My encouragement to you if you are one of those stay at home wannabes is to begin by getting a pen and paper out and writing down your income and then all the expenses associated with you specifically working……like childcare, clothing, gas, eating out etc.   It is important to really look at the numbers and see if the net result is making that big of an impact to your monthly income and bill paying as you think it is.  You can use this as a starting point to see what is actually costs you to work outside the home.

Secondly, sit down with your husband and look at all your bills, how can you reduce them, what can you cut back on, pay off etc to reduce the monthly outgoings.  We do this every year just because!  My husband is a great encourager to get rid of the extra stuff if it isn’t worth having and reducing debt as much as possible.  This is just something good to do anyway, even if you already stay at home or are going to continue to work, it is just good money sense.

With those things done you can get a clearer picture of:   A- What income you are truly bringing in and B- What bills you have that can be reduced or gotten rid of entirely.

There are also some great books out there on the process of becoming a Stay at home mom, I think I mentioned before that my hubby got me several while I was still working.  Some are about the transition experience but a lot talk about finances and budgeting and ways to cut costs when you are trying to raise a family while staying at home.

So, before you think you can’t write it all down, do some research and see what you are really looking at before making a decision, it could be with just a bit of tweaking you could be handing in your notice!

Smiles!

Grace

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