How are y’all surviving financially?

5000 not 5000k

I do less hours so childcare costs are lower and am not much worse off money wise and have more time with my child. Also I think it depends where you live cos where I live working parents get some hours funded

I quit my job and stay at home with my son. We don’t have quite enough monthly income for me not to work at all, so I wait tables for a few hours on the weekend when my husband is off work and has some father-son time. The cash I bring home helps us, and we avoid the cost of childcare. I know not everyone can afford to reduce their work schedule, so im sorry if this isn’t helpful in your specific situation!! We just couldn’t rationalize paying more than our mortgage to send our son to daycare especially since I didn’t even want to send him. Edit: I used to be a general manager of a restaurant, and that’s the same place that I return to to wait tables. I already know all the customers and the new GM used to be my assistant manager and he is super accommodating to my schedule and the fact that I’m only available one day/ week. It’s a unique situation, but I’m very grateful to all involved that have are if possible. Most importantly my husband.

I want to have a another baby but legit not sure how we’d pay for two kids in daycare.

So 2k out of that 5k is going straight to childcare? It sounds like one of you are working just to send your children to daycare. (Not trying to come off harsh) but it’s true. I don’t work because I’d essentially be working to pay for our 3 to go to daycare. It sounds like either figuring out a better system with work schedules so childcare can be cut out or reduced would be in you guys’ favor maybe. Or trying to find ways to make passive income. Like for instance, I am getting into baking because I just found out custom cookies are going for $60 a dozen 😬 ultimately, when we are able to, I’d like to open event spaces near me. Just have to find your niche but it takes time(and money) to even get there.

@Natalie I’m guessing USA based on their specifics (I’m also USA and the daycare cost sounds about right for my area as well)

@Natalie so we looked at me quitting work. But that’s 500 a month less and then nothing in my pension for retirement. So couldn’t do that. And then we looked at moving but our house is already tiny like 1200 square foot. And we want the kids to be in a nice school system.

@Kristen ya our baby number 3 was a surprise! Ha defo wasn’t in the plans. :) but we’re happy she’s here!

Thankfully I work from home so don’t have to pay childcare. I am really good at budgeting our combined income and I use a lot of sinking funds for things like Christmas, car maintenance, holidays, and gifts. This way we spend what we have and save the rest.

Right now I only work part time and my partner does 2 jobs but it’s still not enough because the car he has is a rental rn…my mom pays for childcare rn until we get state assistance but it’s been a strain on her so I’m hoping we get approved soon

We recently got approved for SNAP and it's been a huge help. Are there any resources available to you that you could apply for?

We condensed our work hours so we're both full time but each have 1 day off in the week so our 2 children only attend nursery 3 days a week. It's still our biggest outgoing but makes a difference

I’m home with my child. It doesn’t make sense for me to work. My husband took a pay cut too to be home more as well. We didn’t have debt before having our son. We rent and don’t own but use an app called Every dollar to help with budgeting. We’ve used it for years

i don’t work a paying job but i do stay home since my husband makes enough so we don’t pay for childcare, in my area it’s $3,000

Grocery bill only $600 for a family of 5 wow that’s crazy to me mine is twice as much and we’re a family of 4

We both work full time and we are barely making it. No fun money. Except for the occasional couple of $6 dresses from shein 😂

@Shanna🌹 varies depending on where everyone lives and where they shop. It’s definitely mind blowing to see how much others spend for sure!

I stay home. If I worked we’d literally lose money to pay for childcare, it’s cheaper for me to be home. And that’s with one child so with the second coming I’m definitely home for the next few years. I also focus time on meal planning/coupon shopping to help cut costs, and I shop thrift sales etc. But I also respect that a lot of people can’t survive on one income and we’re extremely lucky that my husband’s covers our costs.

I’ve been subsidising my pay by doing network marketing… just to take me up to match my usual salary while I was at work. Once I go off mat leave I don’t know how we’ll do it. Thankfully we don’t have childcare costs as my husband keeps them while I work and then when I’m home he goes to work. The network marketing on the side is really helpful though even just earning 300 extra really makes a difference !

My fiance makes 3x as much of what our monthly bills + groceries are. He makes 6 figures while I stay home to raise our toddler with baby #2 on the way. It definitely helped when I did work part time but it didn't make sense to pay someone to raise our child so I can work. Eventually I'll go back but not right now. But we also made sure we were financially ready to have kids and a mortgage payment on our house. We also have a good chunk saved in our emergency savings in case.

I was a stay at home mother when I was pregnant with my first. We refused to put our child in childcare so I stayed home. Then went back to work (work from home, technically). Looked after my special need nephew and was getting paid through the states. My son was possibly 3 at the time, I think. So, he was with me at my sisters house while hubby was also working. I left watching my nephew to find a job closer to home. At this point, I’m at a different job now. He’s now in school, so we both work full time. I’m pregnant with baby #2 due in December and looking to go back to being a stay at home mother and hubby will be looking for a different job that pays well so I can stay home. We live paycheck to paycheck, honestly. We do have WIC and EBT. But that’s still not quite enough as we’re left with no money after paying bills 😭

Husband makes about 2000-2200 a month, im a sahm so we dont pay for childcare, rent 1000, bills abour 500 total i think and we get snap so we luckily dont really have to worry about groceries unless we run out, if we do we usually spend 100-200 on groceries but we are pretty frugal to try not to run out

Could you do less hours so you'd need to pay for less childcare? It shows the difference in countries cos you refer to 1200 sq ft as tiny and my house is 720. Wouldn't call it small.

We bring in less per month than you but our mortgage is about half of yours. We're pay check to pay check most months. Some months when unexpected/none monthly payments come up (vet bills etc) we really struggle to make ends meet that month. It's really difficult at the moment

I'm still stuck on how you're only paying 600 for groceries a month. We pay about $1000-$1200 a month for a family of 3 and 2 dogs. Teach me your ways! I agree though, I can't stomach paying for daycare. I work from home and have baby with me. Maybe that's something you could look into? I know that's much harder with more than 1 kid, though, so I understand your situation. It's not easy, financially, regardless the route you take. You're not alone

We both have 2 jobs. My partners work out as 2 full time jobs and I have a full time job and a side hustle that brings me some spending money. Thankfully where we live our childminder doesn't cost a fortune and we now have some free hours which helps. I have another suggestion for you if you drop me a message x

@hena how did you start the network marketing on the side?

I joined a network marketing company. I can message you privately?x

@Sara I’m in Georgia and they have CAPs which pays for childcare up to %100 I think the cap on income is 50k but right now they are only looking for “priority groups” my daughter does meet the criteria for that but I kept getting denied to other reasons so this time we should get approved and we got SNAP as well but we run out of groceries it’s usually eggs dairy milk bread and a couple other things otherwise the meat for the month usually lasts

@Courtney have you tried getting CAPs? I’m in Georgia too and they pay most if not all of daycare if you meet the criteria

@Sara I make the same and supposedly don't qualify for snap. I'm so jealous. Maybe I should try applying again?🫠

@Hena is like to know as well! Lol pls message me about this!

@Arianna Esther Preciado it depends on your state and family size! We are a family of 4 in texas, you can look up income limits for specific family sizes for snap in your state on google 😊

@Arianna Esther Preciado messaged you ♥️

Sorry Hena if this comes of as rude but just sharing for the girlies who don’t know- network marketing means the same thing as multi-level marketing, so just look out for yourselves. 💕💕

@Courtney not rude at all… and very valid point! 👌 . Yes it’s not a get rich quick scheme. But is a good way to make some money on side if you’re able to sell the products. And this specific one is free to join xxx