SAH or BACK TO WORK?

mrsmatto · February 2009

I'm a teacher and have until 3/1 to submit my letter about whether I will be returning in the fall. Things are tight and with the economy the way it is, I know I should go back. However my heart tells me that DD will only be this little once and I shouldn't leave her. Do any of you SAHMs have any advice on making it work on one income? I really should have a plan if I'm going to bring this up to DH. TIA

1MusicMaker · February 2009

I love being a SAHM. However, I'm really a WAHM--that's the only way we could swing it. I teach piano lessons out of my home.

mrsmatto · February 2009

I was thinking of doing some kind of WAH, perhaps tutoring or the like.

mrs_harper · February 2009

Without knowing your situation, it's hard to tell you anything certain. I love staying at home with DD, and we're very very careful with our finances to keep it this way. We can't buy as many nice things as we would be able to otherwise, but it's a trade that is worth it to us.

KellyOsu23 · February 2009

Could you go back to work, and then take the Summer off and make a decision then?

I dont know how teacher contracts work but if you put all in savings pretending you did SAHM you should have a cusion in case something DID happen

Just a thought.

Tash13 · February 2009

Things are beyond tight for us (I'll be going back soon) but we made it work for the last 8 months which has been nice. I plan our meals by the week, write a list so we can only go to the store once and not get anything not on the list. We also don't get our DS unnecessary clothes or toys. We use a lot of hand-me-downs from my nephews so that we don't have to buy much. We don't go out to eat, have basic cable, cut down our phone minutes, only drive my car longer distances since it's way better on gas and keep the heat lower at night to cut down on heating prices. I'm also learning to make a lot of food from scratch and we cloth diaper. A lot of little things save big. I'd go over your budget, see where you can cut back and see if it's really possible for you to do it. GL!

Califlorida · February 2009

my H is a sahd. he left a career in the school district (financial side of things). and i don't think he's ever looked back. it's piece of mind for us that she always has one of her parents there. we make it work because i am lucky enough to have a great job and good benefits. but we are cautious that things can change at any moment. so we sock away all we can for that rainy day. we have a dozen little tricks for squirreling money away. everything from automatic withdrawals to savings, to holding onto every five dollar bill we come across. sounds silly, but we call that dd's money and we've saved almost a grand so far.

jenifairies · February 2009

mrs_harper:
Without knowing your situation, it's hard to tell you anything certain. I love staying at home with DD, and we're very very careful with our finances to keep it this way. We can't buy as many nice things as we would be able to otherwise, but it's a trade that is worth it to us.

ditto. There are a TON of books at the library on how to budget, cut back, live cheap, etc. I'm not saying it's true for everyone, but for us, by sacrificing the fun stuff and living cheap on things we need or really want, it's doable. it's worth it to us to sacrifice those things so i can stay home with alaina. the books miserly meals, miserly moms, and frugal families by jonni mccoy have tons of money saving tips.

I love the site couponmom.com for deals on some groceries and paper goods. I started getting sunday papers and i write copy down items from my receipts to compare prices. the stores are all close by, so i hit 3 stores and save money.

we started tracking everything we spend last month, and found that with being accountable on paper for every little thing, we spent less on things like fast food out, little things for DD that we didn't really need, crap from convenience stores. We got cricket cell phones since they're cheaper and unlimited minutes. Called the cable co and downgraded our internet (it doesn't seem any slower, and it's $15 cheaper - 180 a year!). I like to multiply the savings by a year to really show dh what a big difference little things make.

we don't use credit at all. and we don't make much money either. when it runs out, it runs out. we are more careful that way.

with you being a teacher, you could probably tutor (wah) and make some extra money.

xtina05 · February 2009

Can you just sub here and there??

njev · February 2009

Hey,

I am a teacher and decided to stay home for now. The things we did to get ready is save a 6 month emergency fund while I was still working. We try to not touch that so that in an emergency we're okay. The other thing to consider is tenure. Are you tenured? Is your system hard to get a job in? My school system is very competetive but they will guarantee you a position if you come back within two years; it sort of took the stress out for me b/c I know that I can go back and be guaranteed a job at some point. Finally, could you tutor? or sub? I tutor three nights a week and it makes things a lot easier and gives you grocery and spending money etc.

mary5198 · February 2009

As much as I would love to SAH, we need my income, so I got a new job working three evenings a week. It's working out fairly well - DH is home with Michael at night, so I don't have to find babysitters, and I get some adult interaction.

Maybe you could do something similar, like tutoring? It's tough to leave them, I know!

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