Drum Roll Please! Barring any unforeseen circumstances, my plan is for December 10 to be my last day at my work outside the home job. There! I said it. Now a lot can happen in the next 8 months,but that is my plan. I have budgeted and planned and budgeted and planned. I have included large once a year expenses like Car tags, Christmas, Car Insurance,Vet bills, etc. It's covered. I have made sure our savings is covered. And most importantly, since all provision comes from God and it is His to begin with, this budget will honor Him first with what is His to begin with.
So I can see the furrowed brows and the question marks over your head. Being a stay at home wife and mother is understandable if you have young children, but Frugalmaven, your kids are older. Why would you choose now to stay home?
I have been blessed in the past years when it comes to earning a wage. For a while my husband and I worked opposite shifts in order to have our children home with at least one parent. Later I owned and operated an in home state licensed daycare center. This allowed me to earn an income yet we were home with our kids on the weekend and I was home during the week. This allowed DH and I to see each other in more than just a "passing in the hall" way. Which was nice. After the daycare closed, I worked part time. I say I was fortunate, and that was true, but that fortune came with a lot of hard work. Over the years I have worked hard inside the home in order to lessen the time spent working outside the home. This year has been different. This year I have been working 32+ hours. Understandably working a full time job makes it difficult to do the things at home to save money. It's easy to grab a pizza after working all day. It is hard to go home and make something from scratch. Not to mention by the time you get home and get dinner ready it is later in the evening. That is one example. Things are going to go by the wayside in one area when your focus turns full time to another. If you work full time outside the home, inside the home becomes your secondary or part time job. The same can be said in reverse. Here's the thing I have realized over the years. Benjamin Franklin was right when he said "A Penny saved is a Penny Earned". I am not taxed on money I save. I am taxed on money I earn. Dh and I realized my part time income threw us up into a different tax bracket. This year, had we only had my husbands income, and all else was the same, we would have gotten $1800 in a refund. Instead we were socked with owing $1000 in addition to the taxes already with held. That was only Federal. We pay state taxes here. We owed there too. With our debt gone, we are at a place where I can stay home to save money while DH earns outside the home. All of this can be accomplished without any reliance on a government subsidy and without having to pay a ridiculous tax bill. I say ridiculous not because of the amount of the bill, but on how our fearless leaders spend. Anyway, politics aside, since Dh full time job will then be outside the home, he will no longer have a job to be concerned with at home. When he is home he can relax and enjoy all of his time off. The advantage for me is that when Dh is home I will be finished with what I needed to do at home each day and can actually have time with him, my kids (before they move away), and for myself. Because my full time job will be at home, I will be able to focus all of my energy on the items I love to do anyway and save money as well. What is the saying "if you do what you love you will never work a day in your life"? Well there you go! In addition, the things that I have had to put aside like sewing, crocheting, even gardening will get to be addressed. All this will make for a happy hubby, happy wife, and since the household chores will be taken care of while the guys are at work or school, happy kids. Its a win win.
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