My badass wife

[kingma15]

Hi everyone

My wife and I are relatively new to the world of fire. In fact, I only discovered this site a couple of months ago.

This year we have been forced into a very tight, but liberating lifestyle. My wife is taking the year off to look after our newborn. So we are living off my wage, while paying for daycare for our three year old and a mortgage amongst other bills and expenses.

It has been liberating because, with the help of this blog and forums, we have come to the realisation that we can change our previously consumer driven lifestyle and live off my wage. Once she goes back to work, we will have most of her wage to pay off our unit hopefully very early.

Anyway, I thought I would share an example of our new found financial badassity. We take re-useable bags to shop at Aldi each week. Some of them were falling apart. So my wife got out her sewing kit and repaired them.

Sure in the scheme of things, this didn't save us much money, but it represents a huge change in our mindset and I thought I would share.

[stevesteve]

It's definitely a good way to go especially if you catch things early.  The patches on my jeans have made them last at least twice as long.

[mbl]

Why is your little one in daycare if your wife is home with the infant?

[johnintaiwan]

I know the feeling. I found a hole in my pocket this week and managed to sew it up myself. My wife couldn't believe it.

[arebelspy]

Awesome!

Having a supportive spouse is like throwing lighter fluid onto your FIRE.

My wife is totally badass, and much more Mustachian than I am, and I'm grateful for her every day.

[greenmimama]

Why is your little one in daycare if your wife is home with the infant?

+1

[Gin1984]

Why is your little one in daycare if your wife is home with the infant?

+1

Two questions for you two, having you ever seen the wait list to get back in daycares?  I signed my daughter up 9 months prior to an opening.  And two, have you had an infant?  Right in the beginning if I could afford it, I would focus on one child and send the other to daycare because just one alone for 8 weeks put me to my limit.

[greenmimama]

Why is your little one in daycare if your wife is home with the infant?

+1

Two questions for you two, having you ever seen the wait list to get back in daycares?  I signed my daughter up 9 months prior to an opening.  And two, have you had an infant?  Right in the beginning if I could afford it, I would focus on one child and send the other to daycare because just one alone for 8 weeks put me to my limit.

Yes, I have 3 children, I wasn't being mean, it's a valid question. The OP didn't really explain anything, my firs thought was, maybe it is a really hard daycare to get back into? But we haven't had to use daycares so I'm not really familiar with that aspect.

[Gin1984]

Why is your little one in daycare if your wife is home with the infant?

+1

Two questions for you two, having you ever seen the wait list to get back in daycares?  I signed my daughter up 9 months prior to an opening.  And two, have you had an infant?  Right in the beginning if I could afford it, I would focus on one child and send the other to daycare because just one alone for 8 weeks put me to my limit.

Yes, I have 3 children, I wasn't being mean, it's a valid question. The OP didn't really explain anything, my firs thought was, maybe it is a really hard daycare to get back into? But we haven't had to use daycares so I'm not really familiar with that aspect.

I did not think you were being mean (or at least not meaner than normal for here), I just wondered if you two were aware of the reasons.  For me the reasons were pretty obvious because of my experience, I assumed you two had not had the same experience.

[thd7t]

Why is your little one in daycare if your wife is home with the infant?

+1

Two questions for you two, having you ever seen the wait list to get back in daycares?  I signed my daughter up 9 months prior to an opening.  And two, have you had an infant?  Right in the beginning if I could afford it, I would focus on one child and send the other to daycare because just one alone for 8 weeks put me to my limit.

Yes, I have 3 children, I wasn't being mean, it's a valid question. The OP didn't really explain anything, my firs thought was, maybe it is a really hard daycare to get back into? But we haven't had to use daycares so I'm not really familiar with that aspect.

I did not think you were being mean (or at least not meaner than normal for here), I just wondered if you two were aware of the reasons.  For me the reasons were pretty obvious because of my experience, I assumed you two had not had the same experience.

Just a thought (because there isn't much detail), maybe it's part time daycare, so the three year old can spend time with other children easily.  I suspect it's different for every family, but when we had a newborn, we probably wouldn't have been as good at giving a toddler the mix of experiences that we'd want to.  I'm sure that some parents can do this, but we couldn't.  Daycare is great for us.

[kingma15]

Why is your little one in daycare if your wife is home with the infant?

There are massive waiting lists for daycare in our area. We have the babies name down now ready for next year already.

We are very happy with the daycare centre he is at. If we took him out there is no guarantee he would get back into that one next year when mum returns to work.

Plus, being stuck at home with boring old mum and a little sister is nowhere near as fun as going to daycare and painting, jumping on the trampoline, playing with his friends etc...

It might not be as badass as possible, but we have a few reasons for sending him.

And I didn't find your question rude at  all. Hopefully my response is satisfactory enough to avoid a face punch :)

[Gin1984]

Why is your little one in daycare if your wife is home with the infant?

There are massive waiting lists for daycare in our area. We have the babies name down now ready for next year already.

We are very happy with the daycare centre he is at. If we took him out there is no guarantee he would get back into that one next year when mum returns to work.

Plus, being stuck at home with boring old mum and a little sister is nowhere near as fun as going to daycare and painting, jumping on the trampoline, playing with his friends etc...

It might not be as badass as possible, but we have a few reasons for sending him.

And I didn't find your question rude at  all. Hopefully my response is satisfactory enough to avoid a face punch :)

Isn't that crazy?  And the prices of daycare. lol.  Once I am not paying for my little one, my expenses will be so much lower, my investments will go so much farther. 

[Longwaytogo]

That is awesome for your wife to spend a year with the kid!!. We did the opposite because my wife has a government job (pension, our healthcare, etc.)

But I did pull my 3 year old out of daycare and actually take over watching my niece/nephew also (for a smaller price that what my sister was paying so mutually beneficial). We have made up for the painting, learning, playing with friends etc. at a part time 3-day pre-school at a local church. MUCH cheaper then daycare at least in our area/situation. So that's another option if you get sick of the daycare payments.

On the reusable bag front our County passed an anti littering law on Jan 1 2012 making a 5 cent tax per disposable bag. Most store (especially the grocery store) give a 5 cent bonus credit for bringing a reusable bag so you essentially save 10 cents per bag so having 4-5 bags with you is basically a 50 cent coupon. And of course better for the environment/littering. They are also strong enough to hang from my bike handle on the ride home!

[acroy]

Badass kingma15
Discovered fire, excellent!
Discover the incredible awesomeness of SAHM with the kids.... maybe coming soon ;)

[kkbmustang]

We put our name in for daycare when I was five months pregnant with my son. A spot opened up a month before we could send him (preemie and RSV season), so we paid for the month we didn't use to preserve his spot. By the time my daughter started going (preference to siblings so we were good - we told them we were pregnant before anyone else aside from the grandparents) the waiting list was over a year. A YEAR!

[Cassie]

Wow, I did not realize what long waits lists there can be for daycare. My kids are in their 30's. I was a SAHM until the youngest went to school and I understand sending a 3yo to a preschool twice a week for a few hours for socialization but it is not that hard to handle 2 kids. Heck, I used to babysit for my friends -we would trade off and sometimes I had 8 others plus a newborn.  You just learn to do it like any job.

[Gin1984]

Wow, I did not realize what long waits lists there can be for daycare. My kids are in their 30's. I was a SAHM until the youngest went to school and I understand sending a 3yo to a preschool twice a week for a few hours for socialization but it is not that hard to handle 2 kids. Heck, I used to babysit for my friends -we would trade off and sometimes I had 8 others plus a newborn.  You just learn to do it like any job.

My hat off to you.  I don't think I could do it.  Granted my daughter would not nurse so I was pumping and feeding but I did not even get enough food when my daughter and I were home alone, much less taking care of another kid.