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Thanks for the responses!
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A couple of thoughts. $30K a year is a lot for one child. We have two boys, and we had au pairs for the last five years, which is around $20K a year (and she lives in, so you do need the room). We are moving to a nanny share with one other family, so our costs are going up only a little - $24,000 a year. We also looked at daycare and the cost was about the same for two kids. If we had only one, we would have many more options that are a lot cheaper than $30K a year.
You can also look at cutting back your hours so you don't need the nanny for so many hours. Switch to mother's helpers or a grad student who isn't so expensive. Look at swing shifting with your husband. I strongly believe in childcare while working, but it doesn't have to be all or nothing.
And when your and your husband's business income increases, you can return to a full time nanny.
I would NOT refinance, unless you think you can get a thirty year loan for the same interest rate. Unless you have steller credit, this is a bad time to be refinancing. If your neighborhood has seen any devaluation in housing prices, this will be held against you quite significantly.
And $75K is a lot for other costs, I have to say, for a family of three. We live in a very high COL area (DC Metro), and our bills are closer to $40K or so (three cars, house that needs a lot of work, etc). I would look hard at those expenses too to see where you can cut - dropping insurance to collision on an older car, for example, reducing food bills, etc - it can add up.
Since you WAH, can you write off some of those expenses as business expenses? We WAH, and our internet is paid for by the business, along with one of our telephone lines. We could charge ourselves rent (and when the business gets a little better, we probably will) since we legitamately have two offices, housing three people, in our house.
Good luck!
You can also look at cutting back your hours so you don't need the nanny for so many hours. Switch to mother's helpers or a grad student who isn't so expensive. Look at swing shifting with your husband. I strongly believe in childcare while working, but it doesn't have to be all or nothing.
And when your and your husband's business income increases, you can return to a full time nanny.
I would NOT refinance, unless you think you can get a thirty year loan for the same interest rate. Unless you have steller credit, this is a bad time to be refinancing. If your neighborhood has seen any devaluation in housing prices, this will be held against you quite significantly.
And $75K is a lot for other costs, I have to say, for a family of three. We live in a very high COL area (DC Metro), and our bills are closer to $40K or so (three cars, house that needs a lot of work, etc). I would look hard at those expenses too to see where you can cut - dropping insurance to collision on an older car, for example, reducing food bills, etc - it can add up.
Since you WAH, can you write off some of those expenses as business expenses? We WAH, and our internet is paid for by the business, along with one of our telephone lines. We could charge ourselves rent (and when the business gets a little better, we probably will) since we legitamately have two offices, housing three people, in our house.
Good luck!
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neither one would be my first choice. if you're happy with the nanny situation, i'd try to keep it and cut back elsewhere. i really think that $75k can probably be whittled down--maybe think about cutting cable (if you have it, or cutting back to a more basic package), or magazine subscriptions, gym memberships, netflix, take-out food, or doing more frugal grocery shopping, etc., etc.
we recently had to rebudget because i'm basically in the midst of a paycut (of sorts) and it's amazing how much we were spending on the netflix we hardly used, magazines we barely read, and take-out dinners!
you could even sell a car and cut a car payment and car upkeep costs in the process. we are a one car family and it has its challenges but overall saves us a ton of money. and it sounds like you're in an urban area, so one car could possibly work.
we recently had to rebudget because i'm basically in the midst of a paycut (of sorts) and it's amazing how much we were spending on the netflix we hardly used, magazines we barely read, and take-out dinners!
you could even sell a car and cut a car payment and car upkeep costs in the process. we are a one car family and it has its challenges but overall saves us a ton of money. and it sounds like you're in an urban area, so one car could possibly work.
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