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I wouldn't do it, but I'm very frugal. Can you go part time for a year or maybe take 6 months off?

Too scary for me. The only thing that could cause us to deplete savings would be an unavoidable emergency. I would begin looking for another job right away that didn't require such long days

I might.... but my parents are always willing to help out when we need a hand so I know that if in any type of emergency we'd always be ok. I don't know what's more stressful though.... being away from LO all day or being crazy broke......

Have you looked at what you *won't* be spending money on ? Lunches, gas to & from, parking, clothes, daily coffee etc? I don't know your financial situation but is there anything you an scale back like personal hygiene stuff (waxing/mani/pedi, haircut/colour etc)? Or are you willing to save $ in other ways like couponing? How much would you save by nnot having to afford daycare?

Maybe you could do what Canadians do - take 55% of your income (which would be your savings in this instance?) and divide by 50 weeks, and see if you can live off that. (We do have a max of 501$ per week).

I probably wouldn't do it either.

I wouldn't, because my husband works in the financial industry and they have lay-offs every year right before bonuses go out. And EVERY YEAR, when the lower-performing people get laid off, it's always the ones with the families.

So I'm always paranoid about DH getting laid off one year. RIght now, we have enough in savings where I could quit my job for a year, but I'm afraid we'd be tempting the lay-off gods if we depleted our savings. I'd rather keep that one year salary for if my DH gets laid off, since he makes a lot more than I do.

Nope; I definitely wouldn’t. That’s a lot of pressure to put on your spouse, and taking an extended leave from employment doesn’t look especially good on a resume. What if it takes you a lot more time to find a job after the year is up? What if your husband gets laid off halfway through the year?

I think every circumstance is different and you have to do what's best for you! Depleting savings is scary, but so is leaving LO with a stranger in day care... I'm still struggling with what I'm going to do, but probably working part time. Good luck!

@yoursilverlining: This exactly. A year away from the work force can make it very difficult to find a new job.

I wouldn't do it. You never know what emergencies could come up. You could be setting yourself up for a financial disaster. Which would put incredible pressure on your family and that would not be good for baby. I know my parents would always step in if we got in a bad situation but I would feel pretty awful if they had to do that because of choices I made and not just true unforeseen emergencies.

I couldn't do it. The economy is still unstable and I would be so stressed if we depleted our savings so I could stay home then something happened (DH lost his job, unexpected major expense, etc).

If I were in your situation, I'd look for another job that has better hours. You mentioned there aren't part time infant care options - could you swing working a reduced schedule (75% of your hours), but pay for daycare full time? That way you could spend more time with LO, but still protect your job. You could also keep looking for a better long term job.

Good luck!!

This actually kind of happened to me-- I got laid off right at the beginning of the recession in November 2008, and couldn't get any interviews, let alone a new job. I got horrible severance so I had an amazing unemployment check every week for over 2 years. So I decided to take a break and get pregnant, and be a SAHM for a year. After 18 months, my unemployment had finally run out, I was working 3 part time jobs, we were really stretching it financially and I had finally given in to the fact that I was not built to be a SAHM. Luckily I found a job and an amazing daycare very quickly and have never looked back... I'm so much happier as a working mom, even though I've dreamed of being a SAHM my whole life. I miss LMW terribly during the day, but having the freedom to go out and work to support my family (along with having an amazing nanny and of course WJ's daycare) feels like a LUXURY to me.

@oahujeni: I might have to be the oddball and say maybe yes! Definitely crunch the numbers and see what you could possibly give up to make it work.

We don't:
- spend money on ourselves unless our clothes have holes in them
- eat out ever, all home cooked meals and we budget our grocery expenses each month
- we limit our air conditioning and heating, we turn it on at night and keep it off during the day.
- we don't have cable/satellite/home phone. Just our cell phones and Netflix
- we bought DH a bike, so 3/4 of the year we hardly use the car.
- we share one car, so it's only one car payment and one tank to fill. One car to pay insurance on and pay for repairs

I tend to see that people have a lot more money than they initially think because most people naturally adjust to just loving within their means, whether they make 50k or 100k. But if you actually write down all your needed monthly expenses (mortgage/rent, utilities, car, etc- no frills) you find that there is a bit of money left over actually. If you take careful steps to manage that money- you could probably live on it and be a SAHM.

This is what happened to us in a way. I don't have the means to get a job with decent pay to cover child care- so I'm a SAHM but dh's salary doesn't always cover our needs. Yeah there have been times we've have to dip into savings to meet certain needs some months but I don't feel guilt over it. Sure I worry about money but who doesn't?!

Anyway I just wanted to say it can be done- you can do it!! If you heard what we brought home last year after taxes you'd probably be appalled and wonder how anyone can live on what we do- but we make it work

You may want to think about going back to work for say 3 months. And if you hate it, you can then be a SAHM. It's awful leaving your LO at first and I dreaded the end of my maternity leave but now that he's in daycare (keep in mind, it's not all roses and rainbows and there are days I want to quit) it's much easier to leave him at daycare. We could easily live off DHs income but (1) I would lose huge ground in my career and (2) the money is nice.

Yes! In fact, this is kind of our situation. My husband's income doesn't cover all the bills, plus we are adopting (which is crazy expenisve), so we're not anticipating having any savings once we are placed with our baby. I will be quitting my full-time job once the baby is here, and we're hoping we can make ends meet between my husband's job and my small business (photography) that I will be able to do from home. It's scary and a leap of faith, but I can't stand the thought of being away from our little one for most of the day and me being a SAHM is really important to both of us.

We've cut a lot of things from our budget already - no cable, much smaller cell phone plan, bought used, cheaper cars so we don't have a car payment, started shopping at Aldi, using "the envelope system" for our expenses, making things like cleaning supplies and laundry detergent instead of buying them, etc.

I read a book that really helped - it's called "Miserly Moms" and is written by a woman in a similar situation, in fact, I think before she became a SAHM, she brought in 60% of the income. I've already been able to implement a lot of her suggestions that have saved us money, . She also talks about the cost of working, and it's amazing some of the expenses that will be gone once you're not working... gas money, wardrobe expenses, eating out, convenienve foods, etc.

Good luck.. I hope you are able to stay home with your little one!

Nope. My husband can cover bills, but if he couldn't, I would help out. The money in our savings is for a down payment on a house and emergencies. If it were gone, and we couldn't get a house just or take care of a crisis, just because I wanted to not work, I would feel awful.

I wouldn't do it- we have a lot of goals for our future that depend on our savings, plus not having something to fall back on if there was an emergency is too scary for me.
We won't be able to add to our savings while I am a SAHM (we will live paycheck to paycheck), but since we have already saved up a substantial amount I'm comfortable with doing that temporarily (about 18 months or so).

Try looking into some other options, and consider talking to your employer to see if they can be flexible with your hours or allowing you to work from home occasionally?

I would consider it, but not if it's going to deplete all of your savings. I think it's worth evaluating your spending and cutting costs to help offset the dent from you not working, and if you're able to mostly compensate and rely on savings as an emergency fund, not monthly income, it would be worth it to me. That's what we're doing, actually--I'm not planning to work again until at least next fall, and even then it would probably be part-time during the hours that DH is home from work. So we are planning to be way more frugal in upcoming months and trying to start now! I hope it works out for you!