How to afford to be a Stay at home mom?

Hi! I am new here, my husband is just starting dental school this fall. 2 days later we found out that I am pregnant with our first child. We have been married for almost 5 years and are very excited, but I am concerned about how we are going to afford this new baby.

I am a teacher and can keep on working, but I really do not want to work after this next year. Does anyone have any advice or suggestions for me and how I can afford to stay at home with my baby?

Thanks for any help!

[DCJenn]

Re: How to afford to be a Stay at home mom?

I'm pretty sure if you dig through the archives you'll find several posts for this very topic. (It's a regular topic of conversation around here.

Mostly, save absolutely every penny you can between now and then.

Welcome!

Jenn

[Vanquisher]

Re: How to afford to be a Stay at home mom?

I did it. Debt, debt, and more debt.

[MDPhDWife]

Re: How to afford to be a Stay at home mom?

I'm a SAHM and DH is 6 years into his 8 year program. You'll have to make some tough choices about your lifestyle and the amount of debt you're comfortable with.

and to the forum!

[locumtenenswife]

Re: How to afford to be a Stay at home mom?

I'm a stay at home wife, and have been since Sept 2006. What we've done is work out a budget that works with our income, and it is very tight. We don't eat out very often, and we don't splurge much on anything except a movie once in a while (we even bring our own snacks to the theater).

We created the budget based on all our purchases from the prior year (we put everything on one credit card so we could manage our budget) and put all of our purchases into categories so we could find out how much we were spending. From that, we looked at my husbands income and what expenses were absolutely necessary (mortgage, prop taxes, gas, utilities, student loans, etc.) and adjusted the expenses that were flexible (groceries, clothing, eating out, etc.) and realized that we had more money going out than coming in. It's surprising how much money we were spending on little purchases every day, that just added up to thousands of dollars a year. So we created a budget that allows us to put more money into savings so that we could save for a bigger house and for the kids and maybe a little more for splurges like vacations and dinner out.

It works for us, but honestly we live like students most of the time. We've made some choices that would be difficult for some people, but we're focused on our goals and that helps us when the desire for a new car or a new wardrobe or new furniture comes up. What's really nice is we have enough money to travel when we want to, and we've been able to take some really great trips since we've gotten married. It's all about choices, and we just choose to live a simpler life that we can actually afford.

[diggitydot]

Re: How to afford to be a Stay at home mom?

It works for us, but honestly we live like students most of the time.

Same here. And I harbor no guilt that my kids know the difference between a need and a want.

Re: How to afford to be a Stay at home mom?

Thank you for your advice! Besides living on a budget, do you mostly live on loans or do some of you have part time at home jobs? Do you know of any sort of at home jobs that are feasable for a mom? A medical coder perhaps? Thanks for all of your support and advice. I am so excited about being a mom, I am just trying to figure out if I have any options and how to get enough loans or whatever to sustain 2 adults, 1 baby, and a dog!

[locumtenenswife]

Re: How to afford to be a Stay at home mom?

The only loans we have are the mortgage and my husbands student loans. Currently, I don't work at all and don't contribute any income. We did a balance transfer for some of my husband's high interest student loan debt to a 0% interest credit card, and we only pay the minimum payment on these each month and only more when we get a tax refund or other unexpected bonus. We don't live off credit, but we use our credit card for all purchases so we can track our spending. We pay off the balance each month, and so we don't pay interest charges.

If you have a mortgage, a better option than a credit card is a home equity line of credit, where if you need to carry a balance you can write off the interest you accrue on your tax returns each year. This only works if you own your home and can afford to make the monthly repayments, and if the risk of putting your home up for collateral is worth having the extra credit. We chose not to go this route because we were able to qualify for the 0% balance transfer deal for the life of the balance on one of our credit cards.

[Meenah]

Re: How to afford to be a Stay at home mom?

Since you are a teacher would you consider tutoring? I remember paying $40 an hour for a math tutor for my daughter. He was an elementary school teacher, and he came to my house to tutor, but I know people who have the students come to them. It is very lucrative in New Jersey.

Re: How to afford to be a Stay at home mom?

Yeah, I would absolutely consider tutoring. How did you find your tutor? I think that would be a great idea. THanks!

[Meenah]

Re: How to afford to be a Stay at home mom?

One of the teachers gave me his name. He was a teacher in a different school from ours. While you are still teaching start networking now and talk to people who tutor in your area. I also remember there was a woman who charged $$$ to help high school students get organized and fill out all of their college applications, proof their essays, keep up with deadlines, etc. The local community newspapers also have tutors listed in the classified section.

[houseelf]

Re: How to afford to be a Stay at home mom?

We had a PhD candidate place fliers in our mailbox that he offered math tutoring and stated that he would give references upon inquiry. Depending on how aggressive you want to be with your tutoring service, this might drum up some business.

Kelly

Re: How to afford to be a Stay at home mom?

We borrowed more money from non-certified student loan institutions. My dh has a scholarship so we figured it was "OK"...

[fluffhead]

Re: How to afford to be a Stay at home mom?

I made extra $$ tutoring when I was home. I went to meet with the chairs of the appropriate depts at the local prep school, and told them I was available. I had no shortage of referrals. And then they gave me a job, which was nice too.

[MathMum]

Re: How to afford to be a Stay at home mom?

The best piece of advice I ever recieved (and one of my many mantra's) is ...

"Live like a doctor now, live like a student later. Live like a student now, live like a doctor later."

Personally, we just live a little cheeper, coupon clip, and don't go on as many vacations as we used to. It can be done.