Just curious....

How many wives/sig others are SAHMS or SAHDS? Also, how do you make it work?

[ladymoreta]

Well, technically I'm not yet, but I will be in three more weeks, so I'll go ahead and answer.

We planned on me staying at home since we got married (9.5 years ago). We lived on my salary and some loans during medical school. Since residency started, we've been living about the same and putting a lot of DH's paycheck into savings each month, so we could use that to supplement his paycheck when I quit. I was laid off back in September and didn't find anything for 1.5 months, then I took a job that paid significantly less, so we're a little behind, but I think we can make it work.

[migirl]

I've been a SAHM since DS#1 was born, almost 4.5 years ago. (I just realized, that means that I've been a SAHM for almost 5 years of training!!)

I don't have any magic secrets as to how we make it work, we're just pretty frugal and don't have lots of fancy "stuff" or extras.

[SuzySunshine]

I've been a SAHM for just over two years - like migirl, we just stay in a budget but I also worked for 5 years while DH was in med school and 3 1/2 years of residency so we saved as much as we could during those years to give us a cushion now.

I am a SAHM to 2 little boys (almost 3 and just turned 1) and expecting #3 in September. I worked after college until I had my first child and paid off my undergrad loans and managed to save a little. DH worked full time while doing an MPH for a couple of years, and then we just started med school last summer, so I don't have THAT much experience in how it "works" while in med school, but we are basically living off of loans for EVERYTHING, which means that there is very little to nothing left for extras of any kind. Also, we qualify for some government aid since we have kids, which takes care of insurance and food costs. (Someone else called it "temporary poverty", and we figure we'll be putting much more back into it once we're done with training, so we might as well use it when we need it!) DH is going to get a research job over the summer and make some $$ and has found a VERY SMALL job (2.5 hours/ week) to do during school, so that will help.
We have a budget and stick to it, and we pay our tithing and pray! It's not much fun sometimes, but... we have what we need and that's what matters.

Hope that helps!

Are you thinking about becoming a SAHM, or are you just wondering how ppl make it work?

-Sarah

[moonlight]

I'm a SAHM as of 3 months ago. We made it work by lots of planning and being honest about what we could and couldn't afford. I got pregnant while DH was a MS4 and I had DD while he was a PGY1. We knew what his income was going into residency and we worked everything around that. If we couldn't afford a bill, we just didn't take it on. For example... we couldn't afford cable TV when we first moved here. We still don't have it. But we knew with our income tax return we'd be able to order it. If you think before you spend it makes things easier week to week.

If we had tons of credit card debt, medical bills, payments on student loans, or car loans then there isn't any way we could do what we are doing now... The only way I could think of paying all those bills and staying at home would be to live in a small one bedroom apartment. And even that isn't the end of the world.

[Meenah]

I would look into getting Kris'book "Surviving Residency".

Thanks for all of the responses ladies! I have two children, dd is 2 and ds is 7 months. We decided we wanted to have another child just before dh went back to school so that we wouldn't have a huge gap b/t our children and now it's looking like we may have another one (not pregnant) before he finishes school. Trying to decide when the best time would be.

Are you thinking about becoming a SAHM, or are you just wondering how ppl make it work?

-Sarah

Sarah - I have been a SAHM since dd was born. We lived on my husband's income for an entire year and 1/2 before he start med school, now we're in the same boat as you guys. Loans for everything. We have some savings for things that loans won't cover. DH is going to a state medical school that is about an hour from our hometown and we actually moved after we graduated college to be closer to the school if he decided to go, finally almost 5 years later here we are! It really boggles my brain that even with a family of 4, and living off of student loans, when he graduates he will still owe less than an out of state single student. That really helps sometimes, especially when we get a loan statement! haha! Thanks again ladies!

I would look into getting Kris'book "Surviving Residency".

Sorry had to giggle a little bit! I saw this book right around the time I found this forum, I have very very very little "me" time! Reading isn't something that tops my list right now! Although I may consider it over the summer!!! Thanks for the info!