** If this is your first visit to the Mommy, Come Home series, you may want to start here. Welcome! **
Yesterday’s post was inspiration for young families who are just starting out. Rachel challenged us to dream and plan for our children from the get-go! Today, Beth offers her perspective on the transition from balancing a corporate America job with family time to Coming Home full-time.
When asking “Can we do it? Can we afford for me to Come Home?” one thing Beth demonstrates is to hire yourself. Is there anything you are spending money to have done for you that you could do yourself? Day care expenses, landscaping and lawn care, house keeper, dry cleaning, convenience foods/takeout/restaurant eating… the list is understandably long for some busy families.
The cost of working outside the home goes much deeper than childcare and work-related expenses. Time is money, and for some it may pay to add up the savings of a do-it-yourself lifestyle.
…I left my baby from 6:30 am until 5:30 pm with a family member. I only got to see my son in the evenings and on weekends. Nobody told me how difficult it would be returning to work and the other mothers seemed to transition back with ease…
…We hadn’t made any preparations or even thought about the option of me staying at home. I just thought I’d go back to work like I saw every other mother at my job do…
…I began praying every day that God would make a way for me to come home. And I made a promise to myself that I was going to do whatever it took to be at home with my child. It was a dream four years in the making…
…From the outside looking in I had it all: a great career and a beautiful family. We lived very comfortably on two salaries. I never really had to think twice about buying anything. We paid someone to watch our kids, clean our house, mow our lawn and do landscaping, exterminate our home, and the list goes on and on…
…I realized that my children needed me more than they needed things. As a working mom I was so busy I never had time to spend with my kids. Our weekends and evenings were spent running errands and shopping. Now that I’m at home I can give my children the gift of my time- both quantity and quality. And they are worth every sacrifice I’ve made to do that…
Be sure to visit Beth to read the rest of her encouraging story and see the steps they took to prepare financially for the transition from two incomes to one.
How do you save money by hiring yourself? Is there an expense in your budget that could be eliminated with a do-it-yourself plan of action?
This post is linked to Family Friday and Frugal Friday.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Very precious….
and I’d love to see some pics of your garden
I am the best employee I ever hired:-)
I love this post! Too many times I hear, “What a luxury to get to stay at home!” In actuality, you GIVE UP a lot of luxuries to stay home with your children!
We cut off our $60/month satellite bill. Instead, we go in with a friend and pay about $10/year for a subscription to a website where we can download TV shows and movies to our computer and watch them on our television. This does two things: 1) Saves us lotsa money and 2) allows US to pick what plays on our television, not some broadcasting company without our family’s best interest in mind!
We don’t have any children yet but it’s quite expensive for me to work between the housekeeper, the dog walker (yes, I insist that my babies aren’t home alone all day!), and the dry cleaner. My hubby and I have already decided and are making plans for when we do have a family – I am staying home. We make some decisions about money and our life style today so that we can do what we belive is right when we have the opportunity. Thanks for sharing!
Amen! I whole heartedly agree. Those first few years fly by and it is a shame so many mommies miss them.
Beth, your coming home story reads almost exactly the same as mine. College degree, good paying career, two babies in daycare, precious little time with them each night, hubby had to change jobs in order for us to afford me resigning my job. I do have one “bow” though — lol!
Amen to your article. One thing I did while still in the talking stage of becoming a SAHM is to write out two budgets: the current one with our two salaries and the projected one with all of my work related expenses taken out. Honestly, we really did not feel any financial pinch after I came home and I was making $50,000+ before taxes and that was 9 years ago!!! Hubby did move to a higher paying job and that helped, but…
We were spending so much on just daycare alone that it boggles my mind. Add in the gas costs for a 30 minute one way commute, lunches out, dinners out, work wardrobe, spending habits to match our salaries and there went my salary — poof! Coming home was the BEST decision I’ve ever made. I’ve learned more in the past 9 years than I ever did in college.
Thank you so much for sharing. It so encouraging to read others stories, glean ideas and just be motivated to know that we can do it. We’re struggling right now but we’ll make it!
Hi Amy,
I’ve just been catching up with this series…Wonderful! We are a bit different in that my husband is self-employed and I work part time to cover the benefits. We would love for me to be home full time and are working towards that, but having affordable health insurance is what stops us. I literally make no money, but the $10,000 a year it would cost to have a decent plan with maternity coverage and out of pocket costs is stopping us.
Does anyone know of ways to self-insure while still having babies? We would be SO grateful to hear of ideas.
I feel very fortunate that I work only 20-25 hours/week and when I am working baby is home with Daddy. The time together for them is great, but things would be even better if mommy was always home!
Thanks for doing this series! I do think many young women and men are having more and more desire to stay home or at least avoid daycare. In our birth class 6 out of 7 babies do not go to day care. One is now a stay at home mom and the other 5 have all worked out ways for Mom and Dad to change their schedules to be with baby. Some use Grandma/Grandpa to help as well. The only one that goes to daycare has a single mom. We were really surprised at how the numbers worked out since all 13 parents worked full time typical schedules before babies came along!
Again, thank you for a great series! Laura at Heavenly Homemakers pointed me in your direction.
Heather
There are so many things that one could give up (including myself) to have more money available in the budget. Even simple things such as making things from scratch can help.
If you have difficulties in doing certain things, ask for help. 
I hire myself to:
-mend, hem and alter our clothes
-make flower arangements and cakes for friends and family celebrations
-make baked goods
-make inexpensive but tasty gifts
-buzz cut my guys’hair(x4)
-trim bangs and ends of girls’hair(x3)
-do minor home repairs, hub does major ones + car repair
-replace window screens,it’s really easy
-wash windows, in and out
-do the gardening, I do pay son to mow though
-host dinner parties instead of going out
-in the past I have done my pets shots but I’m not in a farm co-op anymore where I got them
-do home pedi and manicures and any other beauty treatments, a spa night at home is fun!
It would be so nice …
To Heather- my husband is self-employed and we carry a High deductible plan for a medical emergencies. We have a HSA that we fund and use towards healthcare as well. All of my 5 have been born without maternity coverage- the policy does include for complications from delivery if life threatening to mom or baby. Otherwise we have negotiated with Dr and hospital before we delivered- our bills were reduced by about 30%. Also- ask for an itemized bill for the delivery from the hospital. Last baby we were overcharged more then $2,000. I was never moved to a private room but I was billed for one.
What a wonderful site. This is my first time visiting. I agree with what all the other posters have said — it isn’t easy being home and we make sacrifices to do it, but it is so worth it. We can never get back the years with young children, and you will never regret the time you spend with them! My boys are young men now, but I am so very thankful I was there for every step of the way. It is so worth the financial (and other) sacrifices to see your children grow up to be fine young people you are proud to know. So ladies, keep up the good work in loving your families and finding a way to spend as much time with them as possible!