{"id":161721,"date":"2013-02-24T04:00:05","date_gmt":"2013-02-24T12:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/getrichslowly.org\/blog\/?p=161721"},"modified":"2019-09-26T23:52:35","modified_gmt":"2019-09-27T06:52:35","slug":"reader-story-costs-and-savings-of-having-a-stay-at-home-parent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/reader-story-costs-and-savings-of-having-a-stay-at-home-parent\/","title":{"rendered":"Costs and savings of having a stay-at-home parent"},"content":{"rendered":"
This post comes from Lynn Svenson, who blogs at The Photographer’s Wife. Some reader stories contain general advice; others are examples of how a GRS reader achieved financial success or failure. These stories feature folks with all levels of financial maturity and income.<\/em><\/p>\n One of the biggest impacts to my wallet (and heart) this past year was having a baby. Of course, there are plenty of expenses that go along with being pregnant and having a baby, like numerous visits to the doctor and the enormous amount of diapers. But in particular, I want to share how making the decision to have a stay-at-home parent has affected our wallets and our way of thinking.<\/p>\n We were overjoyed when we found out I was pregnant in the fall of 2011. However, along with that joy came some sadness. After taking a look at our finances, we realized we wouldn’t be able to achieve one of our long-time goals of my husband staying home to raise our children. We do have debt, and my salary alone just wouldn’t cut it. We ultimately took a big risk when we decided that my husband would stay home and I would bust my butt to get a new, higher-paying job after the baby was born.<\/p>\n Looking back, this was an absolutely ridiculous idea, but it considerably eased my stress at the time. It actually forced me to channel my efforts into a positive way of thinking. I went from thinking How on Earth are you going to do this?<\/em> to I can do this!<\/em> I am so grateful at how beautifully it all worked out, because I went on an interview at 37 weeks pregnant and got the job!<\/p>\n I started the new job right after my six weeks of maternity leave. However, we weren’t in the clear yet. I still wanted to find ways to improve our situation. I became more creative when finding ways to save money, especially on monthly expenses, to improve our cash flow.<\/p>\n We refinanced our car loan to a lower rate. We saved 30 percent on our car insurance by having them monitor our driving habits (which was almost non-existent for my husband’s car, since he is home every day now). We looked for discounts on all of our other bills. We are also refinancing our house<\/a> to a lower rate. I might not have bothered with all of these things if I didn’t have the pressure to improve our situation. When you really want something, you find ways to make it happen, and it never hurts to ask companies where you can save some money.<\/p>\n Not having to pay for child care.<\/strong> I always knew day care was expensive, but it wasn’t until I looked at the day cares near us that I knew the exact number (and may have let out a few expletives in the process). For decent day care (which depends on what we all consider decent) in our area, it would have cost us at least $750 a month, not including all those extra fees they like to add on. Also, depending on how soon we decide to have another child, we would have to consider having two children in day care at the same time. It hurt my wallet just writing that.<\/p>\n Not having to take sick days.<\/strong> This is beneficial for a few reasons. It is a known fact that kids that go to day care get sick more often. By my son not going to day care, we save 1) his misery of being sick more than he needs to be, 2) us from getting sick too, causing me to take off from work, 3) doctor’s co-pays and medicine, and 4) paying day care even though he’s not there. The same thing goes for vacations and holidays…you still have to pay the day care the same monthly amount even when he’s not there.<\/p>\n Not paying for gas.<\/strong> I’m not referring to the extra gas you will be witness to with a new baby at home; I’m talking about all the savings in gas money due to the fact that one person isn’t driving to and from work each day. In our case, we are saving more than $100 a month from my husband not driving to\/from work. His commute was about 30 minutes each way and then he would also drive to eat lunch each day. This resulted in him needing to fill the tank of his pretty gas-efficient Honda Pilot two to three times a month at $70 a pop.<\/p>\n Not spending lunch money.<\/strong> My husband didn’t have a refrigerator or microwave at work, so his lunch options were pretty limited so he would grab his lunch at fast-food places. That added up to more than $200 a month, way over what we spend for him to eat lunch at home now. He would even try to save money by getting water instead of soda or using coupons that I gave him, too. Now we are saving money and helping his waistline.<\/p>\nSome Financial Boons for Stay-at-Home Parents<\/h2>\n