Family of 6 Living on $55,000 in Virginia | Real Budget Breakdown

Today I'm sharing a real budget breakdown from a family of 6 living on $55k in Virginia! Here's how they spend their money.

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Marissa Lyda
P.O. Box 1183
Wilsonville, OR 97070
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[bonquiqui]

The $850 mortgage absolutely killed me, that’s how they are making this budget work for a large family. If only if only…

[lbslott]

As a stay at home homeschooling mom of 3, I just want to throw out there that sometimes the mom has her hands full. Homeschooling is a full time job itself, then cleaning, cooking, driving kids to activities, and managing the home and kids on top of that doesn’t leave a whole lot of time for business. I’ve been trying to build a photography business to help us and in all honesty, it’s just created more problems for us. I’m too spread thin, always working, no time for family. So just wanted to throw out there that they may not want her working, detracting from raising the children. I wish I could focus solely on raising our children and managing the home, but we don’t make enough to cover living expenses either—and we don’t even have a mortgage! If we had a mortgage, not sure what we’d do.

[Natalie_]

You did such a good job reviewing the budget. The grocery budget does look high- but it probably includes household goods and toiletries for everyone. This family may save a lot with meal planning and buying in bulk- with 6 people things likely won’t go to waste.

[elizabethhamill]

If she is already a SAHM, baby sitting 1-2 kids a week for someone else is a great way to make extra income depending on how old the kids are. My mom did that as a SAHM of 4 kids. It helped.
I do wish there was a better break down of what they spend, although i can see why they wouldn't want to give away to much information.

[EricaLloyd]

I think it would be fun to see you donate the adjusted budget template back to the family that submitted their info!

[lewiswitcher]

Really like this one because this can def show more relatable situations ppl are dealing with our there. See so many budget breakdowns over YT with ppl making over 6 figures in their income or SINK individuals that make higher income where I feel like there is more ppl out there than u think making 50k, 60k, 70k as a household with multiple kids so def keep these up. Also thank you to the people willing to share their finances as a learning process!

[trackourmoney]

Love the series. As others have mentioned, additional income... Whether it's tutoring on the side (summer school?) or baby sitting other kids. Every little bit helps!

[livingunashamed]

Love the real life budget, so realistic. The food budget could be cut. I also wonder if he is contributing to retirement because his take home does seem low. I think for the wife if she could do online surveys maybe when the kids are sleep it could bring in an extra couple of hundred a month.

[allisonkemper]

Giving 9% when you don't have a decent emergency fund is just tough. I'd lower that giving value until they are on surer footing. You need to put your own oxygen mask on before you can help others with theirs. Finding ways to increase income could also get the family on surer footing and allow them to increase their giving again when they are able to create more of an emergency fund/savings for their family's safety and future. Having the family volunteer time together to charitable causes could be a way to teach charity and care for community while they have to temporarily lower financial giving to their community.

[mjs]

I wonder where in Virginia that they live that their mortgage is 850/month! I live in Nova which is super high cost of living and my mortgage not counting my HOA is more than double that for a really small 2bed 2.5 bath condo. The fact that they lived in VA with a family of 6 really caught my eye but this is not realistic at all at least for my area of VA. Would love to see you do one on the northern VA area specifically!

[cheybetancourt]

thank you for doing these -- i hate the unrelatable ones

[bbstar]

i got the same income except i support a family of 3. my budget is tight though. my wife works part time too so that definitely helps

[lindseyrybicki]

That teacher salary hits home…it’s basically what I make too for an entire month and I’ve been in the job 8 years. If I were this family I would try to get the teacher pay to cover everything so that the side hustle was all extra.

[mermaidmamato]

stay at home mom here, we can't afford daycare, even if I worked a full time day job. I work evenings when I can at a local restaurant, my husband watches the littles while I do this. it makes a difference. hopes this helps you families out there.

[jimgeneva]

So proud to see the ‘giving’ category!

[themarchhare]

Family of 7 here. $60k in Northern Virginia. It's quite the impossible task but we manage. Moving soon, lol.

[rebeccagrainger]

I have 4 kids and you don't really need to spend $75/month on clothing. Shopping used and using hand-me-downs goes a long way. We also only budget for clothes when a need comes up, not as a regular budget line item.

[yangiemouie]

I love watching these Real Life Budget series! It’s so interesting to see how others manage their finance because I always can learn something from them.

[maylinalegre]

Love this series!! I would say groceries budget needs to be cut but maybe there are dietary needs? We don’t know all.. They are really doing good for themselves with this budget! 😀

[Edbeatty]

I see low grocery numbers on YT & don't know how they do it! Groceries is hard to make less, especially with kids. We have a teenage son & spend several hundred per month. We also include soap, medicine, etc., in groceries.