Wanting2bMommy

When I have a baby, I really want to stay at home with him or her. But I don't know if we can financially afford for me to do that. How did you decide to stay at home and how do you afford it?

bunbun

Sitting down and reviewing your budget and how staying home would effect it is the best way to decide if you could afford to stay home. Especially if you are the bigger earner it may not be financially feasible to stay home full time, but you may find that switching to a part time status may be doable and still give you some extra time with your new baby. In the end you can't put a price on baby's first steps, but if you lose your home while doing so you really haven't come out ahead.

janelle

It is always great if you can sit down and plan everything out. Decide what bills are going to be paid when and how. I wish I'd had that option at the time. However, I tried to work throughout my pregnancy but ended up having to stop working when I was almost 6 months along. I had such horrible swelling in my feet and legs that I was miserable trying to stay up waiting tables all day. It ended up that my hubby had to take on an extra job so I could stay home. I went back to work at a different job when my daughter was about six months old and worked for about a year. Luckily, we were able to pay a few smaller bills off so I could come back home. Now, things are tight sometimes, but I have picked up a few side jobs online that help make ends meet. It would have been great if we could've have had money saved up so things didn't get so tight, but I still don't regret being able to now be a SAH mom.

Mommy2Five

You also need to figure how much it costs you to work. Believe it or not, you might actually come out ahead by staying at home. Especially if your job isn't a very high-paying job. The cost of day care, the terrible cost of gas if you have to drive very far to get to work, the cost of lunch at the office, the cost of nice clothes or uniform, etc. can all add up to more than you realize. For me, if I were working out of the home it would cost me a ton! I come out very far ahead by working part time from home than I would if I were paying for day care and driving to my former full time job.

alexis

If you know you can afford to, then do it. Thats what took me many plannings over and over again before I was 100% sure I wanted to try something. I know its scary trust me.

janelle

That's exactly right! Nowadays especially you just about have to have a really good paying job to even afford to drive to work, let alone all the other expenses. I figure that if I were working now, doing what I did before, I'd be lucky to actually bring home 50% of my earnings to put towards our household bills.

Leighanne

It actually would have cost me money to go to work when you add in lunch, daycare, gast etc. but we had already decided for me to stay homeI worked in a lot of daycares over the years and I just could not leave my child in one.

Arial

Working outside the home was never an option for me. There is no way in the world I would have been able to drop my infant daughter off at daycare. When I got pregnant, I had to quit my job almost immediately because I was handling toxic chemicals. At that point, I found a job I could do online. It took me a couple months to find something decent, but now I get to work and be with my daughter all day. Thankfully, my husband's income is enough to pay the bills and my income covers the extras.

Annettey19

I think that this sounds really sensible and true. It depends what kind of job you have, but yes, often a large amount of one's check is eaten up by the expenses of daycare and such. Also (depending if you are living somewhere you really like or not) you could relocate to a less expensive apartment or home, and try couponing to save money on food. Some mothers make a really good system out of couponing, and it's like a mini job for them that they can do at home, and I've seen stories on TV where some save up to 20,000 dollars a year doing that. For me thankfully things have fallen into place. I was going to have to work a lot and not be able to breastfeed my baby because of it, but now we are going to move to a different place with 700 dollars less per month in rent. I'm very happy that things turned out that way, and I really hope they will for you too.