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CAN YOU AFFORD TO STAY AT HOME?

Do you desperately want to stay home with your children but feel trapped by the need for a second income? That was my world four years ago. I was working full time at a job that I despised. My six year old daughter was coming home from her after school care spouting phrases inappropriate even for the twenty-something "counselors" that were supposed to taking care of her. Evenings were tense and chaotic and I was sinking into a deep depression. So, I set to work figuring out just how much income we needed to support the family if I quit my job. This process may work for you as well.

You need to get a good understanding of your household finances. List all of your monthly expenses and separate them into three categories:

1. Necessary Expenses
2. Job Related Expenses
3. Discretionary Expenses

Necessary expenses include items that must be paid to run your household. These expenses include items such as:
Mortgage/rent payment
Car payment
Groceries
Insurance
Fuel
Clothing
Taxes
Retirement funding

Job related expenses are those that can be eliminated if you were to quit working full time. These expenses might look something like this:
Day Care- Even with sibling discounts, the more kids you have, the more quality day care is going to cost. If you have an infant or preschool age child, you can pretty much double or even triple the cost of day care of a school age child.

Lunches- You rush out of the house, happy to have the kids ready for school. Oops, forgot your own lunch. Oh well, you'll just grab something at the deli or drive thru.

Fuel- Wow, with the price of gas these days any significant commute is going to take a huge chunk of your budget for fuel.

Grocery -Processed and pre-packaged meals are a great time savers. However, the higher cost is not only in dollars, but often in health as well.

Business Clothes Business suits generally have a higher price tag than casual clothes. Plus, most business clothes require dry cleaning, so add that to the monthly cash outflow.

Guilt gifts- You can't spend the "quality" time you want to with the kids. Then there is the occasional raging outburst when you loose our temper. Seeing the smile on your child's face when you hand them that new toy or video game goes a long ways to loosen that knot in the pit of your stomach.

Dining out- Too tired to make dinner? Pizza sounds good. My family was at the point of eating take out at least twice during the week and usually once on the weekend.

Personal services-

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