Can you afford to be a housewife?
Deciding whether or not you can stay home after having a baby can be a big decision. Emotions play a big factor, especially after holding your precious newborn for the first time. It’s hard to imagine leaving this tiny little thing with a stranger. On the other hand, you may get a tremendous sense of accomplishment from your job that you might not feel after a day of changing diapers and wiping away saliva. No matter how you deal with it emotionally, if you’re considering becoming a stay-at-home mom, you first need to figure out if you can afford to do it financially.
Make a budget
The first step you need to take is to record your expenses. For at least a month,
better yet three, record everything you spend, from lattes to toilet paper to dinner
outside. Everything must be accounted for. There is no need to go on a cheap diet.
however, the goal is to find out how much you currently spend and on what items, so that
if you find that you need to scale down, you can recognize where to do it.
There are a couple of ways you can record all of your purchases. One is
you can carry a small notebook and write down every time you shop
something. The other way is to charge everything you buy with your debit or
credit card and use your monthly account statement as your purchase book.
However, if you choose to charge everything to your credit card, you must promise
yourself to pay the full amount when your statement arrives. Going into credit card debt won’t help you achieve your goal of staying home
breast.
Once you factor in every cup of coffee, every shopping trip, and every new pair of shoes, it’s time to write it down on a budget worksheet. Use a budget spreadsheet that will add up all your expenses and subtract them from your income.
When you have completed the form, look at your number below. hopefully this
be positive. Now go up and clear your income at the top. Don’t forget to remove any
expenses that occur because of your job (dry cleaning bill, gas costs, lunches out,
etc.). Also remember that your taxes will change once you drop to lower income.
and you may be able to change your withholdings to generate more monthly income.
Go to the IRS website and use their withholding tax calculator with just your
information from your husband’s paycheck to see how much your husband can change
withholdings. If your bottom number is still positive, then you’re lucky enough
being able to be a housewife without much fiscal sacrifice. However if it is
now dipped in a negative number, don’t despair, it’s time to check your
expenses and find ways to minimize them.
Savings on your expenses
Saving money doesn’t always have to be painful. Many women say that one of their
most important jobs as housewives is to look for bargains and make sure
the family sticks to a budget. Consider this a lesson in what could be part of your new
work description. Below are four major expenses faced by most households. we go
take a look at these and see if we can save you a couple hundred bucks right away
bat.
o Mortgage o Rent. This is usually the largest monthly expense for a couple.
The obvious way to reduce this cost is to move to a less expensive place to live, but
that is not always the best option for your family. Try to look at refinancing. That
can be a fantastic way to lower your monthly mortgage payment and can make
financially feasible for you to become a homemaker. plug some
numbers at an online refinance company to see if this might make sense for you.
your. If you rent, ask the landlord if there is anything he can do on the
property that could reduce your monthly rent. Ask if you can help manage your
other properties, tend to the garden, do other chores, or even check in longer
lease for a reduction in rent.
o Credit card, car payments and other ‘bad’ debts. this type of
debts you want to try to get out of as soon as possible. Make is a goal to go out
of credit card debt before deciding to become a stay-at-home mom. There’s a
number of credit cards that offer zero percent interest for a specified period of time.
Take advantage of these offers to reduce your monthly bill and use the amount you
he would have paid with his previous card to cancel the principle. condense your
monthly expenses and throw everything you can to pay off your credit card
debt and car payments so your time as a stay-at-home mom is
less stressful.
o Grocery bill. You can easily reduce your grocery bill by planning a
weekly menu and preparation of a shopping list. Designate one night a week to sit
down with the grocery ads and her cookbooks. Think of seven different foods.
who take advantage of the week’s sales and write down the list of
ingredients you will need. There are many excellent website services that will plan your
weekly meals and also email you a weekly shopping list. Be sure to clip coupons
from the Sunday paper and coupon websites. Also try the generic version of
your favorite brand Chances are you’ll never notice the difference.
Utilities. Take dad’s advice and start turning off the lights when
leave a room Replace incandescent lights with fluorescents, get a hot water heater
Blanket for your water heater. There are several different ways you can
reduce your energy bill. Feel free to call your utility companies and ask how you can save.
money on your monthly bill. Your phone company can find a more efficient and
cheapest plan for you and the garbage company may suggest a smaller garbage can
Size. Also ask yourself if you really need all the devices you’ve become.
Used to: Do you really need that cell phone now that you’re not going to be
transposed? Do you really need the fancy cable TV package or can you live without it?
is it for a few years?
Continue down each category on your budget worksheet and ask yourself how
you could cut costs. Today, most families have to make sacrifices
for a father to become a stay-at-home father. Remember it’s temporary
though. Children grow up before you know it and being a stay at home mom can
just be more satisfying than any payroll job you might have.