How do you guys do it???? For those who rent and pay for full time day care!

How does anyone work full time, AND pay for full time day care, AND pay their rent?



Please, I do not mean this to be a rhetorical question, so PLEASE share any advice or words of encouragement.... How in the world are we going to do this?????

I am due in April, and plan on taking the 6 wk leave, and then baby has to go to day care....

Plus we need to rent a new house because our landlord wants to move back into the one we are renting now....

How is this going to get done????

Re: How do you guys do it???? For those who rent and pay for full time day care!

Well, my husband had to get a new job where he could stay home during the day with the baby while I went to work, then we switch. So he's at work right now until midnight. It's the only way we could make this work. We were not planning on having to spend 600-800 dollars a month on prescription formula, so that was our daycare money right out the window. The one thing I learned from having a baby is that you can never plan for it. You can try, but chances are, you're going to need to roll with the punches as they come along.

Re: How do you guys do it???? For those who rent and pay for full time day care!

Posted by prncssrachel

Well, my husband had to get a new job where he could stay home during the day with the baby while I went to work, then we switch. So he's at work right now until midnight. It's the only way we could make this work. We were not planning on having to spend 600-800 dollars a month on prescription formula, so that was our daycare money right out the window. The one thing I learned from having a baby is that you can never plan for it. You can try, but chances are, you're going to need to roll with the punches as they come along.

Message edited 10/3/2006 5:40:01 PM.

Re: How do you guys do it???? For those who rent and pay for full time day care!

I wouldn't worry, that was just our solution because of the nature of JT's job. You'll make it work because what other option is there?

Re: How do you guys do it???? For those who rent and pay for full time day care!

We pay for mortgage, daycare and all other living expenses on one salary. There was a period last year where we were both not working, so I am telling you where there is a will there is a way.

Instead of doing a daycare center we went with a home-based daycare. We save maybe $75-100/week. While home-based wasnt our first choice, we're really happy with the care that Nate is getting.

You just have to make some sacrifices and figure out where you can cut back to do what needs to be done. Since you have some time, do an experiment and try to live like you have the baby... put money aside weekly and see where you cut back. Totally trial and error, but you can see what works for you guys and adjust accordingly.

Message edited 10/2/2006 10:08:57 PM.

Re: How do you guys do it???? For those who rent and pay for full time day care!

I was bringing home about 2K a month when I worked FT. We are now living without my salary... and I honestly don't know how. Well, I do, we dipped very heavily into our savings. My husband has a job where he gets bonus checks evry few months, so we really rely on that $$$. Our insurance would have covered her speciality formula, but we do not have the presription plan through them.

My advice as far as saving money on formula? Read everythign and anythign you can find about breastfeeding. Take a class or 8. If I had been better prepared for what breastfeeding was going to be like, I would have stuck with it longer.

Anyway, I am not using daycare, but I just wanted to illustrate the point that you can find a way to make it work.

Re: How do you guys do it???? For those who rent and pay for full time day care!

Message edited 2/9/2007 2:30:13 PM.

Re: How do you guys do it???? For those who rent and pay for full time day care!

rolling with the punches is great advice. I never thought we could do it and we worked it out. You will to.

We made a strict budget and we stuck to it, I refinanced my student loans to be interest only, DH paid off his lease and bought a used car so we didnt have monthly payments etc.

Re: How do you guys do it???? For those who rent and pay for full time day care!

Re: How do you guys do it???? For those who rent and pay for full time day care!

Posted by anon

i became a SAHM because it did not make sense for us to pay for daycare given my current salary. it's hard either way...

Re: How do you guys do it???? For those who rent and pay for full time day care!

Thanks for the advice ladies...

The scary thing is, we HAVE been living on a strict budget - I spend 60 dollars a week - we figured out that I need at least that with gas.... I bring my own lunch. Once in a while I need to buy a little extra something to eat (I'm 14 wks PG)

I work a full time job, and a part time job 2 nights a week. He and I work all day on Saturdays together.

DH was out of full time work, so we used up our savings to live. He also has child support on 2 daughters - ages 9 and 15 - so, of course, money had to go to them - whenever DH got any type of odd job or part time work, he would give a percentage of it. It kills him that he could not be a better provider.

Unfortunately, we fell behind on our CC payments and our credit is bad.... which never really happened to me.... we are trying to pay it off, but with the lay off, when it came to rent or CC payment, we had no choice...

Sorry to be such a wah wah ladies but your words are helping, and I just needed to vent. I know we will make it work - we have so far in many ways - its just I'm a 1st time mom, and I never thught that we'd be struggling so much when we had a baby together. I want to provide a calm and safe-feeling home for our child - not a tense "how are we going to pay the bills" energy that I know kids can pick up on....

Thanks ladies!!!! Keep the advice and words of encouragement coming!

Re: How do you guys do it???? For those who rent and pay for full time day care!

Wow, I know how you feel-I was there last year. I was buggin out all of the time. We had just bought a house that was out of our means or so I thought (because we paid the very high mortgage). We have a mortgage, day care, and any bill you could imagine. We live upstate and hubby works in Queens so we also have to pay for e-pass and at least $600-800 a month in gasoline between the two of us. We use in home daycare and it is cheaper than the centers. I pay a lot because he's a mile from my job and the area in Westchester that I work is really rich so she takes advantage. He seems to be happy and it's been working. My husband took also took a pay cut two days after baby boy was born....so I was really nervous. Neither one of us makes a really good salary and I have to say that some car stuff and gas has had to go on the CC's bringing them up a bit but you do what you must. Nothing I can say can reeeeaaalllllyyyyy make you feel better but as some of the other girls said - you will make it work.

Re: How do you guys do it???? For those who rent and pay for full time day care!

Thanks!

Well, the only way I could reallllly feel better was if I inherited a gajiliion dollars

you ladies run a close second!!!