Jinger Duggar discovered certain financial fears after marrying husband Jeremy Vuolo.
“I didn’t have too many opinions as far as, like, finances and all of that going into marriage,” Jinger, 32, told her sister Joy-Anna Duggar on the Wednesday, October 22, episode of their “Call Your Sister” podcast. “I was like, ‘Oh, it’s fine. Whatever our allotted amount is fine.’ We went to a very small church plant, and so, Jer’s living expenses, what he was living off of as a single man, was not much to live off of when we were first married. That was an adjustment for me.”
Jinger moved to Laredo, Texas, after marrying Vuolo, now 39, in November 2016, where he had been working in ministry.
“I had a harder time,” she acknowledged of living off Vuolo’s income. “I think I started to have a fear of us not having enough money or something as newlyweds because that was just in my mind.”
While Jinger noted that the couple “were always provided for” and were “never without” necessities, she still feared the worst.
“I was always afraid like, ‘We’re not going to have enough money for whatever’ because
we were living on a really tight salary for the beginning,” she said. “When I first got there, I was living off of a single man’s salary, and I didn’t have a job aside from filming [19 Kids and Counting and Counting On]. That was something that was a huge adjustment for me and to trust that we were going to be OK.”
As a way to help earn money for her family, Jinger began dabbling in the social media space to secure influencer brand deals.
“We started talking to companies who were like, ‘Oh yeah, well, you can make money on the side.’ That was a huge blessing for us in that season too because I was able to start saving money, which we were able to put toward a house eventually,” she noted. “God was providing, but I was also starting to realize how much fear I had of being in poverty, which we never would have done that.”
According to Jinger, Vuolo would have done whatever it took to make ends meet if their situation was dire.
“Even if the church started to not be able to [contribute because] it was so small, they couldn’t provide whatever, then Jer would have gone and worked whatever job he had to,” Jinger stated. “It was interesting, like, we weren’t ever without, but my fear was not having what we needed in that season.”
Jinger and Vuolo eventually left Texas for California, where they are now raising their three children.
