Making the Decision to Become a Stay-At-Home-Mom.

Do you dream of handing in your resignation and spending your days as your child's (or future child's) primary caregiver? Are you on the fence about the decision but suspect it may actually cost you less to stay home than it does to work? Many women have been where you are ... me included. Read on as I share my story of how I made it work and give you some valuable tips towards making your own decision.

I didn't always plan on being a SAHM. In fact, shortly after getting married my husband I began the long process of having a home built. We knew we wanted children and we knew that the house we were building was going to require two incomes. We were completely fine with that as I had a job that I really loved and had no intentions of leaving it. Well, things change.

Fast forward to the second trimester of a difficult start to our family. We had lost our first two attempts at a successful pregnancy and held our breaths through the first trimester with our oldest daughter. As we made it into the safety zone and the reality that we were about to become three set in we did an about face. We had lived in our new home only about 4 months at the time and although we loved it we knew that we had to make some difficult choices. We talked it out and determined that now that our expanding family was becoming reality neither of us were comfortable with the idea of daycare.

We bit the bullet and called a realtor. Shortly after that the house was for sale and our baby was getting bigger and bigger in my belly. We sold about 4 weeks after she was born and moved to a much smaller home in a nearby town where we could afford to live on my husband's salary alone.

People ask if I feel like I have given up my own ambitions for those of my children. I prefer to think of it as putting them on hold. I'd be bored being home with nothing to do but that is not a problem now with two kids under the age of 3 in the house. When they are both in school full time I'll return to the workforce but hope to do it in a capacity that allows me to be there for them when they are not in school and possibly even sneak away for the occasional field trip.

If you feel like the life of a SAHM may be for you here are some tips to get you started down the right path:

Look at the big picture. Are there any major changes you can make that would impact your bottom line in a big way? For me this was the downsizing of my home. If you rent look for a smaller place or just one that has a lower monthly fee.

Get a new ride. As a mom you want something safe but it doesn't need to be the newest thing on wheels. Consider selling a car you owe a lot on and getting something less costly.

Don't let Uncle Sam take your money to his bank. If you get a big tax refund every year you can increase your monthly take home pay by changing your withholdings. Check out www.irs.gov for a handy calculator to figure out what yours should be.

Cut anything that is not a necessity. Do you really need a land line and a cell phone? Can you live without cable or at least without all the premium channels? There are a lot of small changes you can make that add up to big savings.

Get clipping. Now that you have decided not to work outside the home make saving the household money one of your jobs. Coupons are easy to find and only take minimal effort to organize. If you can save money every week on things you buy anyway why wouldn't you?

Take advantage of naps. Look for things you can do on the side to bring extra money in for the family. I've done it all in my three years of being a SAHM. I started my own small business based on my former career, I sold children's clothes on EBay, I was a Guide for a text question service called ChaCha, and I indulge my love of writing through freelance work. My only criteria for a job is that it must be completely flexible around the children's schedules and after that it must be something I enjoy doing.

Evaluate the cost of working. When you are deciding if you can make not working work be sure to consider the cost of having a job. There is wardrobe, lunch, gas, and daycare to consider. In some cases you may find that your take home after these expenses is not worth the effort it takes to set the alarm.

Being a stay-at-home-mom is not for everyone but if you are thinking it's for you the best thing to do is to sit down and discuss it. Really pore over your finances and see where you can free things up. It can be a juggling act but in my experience it's never been a sacrifice. Being able to be with my children for all of their firsts and not having to pay someone else to be there to experience them instead has given me some of the best (if not most tiring) days of my life.