Can I Afford to Be a Stay at Home Mom?

Can I be a stay at home mom? This question plagues many moms every year. Some of us would love to be home full-time with our kids but are scared to lose the income. Get out a pen and paper and answer all the questions in this article to help you decide if you can be a stay at home mom.

Can We Afford it if I Stay at Home?

This is a difficult question to answer and it will take the most time to get it correct. You will need to gather all your monthly, quarterly, and yearly bills and find out how much you spend per month. Then you need to gather receipts and figure out how much you spend on groceries, food, eating out, kids' activities, entertainment, allowances, and everything else you can think of. Lastly, gather all your pay stubs.

Make a list of your categories and collect the numbers. You absolutely have to be honest with yourself because if you're not then you will end up spending more than you bring in per month. Check out Creating a Budget for additional help.

Things to reduce in your budget when you do not work outside the home: clothing expenditures, gas/commuting expenditures, child care costs, housekeeping services, and eating out. Carefully look at all of your expenses and realistically cut to help you find out if you can afford to be stay at home mom.

Ask yourself: Is our monthly income more than our monthly bills? Can we live on one salary? Can we realistically live within the budget needed?

Is Your Spouse's Job Stable?

Let's face it, some careers are more stable than others. Almost anything in sales is considered relatively unstable because it can change rapidly, whereas, careers in health care and education are more stable. Don't just consider the stability of your spouse's job, think about the stability of his company.

You will also have to consider your spouse's income when you think about his job security. If he is commissioned based then there is no steady income unless you figure out, and live, on the absolute minimum amount that his paycheck will be.

Ask yourself: If he needs to, can he find another job in his field quickly? Would we have to move if his job ended? Would he have to take a pay cut if he changed jobs?

Are We willing to Make the Necessary Lifestyle Cuts?

No one really wants to make lifestyle cuts but you will have to make some sacrifices if you become a stay at home mom. These sacrifices may include reducing your cable package, cancelling subscriptions such as Netflix or magazines, clipping coupons, eating out less, and just being more frugal with your money.

Before you become a stay at home mom you need to talk openly with your family. Any lifestyle cuts that you need to make will impact everyone. Ideally, the whole family should be onboard with you staying at home.

Ask yourself: Do I value vacations and can we keep doing them on one income? How often do we eat out? What is important to me that I am not willing to give up? What is important to my husband and kids that they are not willing to give up?

Will it take me long to re-enter the workforce if needed?

If you have a career now then there is a good chance that you will eventually go back to work at some point. You don't have to decide now but you can think about whether or not you will going back into the same field that you were working in before. If not, then being a stay at home mom may give you the opportunity to develop new skills.

If things don't work out with your stay at home plan then you need to think about the possibility of having to go back to work. Keep current with any continuing education or skills that you may lose while you are busy being mom.

Ask yourself: Will I be able to get my old job back? Can I find another job with similar pay? Do I have to stay current with my career when I'm not working?

I'm sure you can think of many other questions to ask yourself when you're thinking about being a stay at home mom. These questions are just to get you started about thinking of everything you need to consider.

If you answered "no" to any one of the bolded question then there is good chance that your family is not ready for you leave the workforce, yet. In order to be a stay at home mom you may need to plan and make some changes to make it work.