Getting poor slower by making the anti-mustachian husband a stay-at-home dad

[the fixer]

This popped into my newsreader and I thought it might be interesting, despite how terrible GRS posts usually are. It's an attempt to quantify the costs and benefits of having a stay-at-home parent.
http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2013/02/24/reader-story-costs-and-savings-of-having-a-stay-at-home-parent/

It starts out with some good parts about feeling empowered to fix your situation and such. A little later there's some fishy accounting: double-counting childcare costs on days when the kid isn't there.

But I couldn't keep going after the anti-mustachianism hit a crescendo:

Not paying for gas. I’m not referring to the extra gas you will be witness to with a new baby at home [? sounds fishy but hey I'm not a parent so what do I know...]; I’m talking about all the savings in gas money due to the fact that one person isn’t driving to and from work each day. In our case, we are saving more than $100 a month from my husband not driving to/from work. His commute was about 30 minutes each way and then he would also drive to eat lunch each day [!]. This resulted in him needing to fill the tank of his pretty gas-efficient Honda Pilot [WTF?!?!?!?!] two to three times a month at $70 a pop.

As soon as anyone calls a giant SUV (the largest that Honda makes) "pretty gas-efficient" I can't keep reading. That's ridiculous. But I'm sure there's plenty more gems in there for the masochistic.

So this isn't the amount of money you save by having a stay-at-home parent. This is what you save if you stop being stupid with your money in general.

[unplugged]

I have been itching to say this for a while....I hate when financial writers use guest writers and I hate when they sell their sites.

I only follow financial writers that appeal to me. With the guest writers you never know what your going to get. I have slowly started unsubbing from all the blogs with guest writers and the ones that have been sold.

That's one thing I love about MMM. I get really excited when a new blog posts is up!

[John74]

The worst antimustachian behavior I see amongst stay-at-home parents: stay-at-home parents who still hire a nanny several days a week to take care of the kids while they go do fun stuff.

[Matt K]

Hate's a strong owrd for my feelings on it, but I definitely agree with you. Guest posts are really hit and miss on most sites (I've enjoyed the ones here). Heck, I think it was a guest post somewhere by MMM that led me here.

I don't know if GRS and Simple Dollar have gone down hill or if I simply expect more from them.

MMM once said that this site is kind of an 'advanced' personal finance site, and those others are really for people just starting out who can't yet handle the full face punch. Except that more and more, those web sites aren't being written by people who are FI or on the track there to. It often feels like the blind leading the blind. When the people writing these sites are still digging themselves out of the consumer mindset (and in the case of some of the writers on GRS, not even that) it's really hard to find value in reading the blogs. Which is why I've pretty much stopped reading and financial blogs but this one (I just couldn't keep reading GRS or Simple Dollar any more, and I used to read them weekly).

Fixer, thanks for posting that snippet, it saved me the trouble of checking-in and seeing what was up at GRS.

John74: Seriously? I have never heard of that - thankfully. That strikes me as beyond pointless.

[tooqk4u22]

John74: Seriously? I have never heard of that - thankfully. That strikes me as beyond pointless.

It happens, when my cousin was doing well is wife was a SAHM and they had a nanny and a housekeeper that came in 3 days a week.  When the business went south they couldn't deal with it (not because they lost the nanny and maid) but because they had no money - I wasn't surprised. Shortly thereafter they got divorced and financially they are still up the creek over a decade later. 

[HighOrderGuiltComplex]

that woman in the article also refinanced one of her vehicles *shudder*

[chatsc]

The worst antimustachian behavior I see amongst stay-at-home parents: stay-at-home parents who still hire a nanny several days a week to take care of the kids while they go do fun stuff.

I have never witnessed that, but I see a lot of sending one kid to daycare while staying at home with the baby.  To save the daycare spot.  Or because the older sibling would be bored at home with the baby.   Or because the baby needs one on one time with the parent.

A lot of people at my work were shocked when they learned that I was going to stay home with all 3 kids, and not send the olders daycare while I was off the baby.  Automatically, people assumed that a parent would not do that.  Not stay home with all their kids....that they chose to have....that they love....that will be in school soon.....

[John74]

John74: Seriously? I have never heard of that - thankfully. That strikes me as beyond pointless.

I have witnessed 3 such examples. Granted, most of those people can "afford" it (but can one ever really afford to waste money like that?).