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I would miss the cleaning lady.

Clothes shopping and my yoga studio membership. But im trying hard to find gratitude in my current position and it really gives me a lot of peace now i do yoga at home and get creative with outfits

Going out to eat more often. Gym membership. Clothes shopping without guilt.

we used to go out to eat a looooooot.

Not stressing about money. Currently, we don't stress about money at all. For instance this month has been terrible for cars and both of ours have been in the shop multiple times. We don't like having to spend money on all those things that inevitably come up, but it isn't stressing us out.

If having (almost) 2 in daycare counts as drastically changing... I miss being able to spend whatever we wanted (within reason) without stressing. We were all over house projects, never giving a second though to whether or not we had enough to be able to do what we wanted to do (nothing over a couple thousand at a time, not like we were constantly remodeling a fancy kitchen or anything). But now we don't know if we're going to be able to build our last retaining wall this Spring, because of all the other financial obligations we have.

We don't even know if we'll be able to fully fund our HSA this year, and I haven't started contributing to my 401K at my new job yet, AND I only have salary based life insurance at the moment. These are all things that wouldn't have been an issue pre-kids!

We def already have to budget, but at least we are not freaking out about eating out once in a while, or if unexpected expenses come about. With a baby on the way, I feel like our financial situation will change drastically and we'll have to cut back on all of our fun stuff and funnel that money into baby expenses instead!

@kml636: agh nails...and hair! Miss that.

I would miss having two cars.

My BFF and her hubby share a car and it was so difficult for her while she was on maternity leave - she was trapped in the house and felt so isolated. Now she's back at work, her hubby drops her at the office, then drops the baby at nursery, then goes to work himself - it adds about an hour onto their commute (an hour she could have been spending playing with her son).

if I got laid off I would be crushed because I would likely have to drop out of school. my paycheck pays for daycare so that I can stay in school. that's pretty much all it's used for. I make a small amount, but it is needed.

Now if DH got laid off... we would probably have to move in with my parents because we definitely could not live off of my income. We would give up everything.

I miss being able to buy things whenever and do lots of craft projects.

Very relevant question for us since I'm currently pregnant with our first baby and due in September.

We currently make a good income, but we've been trying to pay off our copious student loans ASAP, so we've been living on about 25-30% of our income for over a year now. We already live on a strict written budget that we write out monthly, we don't have cable, we live in a modest rental, and don't really spend money on hobbies or stuff. Our one splurge is usually a nice vacation for about a week in the summer.

Since we live pretty frugally, going part-time or becoming a SAHM wouldn't affect our day to day very much, except that we wouldn't be putting extra money towards our loans and I would be contributing less or no money towards my pension. And we'd probably have to scrap our vacation or at least downgrade it to somewhere local.

Since getting pregnant, we've eaten out a lot more frequently because I have no energy and I have a lot of morning sickness. To offset some of that, I have stopped getting gel manicures twice a month and started getting haircuts a lot less frequently. I stopped using expensive shampoo and conditioner. I just recently got my hair cut at Supercuts too, and it was just fine. We also cut out expensive presents or dinners for anniversaries and birthdays.

I think the biggest thing for us will be the mental aspect of actually having less money rather than choosing to spend less. While we are very disciplined about our finances, there are plenty of times we splurge on little things because we technically have the money to do it. By the end of this year we'll be on a reduced income while I'm on maternity leave, DH will take a paycut by moving us all over to his health insurance, and we'll have daycare costs to think about once I return to work. So it will definitely be a change!

My daily iced coffee.

We are on dh's income and couldn't live without it. He does, however, work for the most underpaid department in our area (or at least one of them) so he could possibly get a higher paying job. If he became unemployed we would move and work for te family business which wouldn't be terrible but then even on two incomes in that area and with insurance going up we wouldn't have room for pretty much any extras. I'd miss trips, take out/delivery, shopping... We spend more on food than we should.

I would miss having the ability to only work part time, or not at all. I would also miss my daily Starbucks and being able to buy most things (within reason) without worrying about it affecting our finances.

I think the biggest thing I miss is getting take out more often. But besides that we lived pretty frugally. Which is why it was hard to find areas to cut when I got laid off.

I miss not thinking about money, if that makes sense. Before, if I wanted something I bought it or did it. Now, I have to step back and justify the cost. It's worth it for me to stay home with LO, though.

Gosh, so many things. We just got a tree cut down in our backyard, we just redid our laundry room, etc. Those things would for sure be the first to go because they are nice to haves.