's the significance of it?
00:00:33
Speaker
So I hope that you'll stick around and listen in. And also, I want to remind you that the Preacher Dad podcast is brought to you in part by Cornerstone Fellowship. Cornerstone Fellowship is just a small country church just a little bit north of Tombsboro, Georgia.
00:00:48
Speaker
And we would love for you to come and visit us. and yet if you're not able to visit us you're out of town maybe out of state you can visit us online at and we would love to hear from you and visit with you god bless you let's start fatherhood friday
00:01:21
Speaker
Hello everybody. Welcome to Fatherhood Friday on the Preacher Dad Podcast.
Challenges and Biblical Perspectives
00:01:27
Speaker
We're glad to have you here. I'm here tonight with Matt Stewart and Nathan Eisner. We are your fatherhood panel and we're going to discuss tonight's topic is single income families.
00:01:40
Speaker
I know this is something that's important to a lot of dads out there. Probably moms too. If you're a parent, you know that this is a challenge. And making it into today's world is just seems like in many ways harder and harder and harder.
00:01:56
Speaker
So I really want to hopefully give somebody out there some encouragement and some wisdom and understanding. And to get us started tonight on that, we're going to throw it over here to my brother, Matt Stewart.
00:02:08
Speaker
ah Matt, why don't you get us going here? Yeah, i appreciate it, Jared. Thank you. Yeah, it's definitely a um ah very important um topic. And there's, you know, there's got to be millions probably of ah thoughts on this, pros, cons.
00:02:25
Speaker
um Everybody's situation is different. But I want to spend a little bit of time talking about why I think um this is important to work towards.
00:02:40
Speaker
um Maybe some are already there. and struggling. Maybe some are just thinking about it. Maybe some that are listening have never thought about this at all, but I do want to start out with some scripture.
00:02:52
Speaker
um You know, as, as we just makes me think about our Chick-fil-A days, know, start with the why, right? Everybody needs to know why we, why we're doing something. And, and so why do we think this single income family is, is a good thing? And when I'm saying that too, we're, we're, we're talking about the,
00:03:12
Speaker
the the men working, the women staying at home. Um, I don't think we would want that to be the other way around. So anyway, so scripture, um, there's obviously I've got, I'm not a, I'm not a, um, you know, professional, I don't know it Bible inside and out, you know, but I know there's several verses that are popular. It stand out when it comes to, uh, women staying home. Um,
00:03:41
Speaker
taking care of the home, managing the household, taking care of the kids, and wanted ah wanted to hit on three of them. One is Titus 2, 3 through 5. And it's it's um telling the the older women are teaching the younger women what is good.
00:04:01
Speaker
and so what is good is um that the younger women love their husbands and children. They stay self-controlled, pure, work at home, and be kind and submissive to their husbands.
00:04:14
Speaker
So we see they're working at home. um Also in 1 Timothy 5.14, it's ah ah speaking to young widows and why they should get married to basically state stay out of sin.
00:04:30
Speaker
And it says, so I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their household, and give the adversary no occasion for slander.
Balancing Work, Education, and Family Values
00:04:43
Speaker
And then the third one, which I'm not going to read all of, is the Proverbs 31 woman. And just kind of summarize it. it talk if if If it's the first time hearing about Proverbs 31, it's about a woman who um works with her hands a lot.
00:05:01
Speaker
She rises while it's still dark. She provides food for the family. She buys land. She plants gardens. She stays up late and sows. She provides for the needy. She makes products and sells um She manages her household, cares for her children and the husband, and most importantly, she fears the Lord.
00:05:20
Speaker
So as i as I continue to go on this a little bit, you'll hear me say, you know, manage her household, make her family a priority.
00:05:30
Speaker
Those key keep coming up all the time, and it's in all of those um passages I just mentioned. So um again, this is main, you know, as I'm talking, I'm i'm thinking about a family who has a husband and wife who has children, right? Cause most of our listeners, um, have children.
00:05:51
Speaker
So it, it, you know, a, just a husband and wife who have no children, they could still, she could still stay at home. And I think that's fine and good, but obviously most women probably work in that case and that's fine. You know, there's no, no children at home, but,
00:06:09
Speaker
um So you're saying that the primary reason that a wife would stay at home is to care for the children is is what you're, what you're saying there. Is that right? Managing the household, which primarily is, well, I think primarily, I mean, it's, she has her, her, her duty to her husband.
00:06:29
Speaker
Um, and make, ah I guess I'm thinking like making that, taking care of the, the inside of the home. So the husband can focus on, maybe more of the outside of the home and working, you know, like actually going to a job and taking care of the outside of his home.
00:06:46
Speaker
But yeah, kids are the main thing. um So we just, just went over some scripture um that I would argue, so you know, says that women should stay at home, but does God forbid the woman from working outside the home?
00:07:06
Speaker
And and i He says, I think, I don't think he does forbid that. I don't think it's forbidden. um I think it could be acceptable if she can still manage her her household and keep her kids and her in her home her priority.
00:07:27
Speaker
um But ah it may not be the wisest thing to do. you know And again, there's so many different situations.
00:07:38
Speaker
And I know people, um I know women who are nurses and they work very minimal hours just to kind of keep their certification. and And they can still maybe homeschool their kids, can still cook and provides for her family, but she can work a little bit. I think that's fine.
00:07:56
Speaker
um i don't think that's forbidden. oh Even my wife, she coaches ah a lot of sports, not for money, but she just coaches, volunteers and coaches.
00:08:07
Speaker
And she always asks herself, can i if I do this, will my family still be a priority? Are we still going to have dinner together? Are we still going to have a a peaceful, you know, a house and all that kind of stuff? So that these those are the things that run through her mind a lot.
00:08:25
Speaker
But um um so what another question that kind of brings up in my mind is can the can the mom work to provide, um, to earn money, to send her kids to a good Christian school.
00:08:43
Speaker
And I think that would be, um, acceptable and a, and a good thing. Now, as long as the, you know, as long as the motivation is there, like if, if the reason why she's working is to provide that good Christian education for her children, I think that's fine.
00:08:58
Speaker
But if it's to buy the, you know fancy clothes, nice cars, whatever, then I think that's probably not, um, not the wise thing to do. um So. And also and i about to jump in there real quick, it I would put it a caveat on that saying, make sure the Christian school that you send them to is actually a good Christian school, not just a normal school with the word Christian slapped on it. not no And that's complete. You got to do your own research on that.
00:09:26
Speaker
You know, absolutely. that's But I hear so many people that's that grew up in a Christian private education that talk about how, yeah, it was, you know, it was basically public school. We just went to chapel every day.
00:09:37
Speaker
So just throwing that out there. Absolutely. hundred percent. And there's a lot of, um, there's a lot of people that, that I follow online or whatever. Brilliant men, built very respected men who really advocate for the, for sending the kids off to school, especially the boys.
00:09:57
Speaker
But again, classical education. Yeah. So, um,
00:10:05
Speaker
Yeah. So there may be times too, where the woman has to work in special situations. And again, it could be a ton, but maybe the husband is, um, can't work for whatever reason. He's learning a trade or medical conditions, health insurance, whatever it may be.
00:10:19
Speaker
But I think the goal needs to be keep your, get your, get your, your wife at home as soon as possible and work towards that.
Benefits and Sacrifices of Single Income Living
00:10:29
Speaker
Um, a little side note about my family. Yeah. We started out, um,
00:10:34
Speaker
My wife got her master's and was planning on working. And we she did for a couple of years. um had a Had a child. she We looked for daycares. We were getting ready to put the kid in daycare to go back. So she'd go back to work. And then God changed our hearts, thankfully.
00:10:50
Speaker
and um and And she's been at home ever since for 13 years now. and It's been such a blessing. So a few benefits of the wife staying home.
00:11:03
Speaker
First of all, it's how God designed the family. um You know, everybody says that if if mom is happy, everybody's happy. Well, it really, though, if every i think I do think a family is probably happier if the mom is staying home doing what she was designed to do to care for her kids. um It's less stress when she has to focus just on the house and kids versus the house, the kids and a full time job. All right. So.
00:11:32
Speaker
I do think um mommy is going to be more joyful and happier if she's at home. um Obviously, there's homeschool. There's tons of benefits for that. um So much freedom, and you can specialize your child's education.
00:11:46
Speaker
Huge blessing there. um So much that the mom can teach the kids. Bible, stuff about life for the girls, how to be feminine, so many different things.
00:11:58
Speaker
Obviously, the house, um having it clean and orderly, having food ready when the husband gets home. That's such a great feeling. Walking in the door, kids tackle you and you smell, you know, tacos cooking or whatever. That's just, that's wonderful.
00:12:13
Speaker
um It's good for the kids if mama's home um and it helps. I mentioned it earlier. It helps take pressure off of like inside of the house. So the dad, you know, dad can focus on things outside.
00:12:28
Speaker
And then lastly, as I kind of wrap up my little portion, how to make it happen practically. And again, there's lots of different things that that that you can do.
00:12:40
Speaker
um But I will say it's going to be hard. And it's going to take sacrifices from both the man and the woman to make this happen. But first, pray to God that he will change your hearts. um If you're not doing it, pray that he will change your heart.
00:12:57
Speaker
He'll give you wisdom. um and and and trust that he will provide for you. um Proverbs 3, 9 through 10, Matthew 6 are some good verses, but first we got to pray about it.
00:13:11
Speaker
And then you got to pray about like, God, you know, what are some things that we need to give up? We need to change. um And it's going to be tough, but it may be for women.
00:13:23
Speaker
It may be, you know, buying expensive clothes, um not buying expensive expensive clothes anymore. You can still look pretty without really expensive clothes. um Haircuts, you know, manicures, whatever, makeup.
00:13:37
Speaker
Even for us too, at times, it's been like organic food. Maybe we have to cut back on that a little bit, you know, just to save some money. Men, we we know, you know, vehicles, it could be sports, ah guns, machines, toys, know, all kinds of stuff for the men.
00:13:56
Speaker
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Frugality and Community Support
00:14:37
Speaker
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00:14:44
Speaker
um jabeable Cable TV packages. Yeah. I had on my next thing. You don't need 600 channels. yeah The next thing I was going to say was subscriptions.
00:14:55
Speaker
yeah you know and that could be in a lot of different ways yeah absolutely um i don't you know I've never had wi-fi ever my I've we use visible which uses Verizon's towers that's our phone provider and it has unlimited hotspot and it's not the greatest but it works it lets me pay my bills and it lets me do this podcast from time to time this is the first time it's ever worked at my house so pretty cool yeah um but uh yeah so like there's you know, there are a lot of necessities that have only become necessity within the last 20 years.
00:15:30
Speaker
You're so right, Nate. If we would slow down and we would start to kind of think, is that a, is that really a need? Is there another way to do that? I think that's one of the most important things that we have to consider when we start talking about practically applying the principles that Matt just laid out for us is, you know,
00:15:51
Speaker
lay down line by line. Do we need this? And if it is a need, think, is there another way to do it? Like you're talking, I use hotspots too. We don't use wifi at our home.
00:16:02
Speaker
We we've not done that for a number of years because hotspots get the job done for what we need to do. We're not playing online games. We don't need yeah a high bandwidth. You know, we're not, there's no need for that. And most people, would say most families don't need to have that kind of high bandwidth internet.
00:16:21
Speaker
But I mean, some families, they just live without the Internet at all. Yeah. And, you know, maybe that's possible for you. I don't know, Matt, you got some more practical tips. Yeah.
00:16:32
Speaker
I mean, and so it's, you know, we do get comfortable with all these. Modern things, but like you're saying, we, you know, we may have to, you may have to give up a little bit, change things up some, you know, our next episode is going to be about sports. But even one thing I've thought about a lot over the years is um And we try to get we try to keep our kids involved in some sort of sports, but that can be very expensive.
00:16:56
Speaker
And especially if we don't do any travel, anything like that, but that could be, shoot, $1,000 of who knows. But we try to when we do it, we try to get the ones where the kids can play at the same time and you get family discounts and all that kind of stuff. But you know think you have to think differently about things. um So another thing that that we try to do is we we accept a lot of hand-me-downs when it comes to clothes for our kids. yeah Oh, yeah.
00:17:26
Speaker
So just this past, we had a baby last week or, yeah, 10 days ago. And last Sunday at church, we probably got $400 or $500 worth of clothes given to us. I mean, I had my whole trunk was full of clothes.
00:17:39
Speaker
um So. That's, you know, Matt, that's an interesting point too. And that strikes up another conversation, which I don't really know our demographic. Who's who all is watching. But that's one more reason to get in a church.
00:17:51
Speaker
That's one more reason to get into a homeschool co-op, because mean I'm not saying that if you're not in church, you won't ever get a bag of hand-me-downs. But I mean, just in the last, since my kids have been born, dude, I got, we've given away more clothes than we knew what to do with that I didn't buy that just came because they just get passed through the church.
00:18:12
Speaker
yeah And, you know, that's, that's a small detail, but that is, I can't even imagine how much money we have saved over the years just yeah because that's part of Christian culture. Yeah. and Everyone is so generous.
00:18:24
Speaker
Yeah. yeah And we, and we even do that with car seats. We do it with, on maternity clothes. You know, I know women may not don't want to not to make the church a materialistic thing, but that is one of the, that is one of the benefits of bearing each other's burdens, which is biblically commanded, um, that you're just not going to get if you're not involved in a church.
00:18:46
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. A few more things, um, practical things. It may be that we have to sell, um, expensive vehicles that we're paying monthly on and paying tons of interest, you know, to buy something cheaper that still gets us to work. Right.
00:19:02
Speaker
When we have to move to a different house, um, you know, and you can cut costs, but obviously you can make extra money. Right. So maybe we, and maybe you invest in something that saves you money in the long run for us. Maybe it's a, it's a meat grinder for my deer meat that I paid $450 for 12 years ago and have paid for it like seven times, you know, something like that. Um,
00:19:26
Speaker
Maybe you have to pick up a little bit of side work for the man. you know as You don't want to do too much, not be around for your family, but you may have to do a little bit more. But there's so many different ways – That season too.
00:19:37
Speaker
That can be first season. Dave Ramsey talks about that. you know You might deliver pizzas for ah you know a year while you get out of debt. and then you you know you're One of your rewards for getting out of debt is, hey, you can go quit your pizza delivery job.
00:19:49
Speaker
Right. Yeah, absolutely. I think that – go ahead, Matt. I just got two things and okay then I'll turn it over to you for comments. oh One more thing is, is um during all of this thought, you're if you're actually making that transition, if you're, if you're doing it right now, don't quit paying tithe. You cannot, yeah you cannot stop doing that. That is, yeah you and I have, the Lord has blessed me so much and I've always tried to be faith, tried to be faithful, paying tithe. And I really do.
00:20:21
Speaker
um That matters. I definitely, but but would but say of nothing else. You need to keep keep doing that. um Cut everything else, but don't cut that. And last thing, just kind of a little side note, I would say in terms of, you know, if your wife is working and she and you want to get her back home, she'll have less stress.
00:20:44
Speaker
um I would also advise, and I'm not sure how y'all do it or not, but My wife doesn't know, and doesn't have a clue about our about our finances. I worry about that.
00:20:55
Speaker
she she'll She'll check in with me. Hey, it okay if I buy this curriculum for $100? And I say, yes. But that's just one less thing she has to worry about. So she can focus, just focus on the kids, let all of her brain space be the kids and the house and being godly yeah mother and and wife.
00:21:16
Speaker
And that's just one less thing she has to worry about. And so Those were kind of my thoughts. um I think it's interesting. other comments? Yeah, I think it's interesting as you bring up the Proverbs 31 woman, because, ah you know, clearly in that scripture, they the primary responsibility that she has is within the home and caring for even her servant girls and her family, her husband and children. But she's not forbidden from making an income. I mean, she's right going into land deals. She's he's working in real estate. She's
00:21:46
Speaker
you know, um she's got income coming in. And I think that we kind of need to readjust the paradigm here that says, look, the Bible does clearly teach that a woman's priority needs to be the home and a man's priority needs to be his family.
00:22:02
Speaker
And, you know, he's going out into the world and earning the income to bring home and help care for his family. But she is also needed and important to be a keeper at home.
00:22:14
Speaker
and to keep the home and watch over it. That's what that word means. And it's not some, some wives, you know, they feel they're not fulfilled unless they get out there in the world and do something. And that's because they've been convinced that, uh, only the, the work you do outside of the home is valuable and that, uh, the things that you're doing in the home are not, I know that If my wife were paid for what she does in the home, she would make like six figures a hundred times over. Like they would be so, she would be so well paid because of the things that she has to do on a regular basis. She's working all the time, but you know, that is part of her responsibility to our family.
00:22:56
Speaker
And, you know, we're a team, we're working together. It's not like I come home and say, Hey baby, you know, go get me a sandwich and go take out the trash. It's part of the, part of the inside the house, honey.
00:23:07
Speaker
You know, that that's not that's not a biblical attitude for a man to have either. Of course not. But I just think that we need to readjust this paradigm so that women recognize there is, number one, incredibly valuable to be at home.
Recognizing Household Contributions
00:23:20
Speaker
And number two, you can still make a living or not maybe a living, but you can provide an income. I know that my wife looks at it as her job to save as much money as possible.
00:23:32
Speaker
It's my job to earn as much as possible. and her job is to save as much as possible. And she's so good at it. When I tell people how much we live on and like what she, her budget has been since we've been married,
00:23:49
Speaker
For the number of children that we have, they are astounded. I'm talking like she does. She runs our household for a third of what most of our friends do. Yeah.
00:24:01
Speaker
Eight children. Great point. That's a really good point, Jared. And I just want to say it too. Without disclosing income, my wife and I, so we we are a single income family. We have been. almost since we got married. My wife worked at a coffee shop for like a year after we got married and we didn't have kids yet.
00:24:17
Speaker
And she made like nothing at all, but she loved it. oh But once we got pregnant, you know, there was really no question. I mean, it's just, you know, her, and she'll tell you this, you know, her, yeah she was actually getting her cosmetology license at the time.
00:24:30
Speaker
And i mean, naturally her mindset just kind of shifted. Once we were pregnant, she wanted to stay home. She didn't really have a desire to go back. But all have to say, We have never made a lot of money ever.
00:24:43
Speaker
And again, not to disclose incomes, but you know right near the poverty line, we've always been right ah right at it or right above it. you know so it's And we've made it work. Now, granted, we have had – our family has helped us out a lot, not by giving us money, but by giving helping us with places to live until we can afford something better.
00:25:03
Speaker
And so we are very blessed in that regard. I know not everybody has that, but you know Matt, you're talking about making sacrifices. you know We make sacrifices. You talk about saving money.
00:25:15
Speaker
We cook at home. You don't eat out every meal. In fact, you don't eat out hardly ever. Now, has there been times that we have broken that rule? Absolutely. Have we paid a price for it? Absolutely.
00:25:26
Speaker
Now, you know we've never had our lights turned off. and We've never gone hungry, but there have been times where we've thought – we probably shouldn't have spent that money and we've had to learn some hard lessons. oh But yeah, I mean, it can be done. You don't have to make a hundred thousand dollars a year, you know, on one income to, to make it happen. And, yeah you know, I will just say you don't have to make close to a hundred thousand dollars to be happy either.
Finding Joy in a Modest Lifestyle
00:25:51
Speaker
right You can have a very normal, satisfying life with your family. You know, Charlie Kirk talked about that, you know, have more, he he would say, have more kids than you can afford. I love that line.
00:26:03
Speaker
i love it I said that to somebody today. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. Yeah. yeah yeah we've we've gotten we've We've gotten out outflanked by the enemy who convinced us that you should only have children if you can pay for them.
00:26:20
Speaker
and We've never been able to afford our kids, and we keep having it. In my opinion, God pays for what he does. So if God gives you a child, he's going to make sure that you're able to care for that child. I mean, look,
00:26:32
Speaker
We i want to give some more practical tips real quickly, but, you know, our family of eight children, my wife and I have eight children and we live on one income.
00:26:44
Speaker
And do we do we drive beat up old vehicles? Yeah, we sure do. ah Do we cram ourself into the house we can afford? It's probably too small for us.
00:26:55
Speaker
Yes, we do. you know, but you make sacrifices because that's what we need to do. oh Also, it's very important. I want to emphasize something. Stay out of debt as much as you can. That is huge.
00:27:07
Speaker
it It is.
Financial Stability and Debt Management
00:27:08
Speaker
it we would We would have gone under. Number one, Nate, you reminded me, we wouldn't have been able to do this without the help of our family and friends in so many different ways. But also, being debt-free has been huge. You know, there's been a couple times. That makes all the difference in the world. yeah It does. When we've we've had some credit card debt,
00:27:27
Speaker
um you know, different things that we'd use a credit card for trying to build credit. And honestly, that was like the most stressful financial time of our marriage is when we're trying to get out of that hole.
00:27:39
Speaker
And, you know, yeah if you just do what you, if if you don't got the money to pay for it, just don't go into debt for it. It's not really worth it. If you stop and think about this, I just want, want us to um try to give a couple of last minute, we're we're running up on time, but give some last minute, maybe your best ah life hacks or um tips for tips for getting by on less.
00:28:05
Speaker
One thing that my wife said that and we should recommend is that try not to waste anything. Waste as little as possible. My wife will take the peanut butter jar and she will scrape with a rubber scraper the last drop of peanut butter out of that thing.
00:28:23
Speaker
I'm going, just throw it away. It's empty. You're not going to get ah half of a tablespoon out of that peanut butter jar. But she's getting in there to get it.
00:28:35
Speaker
And I mean, it's that way with everything. And it does add up. And that's one thing I learned this year is, you know, I have, I'm the spender in our relationship. And so, you know, sometimes on the way home, I might have, I might stop and get a little snack to have on the way home, you know, a little hamburger maybe, or something to drink.
00:28:53
Speaker
And it got to be to the point where I was doing that almost every day, five or $6, $7, sometimes 10. And my wife said, you need to quit that.
00:29:05
Speaker
And so I have tried harder to stop doing that. And we did, we took some strategies and, you know, Spent money on things that I would like to eat on the way home, that and it's cheaper, cheaper per bar, you know, that sort of thing.
00:29:18
Speaker
ah and And that has made – it has relieved a lot of pressure, much more than I thought it would, just changing that, that one thing. Well, I will say this. So first off, I'm on the YouTube ta Brian Kim. I like that guy a lot.
00:29:36
Speaker
Doesn't completely follow the Dave Ramsey strategy, which Dave Ramsey is another great guy, but it's good to get very very opinions, but he Brian Kim. He's got some good, good budgeting stuff, but he talks about not spending money on things that don't add value to your life and that's where you know now.
00:29:53
Speaker
you know, you and, you know, the three of us as Christians are probably going to have a little bit different of a perspective on what that means, you know, something that adds value to your life. um But for me, you know, we're talking about, um you're talking about stopping by gas stations or whatever, picking up, you know, soft drinks or hamburgers, or we're talking about subscriptions.
00:30:11
Speaker
I'll tell you one subscription that has added a ton of value to my life, and that is the Panera Sip Club. Because I like to stop and get drinks. And when you can pay $15 a month and get unlimited drinks anytime you're near a Panera, think about how much you're spending on you know a single bottle of Coke. You know you might spend $2 or $3. You that a few times.
00:30:34
Speaker
yeah know You're right up there at that $15 where you know there's little things like that that exist.
Valuable Subscriptions and Practical Tips
00:30:40
Speaker
no you know where you It's a flat rate. And if you're going to do it, you know if if that's just something that you love to do,
00:30:47
Speaker
you know If you can't afford the $15, you just need to suck it up and not spend the $15. You shouldn't be getting drinks at all. Yeah. Then I would say that $15 is a heck of a lot better than spending you know a collective $50, $60, $70, $80 a month because you just stop by a convenience store every time you see one.
00:31:05
Speaker
when you know you can be a little bit smarter they might not have all the drink selections you like or you might not be up near panera all the time but uh that's just something that's helped me out with that kind of stuff you know that's good i i can go i can go a week with without you know a spontaneous transaction because i've got access to that um so that's that's big um and i would say this the last thing you know as far as valuing, because we've given a lot of practical tips, but you just got to ask yourself, what is your why behind, you know, why you're living your life?
00:31:37
Speaker
um You know, and why would you value multiple incomes? For us, we never had the luxury of having two incomes because we had kids, we got pregnant six months into our marriage and So, you know, we never knew what it was like to have two incomes. And I think that's helped us because we didn't get spoiled by it.
00:31:58
Speaker
um But I would say you just have to ask yourself why. um If it's so that you can buy the toys, so that you can have the house that's more expensive, so that you can do x y and z um money is a fantastic tool, but it will leave you wanting more.
00:32:14
Speaker
And if you start making your life decisions based on what you can afford or what you wish you could afford one day, um I think you're going to find that you spend a lot of time striving to get something that you probably wish you had just spent better quality time with the process. Yeah.
00:32:34
Speaker
know that makes sense, but I i think you know, or kind of Matt what you were talking about earlier. and This is me. I can't speak for women. I can't speak for my wife because I'm not my wife. I'm not a woman, but um I definitely complimentary in my theology in my worldview.
00:32:50
Speaker
And I think if you feel like you have to have your value, if you feel like your value comes from your profession, I think the first step would be to have an honest assessment of oh your identity in Christ and what you believe about who Christ says you are.
00:33:07
Speaker
ah Because God created men and women equal. We just have very different purposes. And um I'm not, it's not to say that women can't do professions. There are certainly, you know, I've worked with a lot of women over the years and they're great at their jobs.
00:33:22
Speaker
Not to say that you are, you know, you can't do them. Obviously they can do it. We've proven that. um But, and I'm not going to, You know, I'm not going to live your life for you. You've got to make those decisions yourself. But I just got to ask you, you know, if you want to have the most satisfaction and in your life and if you want to live out exactly who God created you to be, just have that honest conversation with the Lord because and and be humble.
00:33:50
Speaker
You know, same for men, you know, if ask yourself, why do you want to be a stay at home dad? Is that you really think that's what the Lord created you to be? You know, there this is more for for fathers out here. So, but not not talking to them. We're talking to the dads, but, you know.
00:34:06
Speaker
Hopefully that makes sense. and right Kind of rambling now. but Yeah, 30 seconds, Jared, and then I'm going to be done. um One is for any homeschool parents out there, you can get a lot of books and stuff for free from free from the library.
00:34:22
Speaker
You know, instead of having to buy all these books, whatever that you're going to. use for one time and then that'll be it. Just library. um Number two, if you live near a Kroger, you can get you ah cro a Kroger credit card.
00:34:36
Speaker
You don't have to use it much, just a little bit. And you can get four times the fuel points on Fridays when you do a grocery pickup. And if, please look into it. If, you because if you live near Kroger and you buy your cro and gro groceries from Kroger, do a Friday pickup.
Motivation and Practical Advice for Perseverance
00:34:50
Speaker
I'll tell you this every month, I get 35 gallons of gas at least once, sometimes twice, and I spend less than $5 for it for 35 gallons.
00:35:01
Speaker
I've paid as little as like 202 for 35 gallons because I get my four times fuel points on Fridays for groceries I'm going to buy anyway. So pretty good. Wow.
00:35:13
Speaker
So you're saying yes less than $5 a gallon is what you're saying. No, I'm saying total cost. Like I'll end up paying a few cents per gallon because I get all these fuel points. Oh, wow. So like I'll i'll spend $200 on a Friday and sometimes I'll end up with the minimum 800 points, which is 80 cents off per gallon.
00:35:33
Speaker
But sometimes I end up closer to like a thousand points for whatever reason. They end up giving me more points on certain items. So every Friday I could have a dollar off a gallon for 35 gallons.
00:35:47
Speaker
And I do that three Fridays in a month and I've already got $3 off. So I've paid for like an entire, like, I don't hardly have to pay anything so for the whole 35 gallons. this Yeah. I love it.
00:36:00
Speaker
I play that little game and it it works out. It's great. Utilize those things. my One of my, actually he's still my accountant, but he's also a good friend and he would talk about gaming the system, beating the system, man.
00:36:14
Speaker
And there's all kinds of different ways to do that. So, We just want to encourage all you dads out there and moms to to just, you know, keep experimenting, keep doing what you got to do Hunker down, pull in the belt and just ah do the best that you can to ah trim the fat and ah live on one income. We want to encourage you to do that.
00:36:36
Speaker
And we hope that some of the things we share with you tonight have either given you motivation or maybe some ideas of things you can do. to save some money here and there. So we hope that God will bless you and that we can see you again next time on Fatherhood Friday.
00:36:50
Speaker
And we we sure appreciate you being out there. If you want to send us an email, you can email us dads at preacherdad.com. That's dads at preacherdad.com.
00:37:03
Speaker
We'd love for you to subscribe to this podcast. It helps us keep on going. It's really encouraging. And we would love to read your question on the air. if it is appropriate and free of profanity.
00:37:14
Speaker
And we will love to ah hear from you. So please feel free to reach out to us. Be the first one. Be the first. Somebody's got be the first. All right. God bless y'all. Have a great night and we'll see next time.
00:37:27
Speaker
Bye-bye.