Which would be more cost efficient? Please read description before voting.

Question

I'm not due till Jan 17th but am an over planner and can't help but know what my best option would be. My fiance and I currently both work. He brings in approx $2400/month after tax and I bring in approx $1800/month give or take (part of my income is commission based). I live in Western NC and our rent, bills, and car payment equal $1700/month. I really would like to be there for the early stages of my babies life, but don't know what would be more affordable. What is your experience? Do you pay for a nanny or daycare? And if yes, how much does it average?

Answer

It’s my opinion that you’ll never get that time back. I’m an over planner too, so I deliberately bought a house that we could afford payments on with one salary and we didn’t start trying to get pregnant until we were debt free. I make more money than my husband, but was fully prepared to stay at home because I didn’t want to miss a thing (btw that need to be with your baby is 1000x stronger once you have you give birth). I’d be willing to throw my career out the window and forget about all of my schooling to live in a box with my daughter. She and my family are all that matters to me now. Priorities change and I’d rather be broke than be missing out on all of her firsts. Luckily, my boss understood this and offered me a work from home position so I get the best of both worlds, but I still want to quit so that I can offer her more experiences outside the house! Will you have a maternity leave? Why don’t you take that time to figure it out!

Answer

With you working and after paying all your bills, you still have all your husband’s check to spare! 😳  Buuuuut, you can totally afford to stay at home with your baby. At least try it out. I know it’s not for everyone so try it for a few months and take it from there. Save as much money as you can right now that way you won’t have to worry at all once baby comes. Right now it’s hard to make this decision because you don’t know how protective or attached you’ll be with your baby. I bawled on my way to work, it was so bad I turned around and picked her up and never even thought about going back. You could easily afford any of those options so don’t worry about that, just wait and try it out and see how you feel. Take advantage of your position to choose since not everyone is that lucky.

Answer

The costs vary so much by location. You’d really need to get an idea locally what the costs would be for each. 
Where I am daycare can run $1200 a month to $2000 a month, and varies by town and if it’s NYAEC. Some towns are even higher. There’s also a lot of duplicate items you have to buy for daycare so there’s more expense than just the monthly cost. 
You could easily spend most of your check on daycare up here. Does the $1700 include groceries and all misc expenses? Seems kinda low to me, but I’m in a high cost area. 
I wasn’t able to breastfeed so we spent on average 200-400 a month on baby stuff - diapers, wipes, formula, medicines, clothing, misc stuff, toys...
If you can swing being a sahm I’d say go for it. You might end up working just to pay daycare and baby expenses.

Answer

I don’t know the costs of a nanny but I know day cares are super expensive. I personally and lucky enough to have my aunt who will watch my son for extremely cheap but not lucky enough to not work. If I could not work I would chose that! 
Maybe you could take off work for a while and decide if you’re financially ok without your income and if you want to go back to work and if you don’t want to and can then you can quit your job.

Answer

If you can afford to stay at home, or work only part time, I say do that 100%! You will treasure those memories forever! Make a good financial plan ahead of time and save save save! It sounds like you guys could bank away some money now to hold you over at least while your babe is young! 
Also... I am also so envious that your bills equal $1700/month! 🤣 My mother lives in High Point and is always begging me to come down south because its more bang for your buck than the northeast!

Answer

For us it’s cost efficient for me to stay home. Daycare costs $1000-$1500/mo for a newborn so if I worked all my salary would go to daycare with little to nothing left over.

Answer

so after bills and everything you would only have 700 dollars a month to live. If i were you I would keep working and use your income to pay for bills and the 100 you can use for baby. The rest can go to a nanny and then if you have money left over you can save it just in case. You would be living pay check to pay check and thats really scary. Also poverty level for a family of three is around 20,000 dollars so you guys would be living just above poverty. Keep your job and hire a nanny!

Which would be more cost efficient? Please read description before voting.

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