I'm not sure what I am hoping to get out of this thread. Maybe I'll feel better if i put it in writing or maybe someone has advice and can help. Either way here is my situation. I am pregnant with my first child. I don't like my job and would LOVE to be a stay at home mom. My husband makes a lot more money than I do so financially me staying at home would be the best bet. If you take out childcare and gas to work and whatnot I figured I'd only make $5,000-$6,000 a year. So we would be losing that money if I stayed home. We are concerned if we can afford it. I'm not worried about day to day lives because we live pretty good and there are plenty of familys that make it on less than my husbands income but I'm concerned we wouldn't be able to save much. We wouldn't get to take fun vacations. And what if something major and expensive were to happen...where would we turn? We have talked about me watching another child to help bring in more income but we have two large dogs that I'm afraid would turn people away. I guess I'm trying to figure out what will be best for my family and my baby. Any opinions are welcomed! Thanks.

Is there any chance you could go back to work part time once baby is here? xxx

Thats alwasy an option...just not where I am working right now. I told my husband I could work evenings at a part time job but he HATES that idea...says we would never see eachother

Yeah, I could imagine that being a problem. I'm not too keen on my job either - but I plan to go back part time, hopefully that might make it a bit easier to keep me sane! Plus the way things are around here it does mean that I don't have to stress about trying to find a job. xxx

Thats nice that you will be able to do that!!! Are you excited you are nearly to the end! I'm only 9 weeks pregnant so I still have lots of time to figure things out. its just been a rough day and wanted someone to talk to about it all. Thanks

Yeah, its getting exciting at 30 weeks! But at 9 weeks I was also thinking the same as you! I felt a bit bad that I was excited about having time away from the madhouse when on maternity! Hahah! In the UK we don't have to decide when/if we're coming back to work up to a year after maternity leave which is good. Hope you can come to a comfortable decision.... and if worse comes to worse there are always Tupperware parties! Lol! xxx

Well I'm glad to know I'm not alone in how I'm feeling. WOW that would be amazing to have year! We get 6 weeks 8 if its c-section. I actually do something similar to tuperware parties...lol. I mean its not tuperware but its a consultant thing like that. i don't make a whole lot doing it but I'm sure if I had more time to put into it i could!

You might be able to find a job that you can work from home. Or you could go back to work when the need arises. Or plan on staying home for 5yrs and once the little guy starts school you'll be back in work full time. If you don't save anything for 5 years it's not the end of the world. The bigger concern would be if a major expense popped up, so you might want to make sure you have enough wiggle room to save up an emergency fund or to at least make a monthly payment on something that you had to charge or get a loan for.

Staying at home isn't always forever. It may seem like a long time now, and maybe while the baby and future children are little you will have less money for vacations etc, but not forever. There are always cheaper options, like camping in the summer etc.

Also the dogs may put some people off, but not everyone. Some people may have dogs as well, have you considered offering a sitting service for both (a baby and a dog?).

We sat down and did a very detailed budget. It let us know exactly what we 'needed' from month to month and what we'll have left over. It allowed us to make decisions about how much time I was able to take off and made us think about whether or not we'd ever have another baby.... Good luck!