creating a plan
Hello ladies,
i'm new to this board. i'm heading back to work this week after a 13 month mat leave (in Canada we get a year, plus i had vacation). my DD will be going to daycare, which i hate, but am happy with where she is going. at this time it is still worth me going back to work, in terms of what i'll be bringing home.
DH and i had the 'talk' this weekend, about trying for another baby and what we would do after that mat leave, as daycare would be about 60% of my salary, which is crazy. we think we have a plan in place where we can pay off our debt (less than 5k) and build up our savings so that i could stay home with our kids in about 2 years (depending on when i get pregnant) and then i would look for a part time job for evenings and weekends to help out.
for those of you who made the transition-what is your best advice? things you didn't expect? or wish you knew? what do you think is the best thing to have in place financially before becoming a SAHM??
thanks! i hope to join you soon!
Re: creating a plan
Wow a year maternity leave? That's amazing!
Really we just got rid of all debt. I understand this isn't something that everyone can do but we were lucky enough to be able to.We are down to mortgage (620) and 1 car payment and normal bills.
I'd start tracking your spending monthly on groceries, power, water, etc etc and trying to figure out how much you spend each month. I'm still new to SAHM but it seems like right when I quit crap started piling up! Just this week we had to buy plane tickets, our tv took a crap and it would be 500-990 to fix so we just bought a new one, lol...and it looks like our dog needs knee surgery AND we are going out of town this weekend! Just keep in mind stuff comes up that you'll need to be prepared for so make sure you have savings!
Also see what kind of things you can cut out if you need to. We are doing fine money wise but have been eating at home a LOT more than usual and that's saving us quite a bit. It's amazing how fast money goes on just eating out!
I hope that you guys are able to figure everything out so you can stay home. It's been awesome so far