Can you afford to stay home with your children?
Many new parents assume that they simply cannot afford to stay at home with their children. Losing one income would mean being on a budget so tight that it simply would not even allow for necessities. Maybe that isn’t true, however. Maybe with a closer look at your budget you can find a way to avoid the cost of daycare and spend more time with your children, at least for their first few years and maybe longer.
First, think about how much daycare costs. For me, daycare would cost more than I could actually make at this point having not yet completed my degree. Other things to consider are lunches out, business attire, gas, and taxes.
If your family truly cannot do without your income, as is the case for many families, seek out a work at home job. My favorite website for work at home jobs include Wahm.com and Jobs For Stay At Home Moms. These websites are geared toward moms, of course, but dads could take advantage of the same opportunities. There are jobs for writers, home business opportunities, jobs for virtual assistants and other great home job ideas to be found on these websites.
There is always the option of keeping other children in your home. Many moms make a bit of extra money by watching an extra child or two. It’s not enough to constitute a “daycare” or keep you from spending quality time with your own children, but it can bring in a bit to help out the family budget.
Check out this post about Fall Decor from The Creative Mom Cafe.
October 17th, 2007 at 8:39 pm
Great post! There are a lot of things to consider when thinking about staying home. Often the things that we think are importatn we learn aren’t really needed after all.
June 11th, 2008 at 10:10 am
[...] Can you afford to stay home with your children? For those who are leaning towards staying home but are concerned about making ends meet, this is a great resource for thinking about how to make it work. [...]