After you finish reading this post, I'm fairly certain y'all are going to think my husband and I are flaky.
My husband works swing shift. 12 hour shifts that flip flop from day to night each week. 36 hours one week, and 48 the next. One week is day shift, the next is night shift. It has it's pros and cons.
Since I got my promotion, I'm working full time hours 2-11 (sometimes later). Good because it's more money, but bad because I have way less time to hang with my kid, clean, cook, etc.
Dilemma: My husband is applying at a new company. it would be day shift only (swing shift is killing him). 10 hour days, something like 7-5 or so. Last I heard, he'd have a day off during the week, and work one weekend day (there is a possibility of OT somewhere in there. I work with a guy who works at the new place). So there's a potential 48hrs every week. The pay is nearly the same. He'd make approximately $70 less per month. No biggie. Also, we'd have to find a babysitter/child care for about 16-20 hours per week. This is going to eat into our budget. I figure the cost to be between $300-$600 per month depending if it's a babysitter or in home center.
Pros to the new job: It's only a few minutes away from my job. That means we could move up that way and save on gas. And we'd have very short commutes or could possibly even bike.
Another pro: he would be able to go back to school. He can't right now with his schedule. He could do online courses but he thinks he wants to go back for a skilled trade. Can't do those online...
Cons: We were going to move into the trailer, pay my mom back asap, and live rent/mortgage free. If we move to the trailer, we would both be driving an hour round trip, each. He'd hit 5:00 traffic and I would have a half hour drive late at night, which I'm not too fond of since I'm exhausted after work. And every now and then we have to stay really late....like midnight or later. Rarely, but it does happen and I will HAVE to stay. No questions. Also, my mom was going to watch our son a lot, which is great, except...she's still not really healthy (recovering from leukemia still...lots of side effects from the treatments) but we've had no real choice. Our son doesn't get diaper changes as frequently as he should and when he spends the night over there, he doesn't get a bath.
Another con: we'll have either rent or a mortgage for a while if we move closer to his new job (if he gets it...), which doesn't leave a lot of money left over for Roth's and investments.
I'm pretty torn on what to do. We should know in the next couple weeks if he gets offered the new job. We're staying put for now until we see what happens with his job.
*Edited to make sense.