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At the start of this journey, I made a big to-do list of things that I HAD to do before my contract ended in June. One of the most important things was to start saving like crazy. With only one full-time income and me working as an independent contractor for VIPKid, we need to have savings. What if Max loses his job? What if I have a month where I really struggle getting bookings? What if someone gets sick? And all of those questions that we need to be prepared for.
New insurance
This part of the list is a big CHECK! Finished! One of the first things I did when I knew I was not going to have insurance through my work was I got this figured out. The money that we are used to paying for insurance will go straight to savings while I’m still working. We will pretend like our insurance is the same rate when it comes to budgeting.
Sell, Sell, Sell
Max is on a roll! He’s selling all of his funko pops (interested?) and his Warhammer miniatures. This makes me feel so supported because anyone that knows my husband knows that he loves his hobbies. We will also be selling just about anything in our house that isn’t being used. This will also help with my goal of a minimalist lifestyle that I hope to accomplish once I am home.
VIPKid
OF COURSE! The stay-at-home job that will allow me to stay home, to begin with, is going to help me save up for when I leave work. Right now it is “extra” income which means, minus some investing in myself with any expenses toward my blogging, all of that income will be put in savings!
There are many other options for working remotely but I found this option fits my needs the best. It is all Beijing Time so I work while my kids are asleep. I am a teacher with an ESL certificate already (not required, but it helps), so this is exactly within my wheelhouse. It’s also just so much fun!
VIPKid is an online ESL program that allows you to be in charge of your schedule! Make $16-$22 an hour teaching at home!
In order for me to be ready, I need to bump up my bookings. My schedule has filled up this month. I have started opening as many slots as I can (and still manage going to work) to build more regulars and followers for when I completely open up my schedule to a more full-time status, and to make more money to put in savings. It will take some time to get where the full-time schedule gets completely filled consistently. The summer will be where I hit this really hard.
Budget Nip and Tuck
Anywhere we can, we will be finding ways to decrease our budget. I am calculating what our income will be once I am only doing VIPKid and create a new budget. We will be living as if I have already quit my job for the next 6 months. Any leftover income will go straight into savings. This will also help us get accustomed to living on less with a little bit of a safety net. It will certainly be difficult to adjust for us so this will give us some practice.
To do this I am going to get strategic with how I buy our household products. Read my post on how I plan to do this HERE. I will be shopping online, getting cashback where I can, and bulk shopping to save money.
This also means that we are going to start living on just the bare necessities. No more eating out (this one is hard). No more pre-packaged meals (I should get used to cooking now that it will be part of my job, right?). No more buying toys (Max…). We will be doing free family activities when we want to go out, taking advantage of our local library (I love the library!), and having at-home date nights.
Can We Do It?
Even though some of this will be pretty hard, I think that we can definitely do it. I am kind of a home-body anyway and enjoy staying in. Not eating out will be hard, but we have actually been doing really well with this! I like going to the library and finding local community activities for the kids.
The hardest part will be keeping Max on board. Any tips on keeping your husband from buying toys (for him and for the kids)? I am ready to hear them! I am kidding (mostly), he really is trying to help with this by not buying anything new and even selling some of his custom work (he is an amazing artist). I am hoping to help him start exploring this talent of his or something similar!
I am just so thankful to have a husband who really supports me in this change. It is not just a change for me but will take a lot of sacrificing from him and he is ready to do that for me. He sees how unhappy I am and wants me to do something I love. He loves seeing me wake up happy to start my day teaching online and getting passionate about my writing. I just hope I don’t let him down!
How do you live on a budget? Any tips that I have not covered here. As I learn new ways to save money and run my household the best I can, I will be posting here.
If you are interested in learning with me or if you are on a similar journey, feel free to follow me or subscribe to my mailing list to work together to accomplish our goals!
Such great ideas on how to build up your savings. I am trying to more healthy wealth wise this year and it’s hard to give up some of the luxuries like you said, eating out but it will worth it in the end
Yes, eating out is our most difficult thing to give up!
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