Me & my hubby hope to ttc soon & have been looking into the financial side of things. I've always wanted to be able to stay home with my LO until they are old enough to attend kindergarten but unfortunately I don't see how that's in the cards for us. Thankfully where I live offers 55% of your wages while on maternity leave (which is under a year) but after that point I have no idea how we could afford me staying home.

Our total expenses=$2794/month

I've called around for everything I can to get the cheapest rates possible. We don't really travel, go out, ect... basically we spend all our time at home, at work or with family. Going out to dinner for date night maybe once every 2 months. We make due with whst we have instead of spending on new things. We do spend $400 a month on groceries/personal items like shampoo, soap,dog food, ect... I'm not sure if theres any ways to cut that cost? Like cheaper places to find hygiene products, cheap meal ideas, ect...

We make- $3,760/month or $45,120 a year take home together.

Leaving us with $966/ month left over

Which is great if we are both working! But if just my hubby is working that's only $1880 coming in leaving us short $914 a month not included the fact expenses will be higher when a baby is added!

Plus if I work then theres daycare costs since neither of us has family able to watch our future kid. Daycare here costs $1000 a month which again brings us over our income 🤦‍♀️ we thought about working opposite shifts so one of us can always be home, but it would mean one of us having to leave our job for something else which would also mean starting at a lower pay where we would lose $550 a month of income which with added baby expenses would make things tight.

This is why we are kind of stuck on what the best options are or alternatives, so thought I'd ask all you amazing women who have done this on what worked for you!