How to Stay Home with Your Kids When It is Not in the Budget

So, you’ve created a budget, cut back on expenses as much as you can, and downsized wherever possible and staying at home is still not in your budget.

Don’t worry, you still have options.

There’s two situations you may find yourself in:

• You make enough money to pay your monthly expenses but nothing else and you have no financial cushion in case anything comes up.
• You do not make enough to cover your monthly expenses so you need to bring in an income.

Let’s tackle the first one first . . . 

If you have enough to cover your monthly expenses, even if it is just barely, you can technically afford to stay home with your kids.

It is scary to quit your job without a cushion though so I’d recommend a few things:

First, save up as much as you can BEFORE you quit your job. You can do this by following the suggestion we listed on the first page of living on only part of your income while saving the rest.

I HIGHLY recommend having an emergency fund if you are living on one income. It covers you in case anything unexpected comes up, or worse, you find yourself dealing with unemployment.

You may actually have everything you need to create an emergency fun already. Don’t believe me? Look around your home. Do you have anything you can sell to get money to put towards your emergency fund? I once made $700 in a weekend just by cleaning out my house. You may be surprised at the amount of money you are able to make just be selling items that you are no longer using.

Second, consider working from home or working off hours to have a bit of a financial cushion.

Do you want our list of favorite places to find work at home jobs? Click here and we will send it to you.

While working in any capacity may not fit your idea of what a stay at home mom does (I know it wasn’t in my plan) there are ways to be with your kids more if you get a bit creative with your working situation.

There are lots of jobs you can do from home (some jobs you can even do while your kids nap). We’ll talk more about working from home later, but know that it really is an option.

If you don’t want to work from home, you can look into a part time job with flexible hours or an on call job that will let you pick and choose if you’d like to work.

Related Post: How I Made $700 Decluttering my Home

Now, let’s tackle the second situation . . .

You’ve put together a budget, cut back as much as you can, downsized (or are unable to) and you still can’t get by without your income.

You still have options.

Working from home is a great way to bring in an income. There are some great options out there that are flexible, pay really well, and will let you create the life you really want.

For me, I started by running a home daycare and eventually moved to blogging. Blogging has exceeded my expectation of what I ever thought I could earn, working from home or outside of the home and has been a huge blessing to my family. Now my husband works with me part time and works on his own business on the side so we are both home with the kids.

A few options for work at home jobs include:

• Working as a VA
• Blogging
• Running a home daycare
• Customer service jobs
• Consulting
• Tutoring
• Selling on Etsy
• Working as an Amazon seller
• Creating your own product to sell
• Working as a programer
• Design work
• Working as an accountant

Start by looking at the field you were working in. Chances are there is something you can do from home.

I once heard of a landscaper who wanted to work from home. Seems a bit far fetched, doesn’t it? He started selling landscape designs online and quickly replaced his income.

Do you want our list of favorite places to find work at home jobs? Click here and we will send it to you.

More posts about Family Finances:

• 20 Real Ways to Earn Money from Home
• Can you Make Money as a Mom Driving with Uber
• How to Save the First $1000 of your Emergency Fund
• Free Printable Budget Worksheet
• How I Made $700 Decluttering my Home
• How I Made over $10,700 Last Month Working from Home