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Freaking Out About Finances

Tiff B.Tiff B. member
in Working Moms

I'm not sure how many of you have taken pay cuts or lost jobs within the last year or two, but since I've been pregnant (I'm 38 weeks now) my husband and I have both taken pay cuts to the point where $850 a month for daycare is REALLY pushing it whereas before it wouldn't have been much of an issue to swing. (A large percentage of my income before was commission which has literally all but dropped off due to the economy and my DH works in state government, you know how well those jobs are faring these days!)

I still make just enough to where staying home would be less cost effective than working, but if working and paying for day care meant having "less spending money" before it now means trying to figure out how to cut a monthly grocery bill in half, or canceling cable/internet/etc. to make things work.

How have any of you managed to re-arrange your finances to make daycare fit when money is tight? I always wonder how other people do it or make it happen!

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Re: Freaking Out About Finances

  • Mr. & Mrs. RNMr. & Mrs. RN member
    My friends and I try to help eachother out as much as possible by watching each others babies.  We all work different schedules so we are able to.
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  • mrsgin03mrsgin03

    When we had our first DD, I too was freaking out about finances, I think that's normal. My situation is similar to your's in that I don't make a ton of money after paying for daycare but it still is worthwhile for me to work so we have some wiggle room in our budget. However, if we were going to have to cut basic bills to pay for daycare, I would probably look at our budget and see what the differences would be if I didn't work (ie, would we still have to cut cable, and if so, would I rather cut it to pay for daycare or to stay home?) Of course, I don't love my job and would prefer to stay home, if you love your job, that's different, then it's worth it for you to keep working!

    As I said, I think most people freak out about finances while pregnant. Honestly, I have found you just make it work. Before kids, DH and I ate out at least 4 times/week, would go out for drinks after work with friends, shopped pretty freely for ourselves... all of that has changed. Now we go out to a nice dinner maybe once/month (if that) I make a weekly menu and grocery shop once/week, and I try to base the menu around what's on sale/what we already have, to keep our grocery bill down. Your lifestyle just changes so much when you have kids that you start saving some money because you aren't going out as much. Of course, that money goes right toward kids and their expenses, but it opens up money in your budget you didn't have before.

     

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  • mclaugaamclaugaa

    I paid off our credit cards and any other loans before DS came and I changed the amount withheld from my paycheck from 0 to 2 dependants, so I would get more back in my paycheck. 

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  • AmyCC1980AmyCC1980 member
    I have taken a 12% pay cut and last year I had to take two weeks of furlough.  This year I have to take one week of furlough.  DH is in sales so his commission is nearly non existant, he had to take a small cut pay cut off of his base salary and he was unemployed from Nov - Feb.  So I feel your struggles even though we only have one LO.  We do have a good savings account to fall back on if we need it but I would rather not touch it unless I have to.  I have actually taken a lot of tips from the SAHM board.  I clean my own house (even though I hate every second of it). I plan all our meals out in advance and shop the sales at the grocery store and we rarely eat out. I stoped getting my hair highlighted and manis and pedis are now only for special occasions.  We don't have a home phone, we just use our cell phones which DH's company pays for.  We have trimmed back our cable and internet package, lowered the thermostat, etc, etc.  There are tons of things that you can do to lower your expenses and while none of them make a huge difference on their own, combined they can save a lot of money.  Good luck!
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  • jlw2505jlw2505 member
    Less eating out, dropped some extras like lowering the cable options that we have, less buying things like clothes or toys (for us) and even some stuff for the kids.  We didn't spend much on the holidays.  We do more at home date nights rather than going out.  We made a strict budget and really stick to it.
    Jenni Mom to DD#1 - 6-16-06 DD#2 - 3-13-08 
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