Home Economics No. 30: What it's like to quit your job and live on (a lot) less

A family of 3 in DC who are getting by on just one salary

Before I kick things off today, I just want to acknowledge that it’s yet another week where sending this email feels very weird because of the state of our world. I don’t really know what else to say other than hug your loved ones close, help your neighbors, and GO VOTE. Early voting for the mayoral primary (and many other local races) starts in New York City this weekend.

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Today, I’m so excited to publish my 30th edition of Home Economics! Running this series is one of my favorite things—I love to talk to the women who write them, and I love to see how you readers respond to their stories in the comments.

When I sit down to choose an entry to feature, I think about a few things:

1. Do they have an interesting story? (And interesting is subjective, because I think it’s fascinating when writers go into detail about what they buy at the grocery store or how they feel about their health insurance premium.)

2. Are they based in a city/state I haven’t featured before?

3. Are their financial circumstances different from the last Home Economics?

To date, 91 people have submitted Home Economics entries. Most are written by women, but there are a handful from men. (I haven’t yet published one from a man. TBD if I will.) The majority are based in the U.S., but I have gotten a couple from the U.K. and Canada, as well as one from Africa (though I’ve yet to publish an international edition). I would wager that two are fake. (Don’t ask me how I can tell; it’s just a hunch.)

I was personally curious how many U.S. states are represented among the entries (published and submitted), so I spent an afternoon creating a map in Canva. (Yes, there are probably better ways I could have spent my time, but I have no regrets!) The red pins indicate there’s a published entry from that location, and the yellow pins indicate there’s a submission. Sorry that the map doesn’t include Hawaii or Alaska—I don’t have submissions from those states either!¹

It’s not surprising that we overindex on the coasts, with many coming from New York City (three published entries and nine total submissions, plus an additional two from upstate) and the San Francisco Bay Area (four published entries and nine total submissions). But I was a little surprised that I’ve only received two entries from Florida (and also, one was written by a guy). And I haven’t received any entries from the following states:

This is all a long-winded way of saying I’d love to get more submissions so we could be closer to hitting all 50 states. I’m also always looking for diverse stories—interesting family situations, income ranges, and job titles. Really anything goes! And I *think* everyone who has participated has had a good experience.

You can fill out the form here. And feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions.

And now on to today’s Home Economics, which is our first from Washington, DC! You can quickly see why I related so much to this entry! I hope you enjoy it!

Age: 44
Location: Washington, DC
Relationship status: Married
Age of partner: 48

About me: I’m a very typical white collar professional in her early 40s living in the Washington, DC, metro area. I’m married to a federal government employee (fun time to be that right now), and we have a tween daughter. After 20+ years of climbing the corporate (nonprofit management) ladder, I left the full-time workforce in 2024 due to severe burnout. I was the primary earner prior to my leaving, so for the past year we’ve been learning how to live on one (relatively modest for our area) income and figure out what’s next financially. My husband and I are both first-generation immigrants, and we define financial health very differently, so we’re really relearning everything we believe about money and financial health right now.

Income:

1. Your job title/salary: Self-employed consultant, $24,000

2. Partner’s job title/salary: IT systems administrator, $120,000

3. Your monthly take-home pay (paycheck amount after taxes and other deductions): It’s variable based on hours I can bill, but it averages about $2,300/month pre-tax (no withholding since I’m a 1099 consultant)

4. Partner’s monthly take-home pay (paycheck amount after taxes and other deductions): $6,498

5. Side hustle: I make about $500/month from working part-time at a local business

6. Total monthly income: $9,298

Account balances:

7. Checking account balance: We don’t keep money in checking after our bills are paid, so usually it's about $1,000 after we pay bills.

8. Savings account balance: We only have a high-yield savings account.

9. High-yield savings account balance: $54,000 (3.8% APY as of 2/21/25)

10. Monthly contribution to savings account: We’re not contributing right now due to our limited income.

11. Retirement account(s) balance:

    • My husband’s 401(k): $747,000

    • My 401(k) from my previous employer: $250,000

    • Roth IRA: $7,500

12. Monthly contribution to retirement accounts: My husband contributes 6% of his gross net income ($607 per month), and his employer offers a match. I’m not contributing to retirement right now.

13. Investment account balance: None

14. 529 account balance: We don’t have one. I’m not sure our daughter will take the traditional path to higher education, and since 529s tend to be very limited in how you can spend them, we decided it wasn’t the right savings vehicle for us. We are planning to help her pay for college if she does decide she wants to attend. She can take out loans, like I did to pay for my education, and if we can afford it when she’s done with school, we can help her pay them off. I don’t think taking out loans to pay for education is a bad thing; you just need to be thoughtful about how much you borrow.

15. Emergency fund balance: We consider our HYSA to be our emergency fund.

16. Goals-oriented savings accounts: We haven’t done this because we’ve focused on saving for retirement and our emergency fund.

Total in checking, savings, and investment accounts: $1,059,500

Housing:

17. Size of your home: We live in a four-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath, single-family house.

18. Mortgage: $3,850

19. Current home value: $750,000

20. Current mortgage balance: $385,000

21. Year you bought your home: 2019

22. Price you paid for your home: $565,000

23. Mortgage interest rate: 1.50% with a 15-year term. We refinanced during the pandemic.

24. How much was your down payment? I don’t remember the exact amount of our down payment—I think somewhere between $20,000 and $30,000.

25. How long did it take you to save for the down payment? We bought a condo in DC in 2009 when we qualified for a first-time homeowners program, so our down payment was just a few thousand dollars. After 10 years, we decided to sell the apartment and move into a single family home, and we were able to use the proceeds from our condo sale as the down payment on this house. We also set a bit aside from the sale of the condo to help furnish the house.

26. Did you have any family help buying your home? We didn’t have any help from our parents.

27. Home taxes: $640

28. Home owner’s insurance: $1,695/year

29. Electricity: $150

30. Water: $67

31. Natural Gas: ~$40

32. Cell phone: We pay $98 for my phone and my daughter’s watch; my husband’s phone is paid for by his employer.

33. Internet: $85

34. Housekeeper: N/A

35. Gardener: N/A. We gave up our lawn service when I left my full-time job and bought a mower so I can mow myself.

36. Trash: ~$30

Transportation:

37. Monthly car payment: We have two cars, and they are both paid off. My husband drives the older one (13 years), because it was his dream car when we bought it. My car is newer, and I paid it off right before I left my job so I wouldn’t have any debt hanging over us while we were living on one income.

38. Car insurance payment: $88

39. Gas: $160 for both cars

40. Car maintenance: Typically about $500/year, but we had to spend $4,000 in January on new tires and brakes for both cars.

41. Parking: We don’t pay for this. My husband has free parking at work, and I work from home.

42. Monthly public transportation: We don’t use public transportation.

43. Ride shares (Uber, taxi, etc.): We don’t use ride shares barring a rare exception.

Children:

44. Number of children and their ages: We have a 12-year-old daughter.

45. Extracurricular activities: Our kid is very active in theater and outdoor activities and is on a recreational sports team. We pay around $284 per month for these activities.

46. Summer camp: We’re spending $3,815 for summer camps this summer. Our daughter loves to try new experiences, and she’s signed up for seven camps. We spend an average of $400–$500 per camp.

Debts:

47. Student loan total balance: I took out loans for undergrad and grad school, and I worked through college as well as lived at home. I went to a private university on the East Coast, and I graduated with about $90,000 in loans. When I was younger, it was a big priority for me to focus on paying off my loans, and I would always overpay when I could. I finished paying them off in 2016.

48. Credit card balance (if you carry a balance month to month): We pay off our cards in full every month.

Food:

49. Groceries: $800. We’re not foodies, but we do love food. I cook a lot, but we also enjoy going out to eat to try new restaurants, as well as ordering takeout. When I left my job, I cut down our grocery budget massively. We went from spending nearly $1,800 a month on groceries and eating out to closer to $800–$1,000. I stopped shopping at pricier stores for everything. We do most of our shopping at Aldi and get whatever Aldi doesn’t carry at other stores. That shift alone shaved $300 a month off our monthly grocery bill. I don’t feel like we’ve been deprived or anything; we’re just doing a better job of prioritizing.

50. Dining out: $450. Same as above; this is much lower than it used to be! We got more judicious about where we were eating out, focusing on lower-cost restaurants and saving the more pricey meals for once a month or so.

Socializing and Entertainment:

51. Subscriptions (streaming services, magazines, etc.): I spend around $25 on a few newsletter subscriptions. We rarely watch TV. We share a Disney+ subscription with a family member, and we’ll watch the occasional movie, but otherwise, we don’t stream anything.

52. Memberships (museums, etc.): We don’t have any memberships.

53. Movies, concerts, other events: Every once in a while, my kid and I go to a theater show. I’d estimate I spend $200–$300 a year depending on the show/ticket cost.

54. Entertaining and socializing other: We’re pretty big homebodies, so we don’t spend much on entertainment. Occasionally, my kid may go to a trampoline park or something similar with friends, or my husband and I will go out to dinner with friends, but it’s pretty sporadic.

55. Travel: We took a road trip earlier this year. We spent about $2,500 all in. Here’s the breakdown:

    • Hotels, museum tickets, and parking: $1,335

    • Gas: $162

    • Food: $963

Miscellaneous:

56. Clothing: ~$500/year, mostly for my kid as she grows. My husband rarely buys anything for himself, and now that I am at home 100% of the time, I don’t really need anything new.

57. Home supplies: Ranges from $50 to $150, depending on whether we need to fix something

58. Exercise: $12 for an online Peloton membership

59. Personal and self-care (haircuts, manicures, massages, etc.): My daughter has some sensory challenges, and she hates having her hair cut. Recently, I started having someone come to our house to cut our hair. It’s been a big gamechanger. We spend about $70 per haircut for her and me, plus tip. My husband spends $35 with tip on his haircuts about once every 2 months. I used to get pedicures during the summer, but I gave it up to save money.

60. Donations: I try to give at least something to my favorite organizations as well as the occasional GoFundMe when communities hit hard times. Last year, it was around $300 total.

61. Tithing: N/A

62. Events (birthday parties, etc.): Depending on how my kid wants to celebrate her birthday, we spend about $500—$425 for the venue with an activity and $75 for snacks. Otherwise, we tend to keep celebrations small at home with fun takeout.

Insurance:

63. Life insurance: I just realized recently that I need to buy this since my employer no longer provides it, but I haven’t purchased it yet. My husband has it through his employer.

64. Health insurance: We have medical, dental, and vision through my husband’s employer, and it costs us around $763 a month (comes out of his paycheck).

65. FSA contribution: We’re not doing this currently, so we can take home as much cash each month as we can. Previously, we would set aside a few thousand to cover summer camp and copay costs.

66. Other insurance costs: We spend around $100 per month on copays.

Total monthly spending (includes annual expenses divided by 12): $7,858

Tell us more:

67. What are your top financial priorities?
    Right now, I’m very much redefining what my priorities are. A year ago, when our income was more than double what it is currently, I would have said our top priority is maxing out retirement savings and figuring out what and how to save to take care of our aging parents.
    
    Since our income has shrunk, I am now realizing that I’ve always tried to save for all the things, but it came with a ton of financial stress. Now that I see what it really takes for us to manage month to month, I’d like to create a healthier balance between saving and spending and, most importantly, living a life that allows me to balance my personal priorities (taking care of a growing kid) with working. I love to work, but I need to approach my career differently given what I’ve learned after leaving a full-time role.

68. How do you feel about your current financial situation?
    Right now, I feel anxious, though this is my typical state when it comes to my finances. (I was still anxious last year when our income was more than twice as much as it is now.) My husband’s salary plus my minimal consulting income is just barely enough to cover our monthly expenses, and that’s with a lot of budgeting and cuts. While I’m not sure if replacing my former income is entirely realistic any time soon, given my shifting professional and personal priorities, I would like to get back to a more steady income.

69. What are your money stressors?
    Taking care of our parents is a big unknown and one I don’t really know how to plan for. I’ve spoken with multiple financial advisors, and no one has really given us a good plan for this. While they’ll have Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid, they really have no other savings, and care is very expensive.
    
    I’m also thinking about extended child care. More kids are “launching” later nowadays given the job market and how expensive the cost of living is, so this may mean that she will be at home/not fully independent for longer. I want to make sure we’re financially able to support everyone.

70. Do you expect to receive (or have you received) an inheritance from a family member?
    No, we will be supporting both sets of parents.

71. Do you receive any financial support from your family?
    As above, we are likely going to be financially supporting our parents.

72. Do you financially support any family members beyond yourself and your nuclear family?
    I don’t know what this will look like yet, but we will have some financial responsibility for both sets of parents. We are both first-generation immigrants, and our parents primarily worked in blue collar jobs without retirement plans. My parents never bought a house, so they won’t have proceeds from that to rely on in old age. My husband’s parents are a bit older and a bit more stable financially (they own their home), and we’re just starting to see how much support they might need, as their health and independence are starting to decline.

73. How do you and your partner split your finances? How did you decide to go that route?
    I manage our finances because I’m naturally more organized. We handle everything as family finances. Paychecks go into a joint checking account. I pay bills, we share all our credit cards, and I track all our expenses to see where our money is going.

74. What is one financial goal(s) you still want to achieve?
    I would like to get back to saving again, but now I’d like to approach it more strategically. After I left my job and had to reorganize our finances, I realized that retirement savings are very important to my husband and liquid/more accessible savings are really important to me. We never really addressed this before, so once we have more flexibility to save again, I’d like to put more thought into where we are saving because retirement is really important, but it leaves us without flexibility for things that we’d like to have in life, like more travel.

75. Tell us about one financial accomplishment you’re proud of.
    As of a year ago (mid 2024), we were fully debt-free except for our mortgage. I paid off nearly $100K in student loans (mine), we paid off two cars, and bought a house, and we never took on consumer debt. This made it easier for me to take the leap and leave my stressful job. And as we navigated this year on one income, we haven’t had to tap our emergency savings at all, which I’m very proud of.

76. What do you regret spending your money on the most?
    Honestly, I don’t have any regrets about our spending. I’m very proud of my budgeting and how I’ve managed our finances, and the cuts we’ve made have been worthwhile. Nothing feels superfluous right now.

77. What is one thing you spend money on that makes your life better?
    Takeout. I know this is the one place people always say to cut more, and we have quite a bit, and I do love to cook. But being able to grab our favorite pizza when we’re in between school and activities or a sandwich on a busy work day is sanity-saving.

78. What is one thing you spend money on that drives you crazy?
    It costs an absurd amount of money to cut my daughter’s hair, even though it’s a very simple haircut. She hates having her hair cut, but it needs to happen because it’s thick and long and gets very overwhelming. But because she’s a female—and even though it’s just her ends being trimmed—I still spend an absurd amount, and it makes me batty.

79. Is there anything else you would like to add?
    I spent my entire career working toward a career milestone, and when I reached it, it burned me to a crisp. I know I never want to feel that way again, and what I thought was important professionally really isn’t. But I also do value financial stability, especially in America, where one illness or accident can absolutely wipe someone out financially. I’m now redefining what I want my work life and personal life to look like, and I’m asking a lot of questions about what that means for financial stability and what is worth sacrificing, because often financial stability and a balanced life seem to be at odds. I’m hoping to find a solution, and I am working to change my own perspective on money and be less anxious about it.
    
    UPDATE: Since submitting this entry, I found a full-time job, and I start in a couple of weeks. I’m taking a less demanding job (and a pay cut of about $25,000 from what I was making from my last job). I was very intentional about looking for a job with a particular set of responsibilities so I can have better work/life boundaries.
    
    I had such a scarcity mindset before I left my job, and I really didn’t believe we could live on one income. But this year has shown me that we can get by on a whole lot less without feeling like we are missing out—we clearly had some breathing room that I just couldn’t see.
    
    I’m not sure how our spending will change now that I’ve got a full-time job again. As I said earlier, I want to make sure we’re thoughtful about how we save, potentially setting aside more in liquid savings and not just focusing on retirement. We’ve always been focused on putting away money for the distant future, and not for, like, five to 10 years from now. I really want to come up with a plan for that.
    
    Oh, I may bring back our lawn service, too, rather than mowing the lawn myself and treat myself to an occasional pedicure.

Please comment with kindness!

Random Extras:

• My wonderful friend Alison Morris Roslyn published a children’s book, Henry The Rockhouse Pelican! This story is about family, friendship, and overcoming fears. Every purchase supports the Rockhouse Foundation, which transforms schools for children in Jamaica. It’s the perfect read for the small friends in your life!

• I’m trying to decide if I should keep doing giveaways for paid subscribers. I’m woefully behind on picking winners and sending prizes. (I’m sorry! I promise to do it next week!) And I’m not sure it really moves the needle on whether someone decides to upgrade to paid, but it does take up a lot of my time. What do you all think? Vote in the poll!

  Speaking of upgrading to paid…today’s a great day to make the leap!

1. Also, the pin placement is NOT geographically accurate!