Deciding To Be A Stay At Home Mom

I am a stay at home mom of a very busy 2 year old daughter. Before I had my daughter I was an optemetric assistant and quit when she was about 6 months old to stay home full time. It can be a really tough decision to stay home full time. The biggest concern for us was finances. We had just bought a larger home and new truck, could we really afford to live on one income? We deceided to make two lists, the first we wrote down both of our annual income, all of the monthly bills, and all of our spending from our checking account statement. On the second list we wrote down all of the costs we would have if I did work, like daycare, gas, work clothes, lunches or any other expense. After adding up all the costs of me working and daycare, I wasn't really profitting very much. Daycare is the kicker! So we took another look at the first list to see if we could cut out anything to save a little money. We were use to spending freely and that was the first thing that needed to stop. Our new rule was 'if you don't need it, don't buy it' sounds easy enough, but occasionally I still buy the 'I just want it' item! There are lots of little ways to save money, like buying some generic brands instead of top brands, every little bit helps when your on a new budget.

Another thing you might ask yourself is if you want to stay home full time or part time. Will your company allow you to work part time or even bring some of your work home with you? This could be the best solution for you if finances are an issue, or even if you love your job or the people you work with and aren't wanting to completely give that up. This way your able to keep working but still be very involved in your new babies life. It's easy to get lost in diaper duty and being a mom when you stay home, so going back to work a couple days can help you to stay yourself and not just a mom and wife. I definetly encourage every full time stay at home mom to get out of the house once a week ALONE. It' so easy to lose yourself when your only around a baby or toddler every day, trust me I speak from experience!!I hope this helps you in making your decision. If you ever have any questions or comments please feel free to ask by comment or email. I am starting an online business from the ground up and will be blogging about helping others do the same so check back often. I will also be blogging about many other topics like parenting, relationships, Ebay, scrapbooking, beauty, health, fitness, and other hot topics! A little bit of something for everyone! If there are any topics you would like me to discuss, or advice, questions you may contact me at Scraptastic@live.com If you would like to be updated on new posts please email me with ADD as the subject. You can check out my ebay items here. Thanks and have a great day!