Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
NGLR: I can be a SAHM!!! We're TTC!!!
This is kinda GLR. I am soooo excited! DH and I have been working for years towards me being able to be a SAHM, it's very important to both of us that one of be home with our future child. So we've been working for it to be me since DH makes more than double what I do. We paid off our CC debt last month (yeah!) and have been cutting expensives for awhile to live on DH's salary alone. Well the budget was still too tight, only $150 left over each month.
On Friday, DH got a really nice annual raise (7%!!!), which makes the budget more than good enough that I can be a SAHM! So we're officially TTC! I am SO HAPPY. Plus, DH is going to get promoted in the next month or so, and his boss said he'll get another raise "if he can swing it."
This is semi-GLR because we're going to do lots of baby-related things that daycare wouldn't do, like breastfeeding, cloth diapers, and feeding homegrown or Farmer's Market organic food, so now since I can stay at home we can do all that!
Re: NGLR: I can be a SAHM!!! We're TTC!!!
Congrats!!! I hope you guys are successful quickly!
We figured out that I can be a SAHM, too! Though not in the way you did it... budgeting probably would have been smart! No... I got injured and it turns out if you get injured AT work, they don't let you work anymore! Go figure. The upside is we realized life isn't really that expensive when you step back and take a look at it!
Oh, and start stocking up on those diapers now! I've done the math and figured out those will be the most expensive baby-related items I want to buy (I want to do fitteds with covers which is about a $750 investment). But I started buying early and went to a few cloth diaper garage sales and stalking Spot's Corner and blogs that were doing giveaways. Now I have a pretty decent stash! Nothing that could diapers NB full time, but at least for a few hours each day!
Whoa, I had no idea the fancy cloth diapers were that expensive. Yikes! I think if I were having kids they might end up tied up in old dish towels.
Congrats Supergreen on achieving that goal!
SIL bought most of her cloth diapers on ebay. Supposedly, there's a pretty strong re-sale market for them, which at least means you can make some of your money back eventually.
Congrats SuperGreen!
Tired after a long morning of hiking and swimming.
Congrats on being able to TTC and be a SAHM! My sister did exactly what you guys did - which is live of her husband's salary to make sure they could swing her being at home.
Breastfeeding and cloth diapering save sooo much money. We're TTC our second child and we won't need to buy anything new since we already have all the stuff (carseat, etc) and diapers and I'm going to breastfeed again. It's so nice to not have to spend a ton of money!
Yeah... I like the $35/per diaper Good Mamas. I think I just like to torture myself. But since I've been buying used I have about a dozen diapers and only spent about $100. Though I need more covers and maybe 15 more diapers plus at least a dozen more NB diapers. CDing can be REALLY affordable or it can be pretty pricey. But even if I bought everything brand new and spent the whole $750 on diapers I would still be spending less then I would be on disposables for just one child, and I plan on reusing the diapers for at least two kids!
Yay, how exciting!!! DH and I are also TTC, and I'll actually be starting fertility meds in a few weeks. I plan on being a SAHM too. I can't wait to do all the green baby things, like cloth diaper and make organic baby food.
The Trying to Get Pregnant board on the bump has been really helpful with my questions about charting and TTC!
They see us rollin'...they be hatin'.
Thank you everyone for your kind responses. With the daycare thing, I meant that most daycares won't do the green things I want, not that all daycares won't. I live in the D.C. suburbs, so the daycare places tend to be big, generic, and not accomodating to individual LO's needs, from what I've heard. Regardless, it's really important to DH and I for one of us to be at home with our child, and hooray it gets to be me! DH told me yesterday that he's actually really jealous that I'll get to spend more time with our LO than he will. He has a steady 9-5 jobs two miles away, and tons of vacation time he doesn't use though. I told him that and he agreed with me, and he decided he's going to take 3-4 weeks off on top of the (I think 3 weeks) paternity leave his company gives.
For now, we're just having tons of sex and seeing how that goes
If we don't get pregnant in 6 months or so I'll start charting, and if we hit the year mark I'll go to the doctor. We decided early on that if serious medical intervention is needed, like fertility meds or IVF, then we'll adopt instead. We want to have one of our own and adopt anyway.
Can't wait to see that post! I saw a contraption at Williams Sonoma that steams and purees baby food in one step, so I'm definetely going to get that. DH and I plan on growing a lot of baby food if possible, and supplimenting that with the Farmer's Market.
Visit my blog about my family's experiments in eco-living