to all those that have, drastically changed their lifstyles to become sahms, how did you achieve it?

[milkgoddess]

hi, i really really do not want to return to work in june. i like my job and its pays quite well,but i want to be with dd until shes at least five.
living our current lifestyle, there is a shortfall of £200 a month on dh money alone, i want to be with dd so badly im willing to do anything.
so far ive thought of, just getting into debt for 4 years, i think it would add upto about 2400x3 so 5200 overall, which once i started working again when dd is at school it wouldnt take long to pay back, although of course i would have to pay interest.

we live in an expensive house in an expensive area, we could move about 3 miles away from here, and buy say a 3 bedhouse and have almost no morgage, and although this area isn't as nice as here, its still nice with a nice large park and shops and pubs etc.

we alrady car share and i make food go a long way!

i would even move to a holiday camp mobile home if thats what it took.

what would you do?
move? take on bit of debt for 4 years ?
we are lucky we have no other debts at the moment, other than morgage.

what have you done to enable you to say home? and what would you do in this situation?

i was in same position as you when ds was born 20 months ago. I am still at home with him and wouldnt have it any other way. We are struggling financially but still live in our nice house in nice area.

Im sure loads of people will tell you to do the 'sensible' thing but i always say follow your heart. She will only be this age once...

work at weekends when your partner is at home with the baby
or work nights when she is in bed

I gave up working in September to enable me to stay at home with DD and to be on hand for DS. In order to do this DH found a job that earned more! He now earns 2k more a year which was equivalent to what i earned so we are not really any worse off. Not sure what to suggest really. Can you get an evening job?

£200 a month is easy to earn.. getting that time back with your daughter is impossible.

There are lots of money making possibilities.

I work a few evenings a week on checkouts. It's mundane work but means that I get to be at home during the day! It also gives the ds's a couple of hours with daddy and I come home to elaborate train tracks to stub my toe on!

we have been running at a loss since having ds 3 and half years ago. spending our parent's savings to do it, though there is light at the end of the tunnel with some freelance work that will even things up a bit.

it has been wonderful, BUT I would say that if you can possibly bear it, to try going back part-time, even very part time say a day and a half, if you can. keeps your options open, and its an awful lot easier to keep a p/t job than find one

well, i don't want to work evenings or weekends, sorry i know im a pita.
its just i don't want to be knackered working at night and miss out on family time at the weekend.
id rather move or just get some debt over the next few years which we can repay when i return to work.
or try and earn abit from home.

nosey question, do you do a job that you could adapt to do freelance or on an occasional basis?

What job do you do? Is there anyway you can do you do some freelance stuff from home for a few hours a week? (I work for myself now and it works really well - I do PR and Marketing work).

loads of franchise/WAH ideas here.

Also I think Dorling Kindersley and the Book People do sell from home things.

Finally, might sound silly, but delivering your papers could easily earn you £50 per week - could be a nice walk with the pram. Our local paper is always advertising routes.

Two more - kleeneeze seems to earn some people a fortune or Avon?

im a pharmacist. so i can locum,but i don't want to.
thankyou for the link.
really can you get £50 a week delivering papers? i thought they got about a fiver, although im probably thinking about my childhood prices.
gerrard i think your onto something here, as im always out walking with dd in the pusher
how much could i earn with kleneeze? or avon any ideas

Child mind?
Mark exam papers.
Write.
Dog walk.
Babysit.
Organise children's parties - organisers charge £200 around here just for that.
Move your mortgage to 30 years interest only
Remortgage
Take in a lodger or student

I stayed at home with dd and we ran up debts, lived like paupers for a while, I did a little bit of part time work in a job that I could take dd to which payed me about £50 a week for about 5 - 6 hours a week. I also exploited my talents to earn money for treats, so I catered for a couple of birthday parties and did some cake decorating. I think it was worth while, I would love to do it again tbh.

good ideas xenia, id enjoy dogwalking, and organising parties too, what sort of things do you mean by write? write novels?
remorgage is a definatley something to consider and maybe be more sensible than moving in the long run.

don't think id like to cm, i like just the two of us, and i don't fancy a lodger sharing the house although these are superb ideas that i hadn't thought of.

I didn't fancy childminding tbh.

I have a friend who does lots of delivering papers. leaflets to supplement her being at home.

Do you ebay? That might be something you could do?

link to the book people

do you have unused talents like being a good cook?

re-writing CVs? teaching basic IT skills? house/pet minding? Designing flyers? Taking in laundry/ironing?

I'm on a roll tonight. You wouldn't think I've just got the almost ideal job. How old is your DD by the way - I couldn't have imagined leaving mine four months ago - now a big bit of me is relieved I have to.

If you currently have a job to go back to don't burn your bridges until the last minute.

Moving house incurs all sorts of extra expenses, which will add up to far more than the projected £5.2k.

Xenia, good ideas.

There were some amazing food related money saving threads, where families of 4 spent less in a month than I do a week - even if you think you can't spend any less it may be worth a try.

How about visiting the BBC website to see if they have a link from the R2 section to their money saving expert, I heard him a while back (the DCs refused to listen to the afternoon play) and he seemed to have some great tips.

Have you got the best deal for house/car insurance - I saved myself £300 on one car policy by switching this year.

What could you do without? 1 bottle of wine at the weekend not 2, no more lattes mid-week, a cheaper brand of shampoo/make up, make your hair cut/coulour go a few more weeks each time thereby missing one whole appointment per year? Do you need all those Sky channels? (these are things that would save me money)

There are lota of franchise oppotunities which will help cover the basivs although not leave much spare, worth having a look at though. I wish I'd had the courage to be a bit more creative about this before I went back to work because I had to-or thought I did.

Well done you for thinking about creative ways to solve this dilemma. it's worth it

We took on the debt. Tried childminding when ds was 18 months hated it. Though my time is coming to an end and ds starts reception Jan next year. I will be going back to work then but only part time. I am a qualified nursery worker so hoping to get a TA job or something.

I'm reasonably well off but I don't drink, don't have lattes/use coffee shops, don't pay for hair cuts, don't eat out. But I think on balance earning more is easier than cutting back.

we went without a holiday for 6 years, drive old cars, hardly ever go out, kids wear a lot of hand me downs##good luck in your decision

thanks for the fab tips, yes its a good point,mds that the costs of moving stamp duty agents and legal fees will be way more than 5k more like 5k so i think its sensible long teerm to say here,

you lot are very creative.