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[quote=Anonymous]My DH and I were in pretty much this exact situation one year ago. I decided to stay home with my baby. Here's what changed:

"Set" expenses:

Mortgage 1500 - same 
HOA dues 0 - same 
Car payment 700 -  now 0 we won't be buying new cars again until the wheels fall off the ones we have.
Car insurance	140 - same
Student loan	0 - DH and I both payed as we went so neither have student loans.
Groceries	 400 - now 800 (we ate out a TON before I stayed home. I cook 7 meals a week now and DH takes leftovers for lunch). 
Gas for car 200 - now 300, I used to metro to work and only drove occasionally. Now I drive every day.
Phone/tv/net 100 - now 300 (we didn't have TV, now we do b/c we never go out.)
Other utilities 0 - 0 (Our utilities are taken care of in our rent.
Pet costs	 10 - 10 
Dry cleaning 20 - 0 
Gym 30 - 0 
Cleaning lady 140 - 0 
Other misc. expenses	200 - 50 
Savings	 1000 - 0
Home-equity loan 0

Basically, yes, you can afford to SAH especially since you have some really low fixed expenses. Your mortgage is crazy low. I cut out 1. gym (I can run for free) 2. cleaning lady (I clean my own house - sort of) 3. savings (we saved a lot for years; we'll be ab;e to save again when DH gets another raise) 4.  never get my nails done, get pedicures or massages anymore. 5. We literally eat out once a month if that. Yes, it's depressing. 6. No Kennedy Center for us! 7. We used to take 2-3 awesome vacations each year. Those are gone. 8. I buy our clothes second-hand

So, basically, all of our "fun" money and our savings got cut. Otherwise, we get by. Would I do it again? Well, I'm used to not having any frills now, but it took a little while to adjust and during that time I felt a little resentful, but now I don't care. Also keep in mind - when my baby turned a year, I decided I wanted to go back part-time, but I worked in tech and even if you're only gone for a year - that's a hell of a long time. So, I'm basically unemployable now and will need to get some additional training before I can go back to work even part-time. Also, check with your DH. Mine was 100% FOR me SAH. He doesn't believe in daycare (I do). I can imagine he would feel a LOT of resentment if I chose to SAH and he wan't on board. [/quote]

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