I am now a stay at home mom and I found the article a good read. Yes, I miss my subsidized lunches from office, my excellent medical coverage (better than the one we have now from my husbands company)and the free cellphone service and of course the money. I made over 80k and so this is a lot of money to lose. But obviously my reasons for staying at home were not monetary.

The article was excellently explained and, though I do agree with a few of the others’ comments, I understand that you were trying to prompt people to think of the whole picture when trying to make this very difficult decision.

One more thing I would add to the list of items that increase is health/dental/life insurance. My company supplements a HUGE percentage of my health insurance cost and adding me (and the kids who are currenly covered under my policy) to my husband’s plan will be an astronomical increase in his premium.

I still believe the value of staying home goes far beyond the monetary charts and figures, but it’s nice to know that there are people like you who are helping me to be well-informed about this decision.

Pray for me and my family situation that God will show us favor. I know that He will provide for all our needs and not leave us poverty-stricken.

Many Blessings!

So if you want to be a parent – suck it up and be a parent. Even if that means making sacrifices. And honestly it doesn’t take much to keep a toddler entertained – all they really want is some love and attention (ie read them a book) and then a few toys they can use to be creative with. Coloring books work wonders too.

First, my intended audience for this article was for people who have household incomes low enough that small expenses make a difference. I’m glad none of you fit into that category

I admitted within the article (please reread the last paragraph) that these expenses are small in comparison to the savings you get from staying at home. I purposely did not write about those savings because there are tons of articles on them elsewhere.

Nevertheless, these expenses do add up to more than $100 per year — at least in our household. Missouri Mom, I did not mean to suggest that day care expenses are lower than lunches at home. I simply meant that when you take out the daycare expenses from your budget, you have to add those lunches back in. Even at $1 per lunch per kid, that’s $260 per kid per year for the days they’d be in daycare.

For utilities, I estimate that our electric bill alone (which also covers our heat & AC) has gone up about $500 per year as a result of my kids and me staying home.

Gas and lost work perks, as already noted, can vary greatly according to situation. You may not miss your perks, but part of the reason I stay home instead of my husband is because we would pay an extra $110 per month to get the free perks he has (which we use a lot), not to mention that he gets about 2 lunches free per month, a 15% discount on company stock, and a 401(k) match that we would miss greatly. (And laugh all you want at my mention of pens, but I have to go buy some soon — I would be glad for a few freebies.)

Compared to the costs of working and daycare, these expenses/losses are small, but I still say that they need to be taken into account when budgeting to stay home.

Then she mentions spending more on gas only to admit it is less than commuting.

A few things hold water, but most is a stretch at best.