Tags
advice, baby, breastfeeding, childcare, finances, frugal living, parenting, saving money, Stay at home mom
When my husband and I decided to have our second child we really weighed whether or not we could afford for me to stay home. I was adament that if we did have a baby he or she would not spend crucial years with a daycare provider. Luckily with my first born Ezra (who is now 5) we did find some great providers in our area but not without going through a couple not so great ones. He bounced around a few times before he finally landed in a wonderful preschool. He turned out to be a wonderfully adjusted little man despite all of that moving around, but I do not want that for Lucas and I wanted to be the one to nurture and care for him through all of his first moments and bumps on the head. I did alot of research when I was pregnant on why staying home is actually in some ways financially better. Here is what I found to be true for our home…maybe it will be true for yours as well.
Daycare. This is the big one. In our area a good daycare provider is $30-$40 per day depending on the age of your child. We were spending approximately $550 per month on care for our then 4 year old. Multiply that by two children and you get approximately $1100 per month. Some places give discounts for multiple children people may want to look into that, but we did not find one that did. Our oldest would only be in daycare half day because he started Kindergarten this fall so it would have been about $800 per month for our particular situation. That is alot of money to pay for care of your child that would be significantly substandard to your own motherly care.
Breastfeeding. I know breastfeeding is not for everyone. Some people do not like it or are worried it will affect the esthetic nature of thier breasts. For me it is not a big deal. It seems to be the most logical solution to feeding your child. It is the “perfect” food for them. Your breast milk actually alters and changes as they grow to suit thier needs. You never have to take the time to warm up a bottle. It helps you lose baby wieght (yes this is true) and it is…. FREE. If I were going back to work it would be very challenging to breastfeed. Between having to pump at lunch and on breaks and the leaking and stress of it all I was not willing to deal with it. I do have one die hard friend who was a middle school teacher and she would hide under her desk in her classroom at lunch and pump everyday for the entire first year of both of her children’s life. I don’t know if I would have the drive to do that. Formula can be very pricey especially if you buy a quality product. Good baby formula can cost $20-$40 per can and lasts anywhere from 4 to 7 days. I had a friend that added up that in the early months of her childs life she was spending $450- $500 per month on formula. Even if you can make a can last an entire week it still adds up to around $200 per month.
Transporation. When I was working I had a commute that cost me about $200 per month. This money is saved completely by me staying home with my baby. Not to mention wear and tear on our vehicle and buying new snow tires every other year. Hooray!
Convenience foods. When you have two people in a home who are working and children to take care of you are more likely to splurge on convenience foods. When I was working my husband took microwavable meals most days or ate out while at work. I also bought special food to take with me to work or again would order out. Now that I am home with my children I can cook breakfast, lunch and dinner for all of them from scratch. My husband takes leftovers most days which is also healthier than a microwave pizza. He still does treat himself to a burrito from his favorite mexican joint once a week but definately not as often as he did before. As a side effect of me being home I feel we eat alot healthier. We used to go out to eat or order carry out 3-4 nights per week. Seriously, I am not kidding. I am so disgusted when I think about that. I was so tired after being at work all day an then commuting home that I could not bear some nights to cook dinner. One month we added up how much money we spent on eating out and it came to almost $700. That is ridiculous! We now eat out or order in once every two weeks and we really do not want to because it is a hassle bringing a baby to a restuarant. I cook all of our meals and although they may not all be gourmet they are healthy and well rounded.
Taxes. You will pay less in taxes when your household makes less money.
Work clothes and dry cleaning. These two expenses are completely gone. I bought new clothes for work quite often. I did not dry clean too many of them, however, it was a factor.
Attention to budget. Now that I am staying home I have time to plan menus for our meals. I ussually pull up the local sale flyer for our supermarket online and see what is on sale before I start planning our meals for the week. I can research and cut coupons because I do have a little extra time in my day. We do not go crazy with this process but we do save around $20-$40 per grocery store visit each time. I am much more attentive to where our money is going and I have gotten really good at hunting for bargains online for clothes in off season or look for Christmas presents on sale in the summer. Some would be embarrassed about this… I see it as one way I can help our family have more of the things we want. We want to go to Disneyland this fall and I plan on helping to make that happen, and in the least amount of money. 🙂
A fringe benefit of me staying home is that I feel like I have more quality time with my family. Our evenings were once a whirlwind of laundry and dishes now I can do most of that during the day so that we have our evenings to deal with baths and settling down. I have felt that since I have been staying home my relationship with my 5 year old has grown much much closer. Before our evenings were so busy and consisted of dealing with what need to be done that we did not have time to bond. Now during the day we can play Knights and Pirates together, or build a fort in the living room with blankets and chairs, or just snuggle and watch a movie. I love having this time with my boys and would not trade it for a few extra dollars. I am not going to lie, we do have to watch our money and I cannot buy an $80 bottle of perfume with out thinking about how much money we have (this was something I loved to do before). That being said, the transition has not been so unbearable. We still had a great Christmas with an abundance of gifts, most of which I bought in the summer. I did not have to worry about taking vacation time around the holidays, I could relax and spend a week making cookies and treats. It is the best decision my husband and I ever made.