Our Real One Income Family of 6 Budget

Here is a real look at our frugal single-income-family budget. We live on less than $3500/month as a family of 6!

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I wanted to share our family’s budget to show what a realistic budget looks like for a family of six living on a tight income. This isn’t to brag about how frugal we are. This is our budget right now, and it’s looked similar to this for quite some time, but it may be different in the future. Lord willing, we will have more wiggle room in the budget some day.

The point of sharing this budget is to give comfort to the mom who is struggling to be content on a tight budget and hope to the mom searching for ways to make one income work, so she can become a stay-at-home mom.

In the budget below, I’m using real numbers from our January 2025 budget for the utilities. The rest of the numbers reflect our goal budget, but it can change if we have unexpected expenses, holidays, etc. We started our new debt-free journey this month, so we are trying our best to live even more frugally. Our family is made up of my husband, me, and our four kids (ranging from age 1 to 5!).

First, I’ll give an overview of our monthly budget, and then, I’ll explain each expense in detail!

Income

My husband works one full time job and one part-time job. He works roughly 55-60 hours a week total, and I am a stay-at-home mom. While you may not consider that one income, his main job pays all the bills, and his part-time-job income goes towards paying off debt or other extra goals. Besides, many families have a side hustle or extra stream of income. Additionally, we are considered a low-income family, even with all of our income added up together.

I do make a little money from this blog and social media, but I don’t make much. I just filed my taxes, and last year, I made a whopping $100 total after paying for my business expenses… So at this time, I don’t make any meaningful amount.

I will not give our exact income each month, but I will say it is above the expenses listed below. The expenses listed below equal $3401. I didn’t list our debts or savings amounts to keep our personal finances a little more private, and they vary month to month. Whatever income we have leftover goes towards paying off debt (or replenishing our emergency fund if we need to).

Monthly Expenses

Church Offering	$40
Mortgage	$608
Electric	$75
Internet	$74
Water/Garbage	$80
Cell Phones	$78
Gas Utility	$180
Pest Control	$36
TrulyFree	$25
Google Storage Subscription	$3
Groceries	$1000
Eating Out	$200
Gas/Transportation	$300
Car Insurance	$108
Life Insurance	$114
Photo Albums/Prints	$30
Husband’s Personal Money	$50
My Personal Money	$50
Medical Sinking Fund	$50
Car Maintenance Sinking Fund	$50
Home Improvement Sinking Fund	$50
Gifts/Birthdays Sinking Fund	$75
Christmas Sinking Fund	$75
Clothing Sinking Fund	$50
Savings/Debt	Whatever is leftover

Grand Total = $3401

Single Income Family Budget Expenses

Let’s get into the details of our family of 6 budget:

Read the Dave Ramsey budget categories & recommended budget percentages that I use for my budget!

Giving

Church Offering — We are working on building the habit of giving consistently this year. We are aiming to give 1% of our income to our church this year and add an extra 1% each year until we reach 10%. So this year, 1% will equal between $40 -44 each month.

Utilities/Bills

Mortgage — We are fortunate to have a very affordable mortgage!

Electric — Varies month to month.

Internet — We have fiber internet, and it is consistent every month.

Water/Garbage — Varies month to month.

Cell Phones — We have PureTalk, and we pay for two phone plans.

Gas Utility — Varies month to month.

Pest Control — We pay a monthly subscription to have a pest control company come to our house quarterly and spray for bugs. This pretty much became a necessity after multiple years of ant and wasp issues in our house. The last straw was when we had a wasp infestation in our kitchen for 8 weeks, and we went through multiple pest control companies! The company that finally solved it is the one we stuck with, and we have had absolutely no issues since!

TrulyFree — I get a box of TrulyFree laundry soap, dish soap, and dishwasher detergent every other month. I spend about $50 on a box of supplies that lasts me two months, so that averages out to $25/month. They are my favorite nontoxic cleaning supplies. They are really effective and smell AMAZING! You can check them out here, and my code LITTLEHOUSE will get you 30% off!

Google Storage Subscription — I consider this subscription necessary because it is important to back up your photos and videos in multiple ways. I currently have everything backed up in Google Photos and pay $3 a month for it, which isn’t bad. I know I am almost out of storage, though, so I will either need to upgrade my plan or look into other options.

Food

Groceries — I aim to spend $500 twice a month on groceries! My husband is paid semi monthly, and I budget for one big grocery trip every pay period. It’s becoming increasingly more difficult to keep our groceries under $1000/month, so we usually go a little above $1000. This amount includes our toiletries, baby products like diapers and wipes, and paper products like paper towels or paper plates.

Eating Out — This is the budget category that can get out of hand fast. I have to be very intentional to keep our eating out spending to $200 or less. This past month, we took our entire family out to eat two times, and I ran through the drive thru for quick food and coffee with the kids a few times. This came out to almost exactly $200.

Transportation

Gasoline — We have two vehicles — my van and my husband’s car. My husband commutes 35 minutes away to work. We usually spend $300-325 per month on gas.

Health

Medical Expenses — Normally $0. I try to contribute to our medical sinking fund monthly, so we can pay for medical bills, prescriptions, and co-pays with that. If a bigger bill comes up, I will have to cash flow it or dip into our savings.

Insurance

Car Insurance — We have insurance for our two vehicles.

Life Insurance — We have life insurance for both my husband and I. He has a medical issue, which makes our life insurance cost a little bit more than normal.

Lifestyle

Most of these categories aren’t shown in the budget above. We don’t budget towards all of these categories every month.

Subscriptions — Currently, we don’t have any unnecessary subscriptions. We are trying to avoid paying for anything like Netflix this year.

Entertainment/Dates — We are not spending much money on things like dates or going to the movies right now.

Shopping — I don’t budget for shopping, but if we make an Amazon purchase or store purchase that wasn’t in the budget, I will categorize it as a shopping expense.

Activities — This includes kids activities, such as swimming lessons, and other activities that we sign up for.

Health & Beauty — I rarely spend money in this budget category. I pay for a hair cut every couple years. Usually, I cut my family’s hair myself.

Photo Albums/Prints — I am making more of an effort this year to catch up on creating photo albums for our family! This is the only lifestyle category that I am regularly budgeting for each month.

Personal Spending

My husband and I get an equal amount of personal money to spend how we please. Sometimes, we don’t get any personal money, and sometimes, we each get up to $100. Right now, we usually get $50/month each.

Husband’s Personal Money

My Personal Money

Sinking Funds

Usually if unexpected expenses come up, our sinking funds are the first budget categories to go. However, I really try to make saving for them a priority because it is easier to save for some things slowly than to come up with all the money at once.

Medical — We use this sinking fund to pay for small medical bills, co-pays, prescriptions, etc.

Car Maintenance — We use this sinking fund to pay for oil changes, car washes, and just regular maintenance of our vehicles.

Home Improvement — We try to budget money for this sinking fund because there is always something breaking down in the house. Like last month our microwave gave out, and our bathroom door handle doesn’t latch anymore.

Vacation — We do not budget for vacations currently. Sometimes, we budget for a small family trip.

Gifts/Birthdays — This sinking fund pays for gifts and birthday parties for our family as well as other family members and friends.

Christmas — This is our Christmas fund for our family and for gifts we give to others!

Clothing — We rarely buy new clothing, but we need to get new shoes, underwear, and socks every year. I try to get my kids’ clothes either second hand or on clearance.

Debt & Savings

Whatever we are able to come up with after paying all the expenses above, we put towards debt (or to replenish savings)!

Bimonthly, Quarterly, & Annual Expenses

Almost all of our expenses are monthly. My TrulyFree subscription is every other month. We pay these expenses annually:

Jewelry Insurance — $31. We only pay $31 once a year to protect our wedding rings.

Car Registration — $302. We will use our car sinking fund to pay for this if we saved enough.

What I Use to Budget

Google Sheets Budget Template — I have used Google Sheets to keep track of our budget for YEARS. I have tweaked my template over time, and it works great as a one-income-family budget template! I track every single expense in this template, and it gives me a complete overview of our income and spending. Use code HOUSEHOLD for a discount!

Printable Budget Planner — I also have a printable version of my budget template along with other personal finance and home organization worksheets in this printable budget planner pack! I love using these printables in my budget binder to organize our personal finances. Use code HOUSEHOLD for a discount!

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