How do you afford to stay at home? I'd love to be able to but I don't think it's in the cards for us...
Did you have to make a major lifestyle change?
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The only way we can do it is because of our savings, which was inherited from his father.
It's not much of a change for me, cause I am pretty frugal, thanks to my upbringing. But, there's a lot of things I live without and I don't miss.
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We started our marriage only living on DH's salary and saving mine. So we never got used to a double income. Our cars are 12 and 8 years old. We chose an older home that we could fix up in a neighborhood we love, but it's not our dream. Thankfully, DH has a great job with EXCELLENT benefits, but we're certainly not rich by our area's standards. I think the key for us has been managing priorities.
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We bought a duplex, and the rental income pays most of our mortgage. It is also an older house, but most of the housing stock in Boston is old so the maintenance is something we would have had to do anyway. We're pretty frugal as well but I still think we have a nice life!
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I took a two year break after my son was born, but leading up to it, we banked my entire salary for three years like a previous poster. My husband and I were both older and thus making more, so three years really made a nice nest egg. We still went on one big trip a year and we did make sure to put funds aside for visiting family.
Other than that, we also had just one car, which cut down on gas and insurance. I've recently returned to work for a number of reasons, but I am confident that when this contract ends and I have to make a decision, we will be in the position where I can either stay at home or find something else.
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@sslm: I recently started budgeting like crazy. I mean craaaazy. I keep track of every bill, every expense, every contribution to savings, 401k, emergency savings, everything is planned.
DH tries to pick up over time, we meal plan, we really stopped doing spontaneous vacations and huge shopping trips...but for me, that's okay. It won't be like this forever and soon enough I'll be working again but by teaching ourselves to be frugal - it will help us be more comfortable in the future.
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I didn't make that much when I was working, so it makes more sense for me to stay home rather than to pay for child care. Dh made enough for us to be comfortable.... and then he got a new job and took a pay cut. Now we aren't comfortable but we survive. Still I'd rather struggle and budget then be away from LO right now. Especially now that we'll have two soon.... it's too expensive for us to have 2 in day care.
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@artbee: Same here - my salary was pretty sad to begin with and I didn't want to work just to put Lady M in daycare.
We're comfortable but we're not extravagant. We like to do activities and get some nice things, but we're also very cognizant on what we spend on things such as groceries. I'm even more-so now just b/c sometimes I feel an irrational guilt that I'm not really contributing financially.
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We both grew up in single-income homes (and definitely no well to do single incomes either), so it's basically what we're used to and we never really had to adjust to it. We live within our means and that's about it. It's not something we really think about. When I worked before we had kids, all my paychecks went into a savings account. Now any money I earn is mine to do with what I see fit. Which is generally going right back into my business.
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