To feed your family on half the income, start by tracking every expense for a few months to see where your money actually goes, cut unnecessary subscriptions, shop around for lower-cost insurance and fixed bills, and offset your grocery bill — usually the biggest flexible expense — by growing or preserving more of your own food. A part-time side income can help close any remaining gap.
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The year was 2019. I was pregnant with our second and still enjoying my office job. As we started looking at daycare costs and availability, the math stopped working. At my pay rate, covering groceries and gas for a 70-mile round-trip commute just to keep working wasn’t going to add up. That left one real question: how do we pay the bills if I stay home instead?
If you’re doing that same math right now — whether it’s daycare, a health scare, a farm income dip, or just the cost of everything climbing faster than your paycheck — I want to walk you through exactly what we did. Not because your path will look identical to mine, but because the process of figuring it out matters more than the specific answer you land on.
Start With the Numbers, Not the Panic
I carried our insurance, so that was the first thing we had to shop. We ended up finding a health sharing ministry that worked for our family.
Next, we went through every subscription we were paying for — streaming services, Amazon Prime, anything recurring — and asked one question: is this necessary for our home to function? If the answer was no, it went on the cut list.
Seven years later, we had to sit down and do that same exercise again, and this time it was harder. We ended up trimming even some of the “good” subscriptions — things that really were doing our family good, not just fun or entertainment subscriptions. It came down to focusing again on what actually matters most, good nutrition for our family, and being willing to let the rest go.
Then we got to know our finances in a way we never had before. Where was our money actually going every month? Track your expenses for a few months before you decide anything. You can’t trim what you haven’t actually looked at.
The Biggest Line Item: Groceries
Once we’d trimmed what we could, groceries were still one of our biggest expenses, and the one with the most room to move. I’d had a hobby garden in the past — nothing serious, just something I enjoyed in the summer. That year, I asked myself why not take it seriously. Why not try to grow most of what we actually ate?
So I focused on growing what I knew our family would eat, and growing it well instead of trying to grow everything. I sold the extra at the farmers market in town. During those market months, we were eating out of the garden and using the market income to buy whatever we still needed. The next year, and every year since, that garden expanded — more of what we actually eat, and enough extra to preserve for winter.
Seven years later, the garden has maxed out the space I can actually care for well, and I’m doing something that might sound backwards: downsizing. Instead of trying to grow every food we possibly eat, I’m narrowing back down to our core foods — the things we actually rely on — and doing those really well again, the same way I started.
That’s the part that surprised me most. It didn’t start as a homesteading dream. It started as a spreadsheet problem, and the garden was the answer that actually worked.
Your 5 Steps to Feeding Your Family on Less
Your version of this will look different from mine — that’s the point. But the process holds up no matter what your specific numbers look like.
- Evaluate your income and expenses. Where is your money coming from, and where is it actually going? You need real numbers before you can make real decisions.
- Cut what you can. Subscriptions, memberships, anything recurring that isn’t necessary for your home to function.
- Shop around on fixed expenses. Insurance, and any other locked-in monthly cost, is worth re-shopping before you assume it’s set in stone.
- Offset flexible costs. This is where groceries usually live. Can you DIY more? Can you grow even a portion of your own food?
- Consider a part-time side income. Sometimes the gap needs a little extra coming in, not just less going out.
Your Answer Might Not Be a Garden — And That’s Fine
My answer came from the dirt, because that’s what I already had some experience with and enjoyed doing. Yours might be something else entirely — a skill you can sell, a service you can offer, a different fixed expense you’re willing to renegotiate. The garden isn’t the point. Knowing your numbers and being willing to get creative about the gap is.
This is exactly why I track our income and expenses in the budget pages of my Homesteading Planner — it’s the same “know your numbers before you panic” process I used back in 2019, just with a system built for it instead of a shoebox of receipts.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I lower my grocery bill without a big garden?
Even a small amount of homegrown food helps — a few tomato plants, a pot of herbs, or a small raised bed can offset regular grocery purchases. Combine that with buying in bulk, shopping sales, and reducing processed food purchases for a bigger overall impact.
What if I don’t have space to garden at all?
Focus on the other four steps — evaluating expenses, cutting subscriptions, shopping fixed costs, and considering part-time income. Growing food is one lever, not the only one.
How do I know where to start cutting expenses?
Track every expense for at least a month, ideally two or three, before making cuts. You’ll usually find at least a few recurring costs you forgot you were even paying for.
As I’ve grown as an entrepreneur, mom, gardener, and livestock owner, I struggled to find a planner that met my needs and kept me organized. So, I MADE MY OWN. You can look at it on the link below and buy it on Amazon.
Don’t want the whole calendar part? I got you! I pulled the gardening and animal care pages out and put them in a book all their own.
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