Today a lot of people are finding ways to work from home. There are freelance jobs, online businesses, paid blogging, and whole lot more. Of course there are valid reasons why staying home while working is a feasible option. For one, cuts off a portion of your expenses. Money that should have gone to transportation, car insurance/tax, take away meals, corporate clothing and apparel… Another thing, it gives you more quality time spent with family. A couple with growing kids should take this into consideration.
Choosing whether to be your child’s full-time caregiver can be a complicated emotional and financial decision. But before you weigh the pros and cons of becoming a stay-at-home mom or dad, you need to answer a basic question: Can your family survive on one paycheck?
First, do the math — all the math. If you just total your family’s expenses and subtract that sum from your partner’s salary, you’ll probably find that you can’t possibly afford to quit your job. But if you look more closely at your budget, you may find that there’s a way to make it work.
Calculate your expenses
Start by making a list of all your fixed expenses, such as mortgage or rent, car payments, utilities, food, clothing and shoes, and insurance, as well as contributions to college, retirement, and other savings accounts.
Next, make a list of other expenses, like vacations, evenings out, health club memberships, haircuts and beauty treatments, magazine subscriptions, holiday and birthday gifts, cell phone service, and cable TV.
Don’t forget to build in a comfortable cushion for unanticipated costs, like car and home repairs and medical expenses not covered by insurance.
Then, track all of your family’s expenses for a month or two — and prepare to be surprised by what’s really draining your bank account.
When she first looked at trimming her family’s budget, New Jersey mom Heather DeGeorge (who now stays home with her toddler) kept a pad in her purse and wrote down everything she spent and what she spent it on. If it’s easier, you may want to save your receipts and total them at the end of each day with the help of a computer spreadsheet, financial software, or a handwritten list and calculator.
“If you keep track of every dollar — every penny if possible — you’ll be amazed at where your money goes,” DeGeorge says. “For me, it was the magazines that I read on the hour-long bus ride to and from work. When I began keeping track, I realized my magazine habit was costing us $200 a month.”
Figure out what work costs you
Once you have your final list of expenses, subtract the money you’ll save by staying home. That’s right: Working creates its own costs — for transportation, parking, clothing, dry cleaning, lunches, your daily coffee fix, and more. Then there’s the cost of picking up take-out food for dinner or buying prepackaged meals because you don’t have time to cook.
Don’t forget childcare expenses: If you stay home, you won’t be paying for daycare, regular babysitters, or nannies. (If you’re expecting your first child and don’t know the going rate for daycare in your area, do some research so you’ll have a good idea of how much it costs.) If you have older children, staying home may mean that your family spends less on after-school programs and summer camps.
Of course, you’re still going to need to buy clothes, eat lunch, and hire an occasional babysitter, and you may want to send your children to a few weeks of camp in the summer. But these costs will be far lower if you stay at home.
Small work-related costs add up, says Jonni McCoy, a mom and founder of the Miserly Moms Web site. “I saved money at the hairdresser because after I quit my job I didn’t have to get my hair done every six weeks. And panty hose! When I was working, I went through a couple of pairs of panty hose a week,” she explains.
There may also be some less obvious financial benefits to quitting work. McCoy found that leaving her job pushed her family into a lower tax bracket. And her car insurance premium fell because her car was no longer classified as a commuter car.
mwah! we’re friends.. and so? ^_^