Can You Afford to Be a Stay at Home Mom?

If you have small children or are pregnant you know how expensive they can be. Daycare is often a huge expense, even if you only have one child. If you have more than one, the price can become outrageous. How much can you afford to pay for daycare? How much can you afford to pay for working? How much do you have to make at your job to make it worth having one? When is it time to quit the job and stay home with the kids?

When you think about a mom that has an outside job compared to a stay at home mom, many people think about the money. They assume that the mom with the job has a lot more of it than the mom that stays at home. What these people seem to not realize is how much it costs to be a working mom. Sure, on paper it looks better to be a working mom. A working mom certainly brings in a lot more money than one who stays home with the kids. But a working mom has a lot more expenses as well.

Everyone knows and remembers that most working mothers have to take their children to daycare. Most people even remember that a working mom spends more on transportation than a stay at home does. A lot of people seem to forget about some of the other things though, like clothes and coffee. Sure, stay at home moms wear clothes and drink coffee, but usually both are a lot cheaper. Most people don't dress up to stay at home they way they do for work. And drinking coffe at home is much cheaper than stopping for it on your way to work. And what about those lunches? A lot of working moms eat out at lunch time. Many stay at home moms eat a grilled cheese sandwich or whatever their toddlers left on their plates.

Let's crunch some numbers here. Let's say you have an average job. For this example, you don't have any benefits, but you use your husband's and they are good anyway. You work 40 hours a week every week for $12 per hour. In a week you make $480. By the time you pay 15% of your check into taxes, you are left with around $408 each week for take home pay.

Now let's say you have two children. Your daughter is three years old and potty trained, but she hasn't started preschool yet. Your son is 15 months old and still in diapers. They need to spend your entire work day (8 hours plus your one hour lunch break and your commute) at daycare everyday. You pay for 50 hours a week, and most weeks you are within a half hour of that limit. You will pay a lot extra if you go over.

Let's say you are lucky enough to be able to send both kids to the same daycare, and they even give you a little bit of discount for sending both kids there. Your daughter's price is $90 per week because she is potty trained and can do a lot for herself. Your son's rate is $135 each week because he isn't potty trained and requires a lot more help. Your discounted price is $200 each week for daycare. This leaves you with $208 per week.

Next, let's talk about transportation. By the time you drop the kids off and get to work every day, you've put 30 miles on your car one way. That's 300 miles a week and your car gets around 20 miles per gallon. So you need an additional 15 gallons of gas every week. At $2.50 per gallon, that's an extra $37.50 for gas each week. Forget something at home and have to drive back for it when you're just a couple miles from home and you've spent $38. This leaves you with $170 each week.

You remember and have time to pack your lunch twice a week. You eat out and pay $8.00 each for your other three lunches. You save $4.00 on your grocery bill for those three days that you ate out, but that still drops your money down to $150. And what about those two days that you were too tired to cook and grabbed takeout on the way home? There goes another $50 instead of the $15 it would have cost to eat at home. Now you only have $115 left but you really want one of those $3 coffees everyday. Now you've got $100.

We didn't even include all the extra wear and tear on your car, or your possible second car payment. We didn't include more expensive clothes either, yet you were left with only $100 per week. Is it worth it to you? And what if your daycare prices go up or you have to pay overtime at the daycare one week? And happens if you have a third baby? When is it time to give up the job and be a stay at home parent?

For me, it became worth it the minute I would have paid someone else more to take care of my son than what I would have left. I knew I would enjoy staying home with my child and I would feel more secure being home with him, instead of trusting someone else to make decisions for him. We decided I could contribute the difference financially by clipping coupons and watching for sales. I work online while my baby is asleep and make an extra $200 or so every month. By the time you count the money I save by using coupons and buying stuff on sale, I contribute as much financially as I would if I had a full time outside job. And this way, I get to spend time with my son and make all the important decisions for him.