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I really wanted to stay home when we had kids. We could have swung it financially with his current salary but we can live a lot more comfortably if I continue to work at this point. Do I wish we waited until he made more money? Nope. I'm ecstatic to be pregnant right and ill be returning to work full time after my maternity leave is over. We made the compromise that once we have our second (and DH is most likely making more as he works longer) I will stay home full time at that point. Until then we will be working on getting our debt paid down and into. A better position to completely eliminate my salary.

I would go for it, I feel like if you wait to have a baby, you're always going to be able to find a reason to wait. There's just never a perfect time. But of course its such a personal thing, you have to do whatever makes you happy!

As the saying goes, there is no "right" time to have a baby. I've been very aware of that through my pregnancy, because we weren't planning on having kids for a few more years. In spite of the surprise, things have worked out beautifully. Are our plans for the next few years the same? Will we be able to live exactly as we lived before kids? Haha, NO--but we wouldn't be able to live like we were anyway, regardless of how much we're making!

Babies bring change. If you're willing to embrace whatever changes come your way, you'll be just fine!

I really like the idea that @Looch presented - trying to live off one salary for a while (meanwhile using it for savings and debt). If you do decide to TTC right away, I'm sure you'll make it work when the baby arrives. I truly believe that and honestly, I don't see renting as a big issue either. Owning a home is very expensive and can provide many unexpected expenses, as does a baby. I always knew I'd go back to work and 100% wanted to before TTC, and now that LO is here I am really dreading going back to work. So know that if you really do want to stay home in your heart already, it's going to be an even bigger issue when LO arrives.

I want to give some "voice of reason" advice. If you really do have a good chunk of debt and very little savings, maybe you should put it off a short while - even 6 months or a year - to try and get in a better position. Having a baby is expensive! We have zero debt right now (other than a mortgage, our cars, and one small student loan), both make good salaries, and after day care costs will likely only be able to save $500 or so a month. That could be considered great for many, but we are in a small home that we are upside down on, and desperately want to move into a larger home. To do so, we'll need to save a large downpayment so having our LO will put this off for years. We considered this when we decided to TTC, so all the financial stuff is not necessarily a reason NOT to TTC. Just explore daycare costs, what you would spend on diapers, clothing, furniture, etc and then use it to make your decision. I was 37, going on 38, which is why we decided not to put off TTC. We could have saved a TON if we put it off for a year, but where I was older, I didn't want to take the chance. We have no regrets and I know no matter what you decide, neither will you!

I think you should bite the bullet on being a SAHM and go for it now. Like others have said, there will always be "what if".

It sounds like you don't know when you guys will be at a point where you can stay at home, and I personally wouldn't want to keep putting off TTC for something that could take months-years to happen. So I would just go for it, and figure it out as you go along. While it would be nice to SAH, plenty of people make it work if both parents are working--and it sounds like at some point SAH will become a reality for you guys. I also agree with @looch re: renting; I personally don't see owning a home as a requirement for having a baby (we still rent and probably will for a while).

We paid off our car and college loans and are now debt-free. We planned on saving a down payment before TTC but now there's a surprise bambino on the way, which has changed things! We will have decent savings when the baby arrives, but not enough for a 20% down payment + cushion, which is where we want to be before buying a house.

I'm not planning to work once the baby is here, partially because I don't make a ton of money or enjoy my job, and partially because I don't want to work! I want to be at home when our kids are young. This is more important to me than having extra $$$, and if you think hard about budget and where each penny goes, you'll probably find that you can cut down expenses a lot. I may end up getting a part time job to give us some extra cushion, but we'll see how it goes.

I think you should make a plan, do your best to stick to it and remember--sometimes surprises happen and even the best-laid plans get switched up.

I'm a little late to this but just chiming in since I think i was in a similar boat. I think a lot of this depends on how old you are. If you are in your early 20s, and really want to stay at home, then, it makes sense to wait. If you are in your 30s, then, you have a little bit more of a timeline to think about.

For me, I really wanted to be a SAHM, it was important to me, and I was willing to wait a little bit for that to be an option. We knew DH's job would probably-- nothing is definitive of course-- be making enough money within a couple of years that I would be able to SAH comfortably. So we were willing to put it off an extra year, although there were a lot of other factors involved with putting off as well. I'm 31 and we just started trying. If I was older when we got married and it was still going to be a few years before we could comfortably do it on one salary, then we probably wouldn't have waited for that magic day when I could stay home.
So everyone is different, but I would evaluate- how much you really want to SAH (for me, I'd rather have only 1 kid if I got to stay home vs 2 and having to work full time, but that's just me!); how long you can comfortable wait for health/age reasons; how badly you want a baby right now!
And yeah, research day care costs in your area. For me, I make an OK salary but day care is so expensive that I'd only end up taking home hundreds a month, which wouldn't really help that much anyway.