Hey there momma, are you budgeting to be a stay-at-home mom? Congratulations!! What an exciting time in your life!!
Staying home is THE BOMB!! 😂🤣 (Does anyone say that anymore? I don’t know… I’ve been home too long! 😆)
I absolutely love staying home. And I am here to help you figure out how you, too, can afford to stay home. Saving up money is the first step to staying home, momma! But, how do you know how much you should save?
I can tell you what all the financial experts say. And then I can tell you what really works. 😆
At least, what’s worked for me.
So, let’s dive in, shall we?
How much should I save, before being a stay-at-home mom?
There really is no hard and fast number, momma, when trying to figure out how much you should save. No one can tell you, “You need to have $100,000 set aside.” Because our situations are all different.
You might spend $100,000 in six months. I might spend $100,000 in two years. 🤷🏻♀️ Our incomes, budgets, and lifestyles are all different.
Generally speaking, though, “experts” recommend setting aside six months’ worth of living expenses, if you want to become a stay-at-home mom.
Why?
Who knows! 😂🤣
Honestly, I think what you plan on doing with that money matters more than how much you save.
For instance, if you are saving money to cover your lost income, then you probably want more than six months. You probably want enough set aside to cover your lost income for the entire time you plan on staying home. 😬
But if you plan on just using it for emergencies or a cushion, then six months might be perfect.
And, when you think about how much you are saving and why, you should also consider the lifestyle you want to live, as a sahm.
I mean, do you want to hunker down at home and never go anywhere or do anything? 🙋🏻♀️ (Yes, that’s me. 😂🤣 I’m a homebody.)
Or do you want to go on regular outings, join clubs and organizations, and still take vacations?
What you want to do will determine how much money you should save as well.
What the experts say, about budgeting to be a stay-at-home mom
The “experts” will tell you, momma, to calculate your baseline spending, calculate what it costs your family for you to work out of the house, and calculate what it would cost your family to stay home.
Really, all you are doing is comparing a ‘work out of the home’ budget to a potential ‘sahm budget’.
So, pretty much, what would your budget or spending plan look like if you worked out of the home? And what would that same budget or spending plan look like if you stayed home?
Here’s how to do it:
1. Calculate your baseline spending
Your ‘baseline spending’ is your regular monthly expenses.
What does it cost you, every month, just to run your household?
Add up all your monthly expenses, including:
- Housing expenses, such as your mortgage, utilities, etc.
- Vehicle expenses, such as car payments, gas, maintenance, etc.
- Household expenses, such as groceries, clothing, entertainment, memberships, etc.
- Medical expenses, such as health insurance, etc.
- Debt payments, such as credit cards, student loans, personal loans, etc.
And anything else you may spend monthly.
The total is your basic monthly expenses.
2. Next, figure out your work expenses
What does it cost you to go to work every day?
These expenses might be:
- Daycare
- Travel costs
- Clothing costs
- Eating out
And any other work-related expenses you might have.
3. Then figure out what expenses you might accrue if you were to stay home
This won’t be as easy.
First, consider any ‘perks’ you might lose if you were to quit your job. These might be things like:
- Health, vision, dental, and disability insurance
- Flexible spending accounts
- 401K accounts
If you carry health insurance, and you lose that, how would you cover that insurance? Can your husband cover it? Or would you have to purchase it?
What would staying home do to your taxable income?
After you consider what you might lose and how you’ll cover those benefits while staying home, you need to consider what additional costs you might accrue.
Will you be joining any clubs or community activities, or enrolling your children in any? Will you be hosting anything on a regular basis? Do you enjoy shopping, doing projects around the house, etc.?
Some women spend more money staying home than if they worked, because their activities change, and sometimes cost more.
4. Determine your monthly income, from all sources
Figure out what your household currently brings in every month, from your salary, your husband’s salary, and any other income sources.
Compare your total income with you working to what your total family income would be if you were not working.
5. Next, work out a “working” scenario
After you know how much your family brings home with you working, and what all your expenses are, create your “working” budget.
Be sure to include the expenses you came up with in step #2 – those expenses you will have only if you work out of the home.
What does that look like? Do you barely make ends meet? Do you have a lot of money to play with at the end of the month?
6. Then create your “staying home” scenario
After you have your ‘working’ scenario, create a ‘staying home’ scenario. Don’t forget to figure in your ‘staying home’ expenses from step #3.
What does this staying-home scenario look like? Is it doable? Or will you barely make ends meet – or worse – go under?
7. After you have both scenarios, compare the two
If you have extra money to play with at the end of the month in both scenarios, then you can afford to stay home.
If you have extra money left over when you are working, but you can’t even balance the budget if you stay home, then the experts say you should not stay home.
And finally, if you have money left over after all your expenses are covered, the experts say this is, realistically, what you can put into savings so that you can afford to stay home.
They say you should be saving 15% of your income if you want to make the move home.
I’m not saying the experts are wrong.
I’m just saying that they fail to figure in your lifestyle.
And the fact that you can change it. 😉
If you want to stay home, I personally believe that your lifestyle plays a bigger factor in that decision than how much money you can save.
What I say about budgeting to be a stay-at-home mom
I personally believe that anyone can be a stay-at-home mom.
Because it’s not about how much money you save. Or how much money your husband makes.
It’s about how much money you spend.
And what kind of a lifestyle you want to live, as a stay-at-home mom.
Save money according to the lifestyle you want to have as a sahm
Before you decide how much money to save, you should really consider what kind of a lifestyle you want, as a stay-at-home mom, and what that lifestyle will cost you.
Do you want to live the exact same way you are right now?
My guess is, yes. Most of us don’t want to make any lifestyle adjustments when staying home.
We still want to go to the same places and do the same things.
But most of us are also spending almost every dollar that we make.
This means, if you want to be a stay-at-home mom, you will either need to stop spending money or save up enough money to cover all those expenses.
It’s that simple.
And if, when running through those above scenarios, you see that you can’t afford to keep your current lifestyle and still be a stay-at-home mom, then you only have two choices: to continue to work, or to change your lifestyle.
Because to survive on one income as a stay-at-home mom, you have to spend less money than your husband brings home.
Or save a heck of a lot of money before becoming a sahm.
Know why saving money is important to you
The other thing you need to consider, when budgeting to be a stay-at-home mom, is why you are trying to save money.
Yes, yes, I know – it’s because you want to stay home with your kids instead of going to work.
But what exactly are you going to do with that money?
Is it to cover all the things your income normally covers?
Because if so, you need to figure out how long you plan on staying home and how much you contribute to the household expenses.
For instance, if you cover the phone, groceries, clothing, entertainment, school expenses, gifts, and miscellaneous household expenses, and this averages out to be about $2,000 a month, then you need to save $2,000 a month times however many months you plan on being a sahm.
Yikes, right?!?
It can be pretty hard to think you are going to save enough money to cover whatever you will lose when you make that move home.
But, if you are saving money so that you have a cushion, in case of emergencies, while you are staying home, that might be more doable.
Experts say you need to have 6 months’ worth of expenses saved up, in case of an emergency. I’m not an expert, but I see no reason why that would be wrong. 😂🤣 It just seems like a good idea.
And saving up six months’ worth of your expenses is more doable than saving up years’ worth.
So, I’d start there.
And remember, if you downgrade your current lifestyle, and cut expenses, then what you need to save will be even less.
At the end of the day…
At the end of the day, momma, we just want to stay home with our children. We want to be the ones who love and nurture them. Who teach them our values.
Who they run to when they have owies and who they celebrate with when they learn something new.
We want to see their faces light up in pure delight and laugh at their adorable little giggles.
We want all of their snuggles.
And we want to help them through all of their struggles.
We love them more than life itself and can’t bear to be away from them.
But surviving on one income is tough. And knowing how to plan for it is even harder.
How much you save, when budgeting to be a stay-at-home mom, depends on how long you plan on staying home, what you want to use those savings for, and what kind of a lifestyle you want to live, as a sahm.
And although the experts can give you a number to strive for, remember that everyone’s situation is different.
We all have different needs, wants, and values.
And how much you spend to cover your family’s needs, wants, and values will determine how much you should save, to become a stay-at-home mom.
More on Budgeting
How to be a Stay at Home Mom on One Income, and Still Survive
How to Create a Budget as a Stay-at-Home Mom
How to Afford to be a Stay-at-Home Mom