Work outside of home mom, wishing to be SAHM

[niferj9]

Hi everyone!

I have a beautiful 8 month old daughter who goes to daycare in the day, while I go to work. I've been back at work from materernity leave for about 4 1/2 months. It's killing me! I feel like I'm missing out on so much, and even though I love the woman who is taking care of my daughter, she isn't me!! I work in a very stressful professional job, and between work and the baby, I feel like I'm torn in two! My husband works, but I don't think that we could survive on just his paycheck. I know that a lot of the wonderful folks on here are SAHMs. How do you do it, financially? Any thoughts or hints would be greatly appreciated. Also, lots of prayers!

Thanks!
Jennifer

[Mikki 316]

Hi Jennifer. You've joined the right group! In no time, you will be saving tons of money and stocking up on items your family needs so that you will, hopefully, be able to live one income. You'll be surprised at how much of your "needs" suddenly become "wants" and are no longer necessary when you make the decision that you just HAVE to stay home with your baby.
One of my goals was to stockpile at least one year's worth of non-perishable items (HBA, paper products, laundry products, etc) so these items wouldn't strain our budget. You could set a goal to stockpile diapers, wipes, etc as well.
My suggestion is that you set goals and objectives and discuss this with your DH and keep that dialog going on a regular basis. Maybe it's not feasible to stop working right now, but you could set goals together to enable you to do so in the near future.
Good luck to you, and congratulations on your DD. I will keep your family in my prayers- it really does change things!

[rstlswolf]

I'd be very interested in this as well. I would love to be able to find a job that I could do from home but everything that seems to be profitable, also is one of those "too good to be true" scenarios.

I want to start my own photography business. It is a hard field to break into.

Any suggestions on legitimate at home employment would be appreciated. Surveys and mystery shopping wouldn't do it for me as I am the breadwinner of the family.

[TheWoman]

It is hard giving suggestions without seeing your budget and knowing more about your specific circumstances, however here are a few that might help.

1. You won't need to spend much on clothes for you if you are no longer working. Most women have enough in their closet that they could get by for a couple of years buying NOTHING.

2. You might be able to get by with 1 car. Does dh work close enough that you could take him to work and pick him up one day a week so you would have the car for shopping/fun stuff?

3. You might have to move to a less expensive home. Not only would you save money on the mortgage/rent, but utilities would likely be less if the home were smaller.

4. If you are not working you don't have daycare expense, you will likely eat out less, you will save gas by not driving to work. Figure in all those savings when you run the numers.

5. Most people have a lot of things they can cut from their budget if they want to badly enough. Only you can figure out what those things are for you.

Babies grow up so fast. If you want to do this, make it happen because you won't get another chance.

[niferj9]

Babies grow up so fast. If you want to do this, make it happen because you won't get another chance.

Thanks for this! I think that my husband and I will have to look at things, and see what we can make work. We have been committed to getting out of debt for several years now. At this point, we have no credit card debt, and both of our cars are paid off. The only things left are school loans and our mortgage! Maybe we are closer to me being able to stay at home than I think.

[mom2lucas]

I too longed to be home with my infant and finally made the decision to leave a high stress job and stay home with him. We thought we would never make it, but I was able to pick up a job doing the same type of work I was doing in an office from home.

We also cut out a lot of "needs" that became "wants". We stockpiled a year's worth of nonperishables, and filled our freezer when great deals came along. I do work part-time outside the home now, but its a week a month.

A lot of these suggestions have been great and were right in line with the things we considered when I left my outside the home job to start working at home.

[darkwing932]

I would also take a look into the ways you can lower your monthly expenses. One of the things I did was call my cell phone company and go on a shared minutes plan. I saved $100/month doing just that. We also went from having a satellite bill, phone bill, long distance phone bill, and internet service to a group plan. Our cable company has a package deal. For $150/month I have high-speed internet, phone with unlimited long distance, and digital cable. That easily saved us over $150/month.
I really hope you can accomplish your goal. Its well worth it.

[wannabefree]

My kids are in college now but I have been a SAHM for most of their growing up years. It was hard many times but has paid off amazingly! I would do it all again in a heartbeat!!!

There are sooo many ways to save money if you think outside the box!!! As has been mentioned above....when you think of all the money you spend BECAUSE you work...office gifts, Avon and other temptations, lunches out, more hair care, tanning, nails, make-up etc (not that SAHM don't look nice but I know it is less than with all the "keeping up with the Jones'" mentality") the "I deserve this cause I work" splurges, extra gasoline, tithing (if you do this) and taxes and daycare....the list goes on and on!!! I bake most of our bread at 20 cents or so per loaf and it's much healthier.

The Dave Ramsey and Mary Hunt and frugal living type sites will give you more ideas. Do if it you can! You will be so glad you did!!!

Bless you,

[MamaVader]

I don't have any advice to offer at this time,(except to say keep hanging around here and you will learn how to save money for sure) but just wanted to say that we also made the decision for me to stay home with our kids. Like the PP, both of mine are now in college and I am so glad that we made the decision that we did and would do the same thing all over again. Good luck and God bless.

[wendypsaves]

Congratulations on your beautiful baby!

One suggestion - make a budget based on just your dh's income. Then try living pretty closely to it for a couple of months. It will be hard because you will still be working during that time, but it will give you an idea of what your money situation will look like. Plus, you could put most of your income for those two months away to use as a little padding for your first real months home as a SAHM.

Good luck!