I hear a lot of Moms say they wish they could afford to stay home with their kids. Im going to share how I do that.

My families  not rich  by any means for a 6 person family we made around 70,000 dollars last year.  Granted that is double the amount  of the poverty level for a family of 6. We aren’t rich,but we are not poor either. We are just making it by.

The truth is there are a lot of things I don’t have because I choose to stay home with my kids. It is the job I always wanted to do.  I had to find a way to make that dream a reality.

1. No Cable:

Cable is expensive! We were spending 250 dollars a month on it. Even looking over different packages and cutting down on some of our services made less sense then cutting the cord. We have Hulu and Netflix and My husband hopes one day that the football package will be available without dish network. I miss food network, but not enough to pay 250 a month.

2. We have 1 car: 

Not having to pay for two car payments is wonderful. Does it suck sometimes to be housebound? Yes, but like everything else the payoff of not having to work outside the home makes it not so bad.

3. What are new clothes and accessories?

My gym shoes have holes in them, I haven’t bought a new bag in 5 years, Jewelry? Hahaha. Unless I make it out of polymer clay my self that is a luxury I am not affording.  Right now Im wearing gym pants that I cant bend over in, because the holes near my inner thighs are out of control.  When I was single (before kids) I would troll the racks at Marshalls for hours to add new things to my collection. Now  a days I have had some of the same things for 7 years. I also don’t need to spend money on clothes. I can wear a ripped up Buffy The Vampire Slayer t shirt all day.

4. Eating Out is as Rare as someone dying from Measles in 2015:

To take My family to breakfast costs me about 70 dollars. My entire food budget for the week is 200 dollars.  Every time I do go out to eat with the kids I have buyers remorse. Not only is it a shit show to take all these kids to eat, but its never worth the price. Another great thing about being home is that I can cook. I make all our own stuff. From yogurt to tortillas. Both these things are not time consuming, but after a day of working most people do  not want to spend time doing them.

5. I am the child care:

Child care is out of this world expensive.  The more exclusive places charge almost 500 a week. Thats 2,000 a month! There alone I save 24,000 dollars a year.

6. I bought a house with an inlaw: 

Im an only  child to Portuguese immigrants. As if  I was ever going to be able to leave them anyway. We were able to move into a great school district by having my Parents move in and pay a third of the mortgage. I could have afforded a house on my own in a descent school district, but by moving them in I was able to move into snobsville USA. Say what you want about snobsville, but the school benefits are amazing.

7. I have Understanding Friends:

I have some amazing people in my life. They know Im not the one who can go out on the town and throw dollars around like I’m balling at the club. So they come over for dinner, We go on walks that are free, They come over to craft with the kids, and when its Christmas they always buy the kids things they can do.

The truth is some people cannot afford to stay home. Some People don’t want to stay home, but some of us can if we really wanted to. You  will have to trade in your  arm full of Alex and Ani Bracelets, and  a Michael Korrs bag for holey clothes and dirty un dyed hair, but its worth it.  Im a believer that anything is possible. If our goal is to stay at home making that happen is possible. Follow your dreams, and be brave. If I can do it so can you.