so what did you have to "cut out"

We went drastic! We relocated from DC to Louisville--our house payment here is substantially less than our rent on a 2br apt there--and we only have one car. (DH takes the bus to work).

We cloth diaper, BF, and once she was starting solids we made most of our own baby food. DH has a big extended family, so we took all the hand-me-downs we could get, and were lucky to get a lot of baby gifts before DD was born.

I would also sell the formula coupons I got on ebay. (I'm still convinced my SIL signed me up with enfamil, since they just started showing up before DD was even born.)

Just subscribing because I'm in the same boat, I REALLY want to stay home, but being single makes it tricky, so I need to start brainstorming ways to make it work. If not now, definitely in 2 years when I start my MBA program.

Thanks for any tips you guys have - I need to do some major fat-trimming

When we calculated out how much it would COST to have me work, the numbers just didn't add up.

My Salary MINUS

professional clothing
daycare
gas
more meals out (this is very realistic with time at home)
more convenience items

Equals

Me making virtually NO MONEY

So for us we just cut those things out. Now I wear mostly jeans and tee shirts. I don't drive very far. We try to cook as much as possible.

Best of luck!

Quote:
this is why I'm back at work. our insurance declined to cover alot of things so we have around $2,000 in medical debts. I'm going to be paying those off, and putting a bit back toward our vacation this summer. After vacation, if I'm blessed enough to still be working {my 'temp to hire' period is over right after the company shut down, so if I'm still working it will be as an employee } is going into savings. I am praying to be able to keep this position while I'm getting my business stocked and ready to launch. in my dreams, I'll be making enough from the business to cover the difference between V's income now and his income from the apprenticship program {learn and earn with the local electrical union} to at least keep us in our current level, if not improve things a bit..

We only lived on dh's income from day one of our married life. We were young...19 and 20...and didnt have anything at all then. It was a decision we made before we got married, that we would do it that way...and then when we had dc...I would stay home. It took 5 yrs for the dc to come along. My only regret is that we didnt put my income into a savings account...we spent it rather frivolously.

We cut:
*Cable
*Internet (until DH started working for a company that reimburses him for DSL, due to his telecommute)
*Cell phone (we have our old brick that is now on a pay-as-you-go thing--basically budgeted out we spend $6 a month on it)
*No new clothes
*All Credit Cards but AmEX (cuts the temptation)
*eating out limited to 1Xmo.
*Most activities (no Gymboree, ect.) except low cost through parks & rec.
*Most processed snacks/unnecessary grocery items

Proactively, we:
*shop only at thrift stores and outlet sales (if they dip below ts prices)
*have potluck parties instead of dinners out with friends
*do as much from-scratch cooking as possible
*cloth diapered at least part-time
*exclusive breastfeeding
*bought baby equipment/toys as needed, not 'just in case'. And preferably borrowed.
*budget EVERY month, put every dollar to paper.

My husband until recently was a stay at home parent too. It was a tough year and a half, because we were on a fixed income and really had to watch it. Now that he's working again, it's interesting--we have a little more money in the bank on a regular basis, but our habits haven't really changed--except for we are going on a vacation this summer, and flying out to visit east coast relatives this fall.

Amy Dacyzcyn's books are good places for ideas, though she's a little hard core for me.
Dave Ramsey is unabashedly Christian (and a bit annoying besides) but he explains budgeting probably the best way I've seen--and this is how we do things (cash only, no debt) though we went about it slightly differently.

So there's two names thrown out to pull ideas from. If you google them I'm sure you can find some websites, and probably get their books from the library too. Keep what you want, toss the rest.

Quote:
We cut out a ton because I didn't even think we could afford to have me stay at home. Then, when Andrew was born we knew there was no way I could go back! I cried and cried because we could "never afford it" and dh, the "crazy" one out of the two of us, told me to just do it!! So I did and we are making it work. We cut out:

1. One of our cars. Even though it was paid off, the gas and insurance cost $$ PLUS the money that selling it brings in can be used toward other bills and expenses
2. Cable TV
3. All telephone "extras" like Caller ID, Call Waiting, etc. We cut down to just a basic line where we pay per call and our bill is like $15/mo.
4. Our cell phone minutes--slashed from 700 or so a mo. to 500
5. The newspaper down to just Sunday
6. $100-$150 off our grocery budget
7. Less expensive dog food. Not Alpo or anything, she's still eating very well, but if our grocery budget gets slashed, so does hers
8. Paid off everything small and piddly, like our $41/mo furniture payment, etc.
9. Line drying the clothes in the basement and using drying racks instead of the dryer (this saved $40/mo on our gas bill alone!)
10. Turned the heat down to 65
11. Electricity--started being more mindful of how much we were using and started being more diligent about turning lights off, etc.
12. Selling tons of stuff from our house on eBay each week.

Then, of course, we are also saving money by breastfeeding and using cloth diapers and cloth wipes.