Book Review: How to Raise a Family on Less Than Two Incomes, by Denise Topolnicki

How to Raise a Family on Less Than Two Incomes by Denise Topolnicki is a thick informational book. If you are a mom working a full time job and are thinking about quitting you may want to pick up this book. If you know you want to quit your full time job and stay at home full time but aren't sure you can afford it, find out how you can in this book.

Denise Topolnicki the author is very much in favor of any mom that wants to be a stay at home mom. She had to figure out for herself if she could afford to stay at home on just her husband's income. In the book she gives you the formula for figuring out if you can stay at home on one income or if you will need to supplement with part time work.

If you don't currently stay home from work and want to make it work on less than two incomes I would recommend this book. It talks about figuring out your budget and subtracting childcare, commuting, lunches and etc. The book also lets you in on some ideas to cut your budget down even more if you need to spend less to be able to stay at home. She found out that she personally would need to make one fifth of her current income, and would supplement that by doing freelance writing. That freelance writing eventually led her to write this book, so she could help other mothers do what she had done.

If you want to stay home with all your heart, but don't think your husband would allow it, or you probably couldn't afford it - try this book. How to raise a family on less than two incomes is a very in depth book. The author writes about budgets, taxes, spending, saving and more. If you follow her advice and do the worksheets you will know and have solid proof to show you husband if needed.

I have been a stay at home mom for over 10 years. I did not feel that this book would be of much value to any mom that has already been staying home for over a year. After one year you have probably settled into being a stay at home mom and have realized how to cut costs or that you must get part time work. I picked up this book hoping that it would give me some money saving ideas, but I didn't really find anything that would work for our situation. Many of the ideas I had already tried or were not plausible.

I would give this book a 3 star rating out of 5 stars. It could be a good and valuable tool for some, although it wasn't right for me. It was long and very technical with math and talk of taxes, which are important parts of life that must be dealt with. The author went above and beyond for giving the reader many resources to find quotes and lower prices. Her goal was to help other mothers and I believe that this book can accomplish that.