Wishing I could be an OS SAHM. Could I?

mummysaver

When we had our children we decided that I would stay at home with them, luckily dh's salary just about covered our bills - though looking back I wonder how we managed, but you do! But as the children got to 12-18 months old I looked around and found some evening work (we had several large insurance companies near us at the time, and they ran an evening shift to clear the back logs left from the day!). It meant that I got back into the swing of work, we had more money, there were no childcare costs as dh was home before I went to work, and as it was a part time job there was no stress and no work to bring home.

I don't know what you do for a living, but sometimes it can be worth thinking about other types of jobs. If you speak to your current employer you may be pleasantly surprised and find that they are happy for you to work different hours/days, they may be happy for you to increase your hours on the days that you are there, so that you don't really lose anything in pay.

Good luck!

thriftlady_2

Here's that book

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1564144089/qid%3D1141736927/026-6773062-4911644

MATH

Hi couteaux, you don't mention your partner in your OP. I'm assuming you have one as you say you are the MAIN breadwinner. I ask because IME where there are two parents you do really need to work together and support each other when considering one becoming a SAHP.

Does he share your views about becoming a SAHM?
Would he be prepared to chip in with the cutting back that would be necesary when dropping a salary?
Could he make up some of the shortfall by changing jobs?
If his salary is much less than yours would you both consider him staying at home and you continuing to work?

When we decided whether I should stop work this is how we worked it out.

We took my salary and took off the costs of childcare, cleaners salary, ironing ladys salary, work clothes budget, money spent going out with collegues, work lunches, running costs on my car (I sold it). Then we added on all the extra costs we could think of such as increased heating/lighting due to the house being occupied all day and found that we only losing less than half my salary which sounded a lot better. Once I stopped work I found I could halve our weekly spend by cutting out rubbish we didin't need like daily and weekend newspapers and by cooking HM meals rather than ready made. When we both worked we had to throw money at it because we had no time - I can't believe how much we used to spend back then. I've been at home for 11 years now and we would never go back.

It is often far more achievable than you first think. All the best