Financial Planning for a Pregnancy

I am so blessed with the ability to stay home with my kids.  This didn't just happen.  It took a lot of planning on our part.  People thought I was obsessing over my preparations and told me that "you can't plan for a baby.  If you wait until the time is right, the time will never come."  Well, I didn't agree.  Here is how I was able to stop working full-time, stay home with my kid(s), and live within our means (on a Paramedic's salary.)

After we got married, I wanted to start my family.  We had paid off our credit card debt and paid for our wedding in cash.  The only debt we had left was our mortgage and our vehicle payments, along with our monthly expenses, such as utilities, insurance, and groceries.  What we had to figure out was how we would work out child care.  My husband and I both work in healthcare doing critical care transport.  We are scheduled for 12 hour shifts, but could have to work for as many as 14-16 hours without the advanced notice to plan for the difference in hours.  If our services are needed before our relief gets there, we go.  There is no daycare in town that would accommodate for those hours.  We came to the realization that we would either need to work opposite shifts (and not need daycare, but never see each other) or one of us would need to stop working full time.  In order for us to be able to afford for me to stay home, we'd have to pay off our vehicles.

For the next several months, we worked as much overtime as possible, dropped our 403b contributions to 4% (just enough to get the match), and used every extra penny saved to pay off our Tahoe.  We also had our minivan almost paid off by the time our oldest son was born, 16 months after we got married.  I made about $10 more/hour than my husband, so I took a 3 month paid maternity leave, but went back to work full-time afterwards.  That's when he went part-time, worked 2-4 days/month, and stayed home with our son.  About 5 months later, the minivan was paid off.  Our net savings after paying off both vehicles was about $1100/month.  I was then able to go part-time and my husband went back to work full-time.  We were both thrilled!

When I first went part-time, we only needed for me to work a minimum of 1 day per month to pay the bills.  Since then, we sold our old house and bought a new, larger, home and property for $300 more/month (including taxes and insurance).  I now need to work 2 days/month to pay our bills, but usually work 4 days/month in order to save some money in our emergency fund and retirement fund as well as some money for miscellaneous expenses that may come up.  I work the extra days for more reasons than just paying the bills.  It's also "me" time away from the kids.  I get adult conversation and a chance to use the rest of my brain.  It also allows me to keep my license and many certifications (required for my job) current, which keeps me marketable when I decide to go back to work full-time. 

I am a planner...to a fault!  I do realize that, but I feel that the financial planning we did before we got pregnant made our lives secure.  So many people plan to have their families but don't plan for the financial responsibilities that go along with them.  Thanks to all the planning and sacrifices that we've made, we've been able to weather one of the worst economic downturns in recent history without having to make any major changes in our lives.  Our new house is 2500 sq. ft. and our yard is almost an acre.  Not only am I a SAHM, but we have a home where I'll be happy to raise my boys and I hope that they'll have a childhood that they remember fondly one day, just like I do.  How many people can say that?