I'm in an interesting situation where my husband and I don't pay any type of bill. Our friend is letting us live with him while my husband gets his credit fixed (hopefully very soon, like within a year) He just started a new job making $10/hr, while I don't work at all. His previous job, at times, he would only make $50/wk. But other times it would be almost $300. Now his job is very predictable and constant, so we're not stressing over the $50 weeks (that's hardly enough to pay for diapers and groceries).

Because I know two people that have had a baby girl, I am currently getting clothes from them. I have bought one packet of onsies and sleepers. That's it. It was about $15, which is nothing really. I am going to have to get more, she's starting to grow out of them, lol. But when people try to help, they always get you newborn/0-3 month things, so you have to buy everything else, which is A LOT if you think about it.

I'm still not sure how my mom made ends meet when I was little. She had three kids, worked two jobs, and we were in day care because my father was in and out of prison for DUIs. But we always managed to eat everyday and have a roof over our head.

I think that is an excellent question, -tanya-.

Either financial assistance or not paying any bills. Those are the only ways I can see how someone can afford to stay at home...

With me, I stayed home from the time I was pregnant until this past November, when my daughter was 17 months old. I took online courses to finish my degree (still am taking them).

My boyfriend works as a web developer. We were living off of his income, which was pretty good at the time, bringing home $1k/week. He has since lost that job and is now bringing home about half of that. He gets a job promotion soon to a software/applications engineer, so hopefully that will bring some more money in.
I started working for the state recently. Before I started working, we didn't have a car because we couldn't afford the things that go along with owning a car... taxes, gas, insurance.. It's been a struggle, but we've had help along the way when things get tight.

my husband has a job that pays enough to allow me to stay home. we have more bills than we should and we get no assistance. we live in a high cost of living area, we have a mortgage, 2 car payments, and a slew of other bills.

it's hard but it's important to us that i stay home with our kids, so we make it work. we don't buy a lot of "fun" stuff though every once in awhile we do splurge on something fun, like a new wii game or a new book for each of us. we rarely go out to eat and i have a pretty strict grocery budget. we really do live paycheck to paycheck, but if we do happen to have a little spending money it usually goes to the kids. it's more fun for me to buy them new clothes and toys than to buy something for myself.

we're also bargain hunters. my kids' closet is packed with clothes that go up to 3T (and my daughter is only 2 months old). we have a closet full of toys that we've bought ridiculously cheap and are saving for upcoming holidays. i've had my son's 2nd birthday present (a huge thomas the train set that had such a great sale price i couldn't pass it up) since before he was born.

as for diapers and formula, i'd say we spend about $80 a month (that's for 2 kids in diapers). we buy generic formula, which is exactly the same as enfamil if you compare the labels. we buy diapers by the case at a wholesale club.

yes, it's hard and some months are really a struggle, but we get by. of course it would be nice to live more comfortably, but the struggle is worth it to us.

I didn't mean that the husband can't make enough money to support the family. My man supported the 3 of us too. I didn't work and we lived on no assistance either.

I forgot to mention that I'm on Medicaid and WIC. We applied for food stamps, but after this month we will go over the amount you're aloud, but the month of them will help a lot.

You still qualify for medicaid? It was my understanding that only children (and pregnant women) qualified for medicaid under the current rules.

my husband is in the navy and we live in military housing (which is SEEMINGLY free (technically we pay $1100 for rent, water, electric, sewwege/garbage, and gas, but it comes directly out of his check so we dont really notice it) also we have health insurance provided by the military (contrary to popular belief ALSO not free but comes directly out of his check, although id rather be back on medicaide im fed up with tricare) he also has life insurance (for all 3 of us) and a retirement plan (provided by the military that gets taken directly out)

HOWEVER he only brings home $800 every first and 15th (yeah im crazy i have no problem talking about money) but we only get $600 because of a car payment. we have a VERY tight/strict budget ($200 goes to food, $50 goes to gas, $100 goes for dh's fun things (his computer games cigaettes and mountain dew), 100 for cable (on the 1st), 70 for phone bill (1st), 150 for creit card bill (15th) and the extra 100ish goes to extra gas stuff for val and/or emergencies

the ONLY assistance we get is wic but i they didnt cover her formula we wouldnt do it and insurance would pay it (its a medically nessisary food....the ONLY food shes getting right now and it costs $50 for ONE can)

oh and im a stay at home mom....out of nessesity, id LOVE to get a job but with vals health conditions it would be near impossible to find a sitter who is trained enough (and/or will accept training) and who is cheap enough

I stayed home with my daughter for almost a year and a half. We survived off my husband's check. We paid all of our bills and rent, bought our child's clothes and diapers and food, and have no debt.

Having said that, we were pinching pennies. We were barely scraping by, and I had to go back to work in November so we could afford to buy Christmas presents. I now work around my husband's schedule so one of us is always home with our child. We can't afford daycare, and I don't trust babysitters (nor can I afford them). We're very blessed to have his parents offer to watch her for a few hours so we can spend some alone time together, but that's not very often because they have a lot on their plate as well.

With both of us working, we're buying a house in the next month or two. We're expecting a second child in December. We don't have to struggle quite as hard as we were to make ends meet. And the biggest bonus: I get to leave the house and interact with adults for a change!

It'll be interesting to see what happens when we have our second child. If our house note is equal to or less than what we're paying in rent, I might stay home with our children again for a while before returning to work. We'll see how things pan out when we get all of our finances in order in the new house.

I currently go to school full time and work a part-time job. However I will be quiting work in October (im due in November) and I wont be returning back to a job untill our child is at leat 1 1/2.

Fortunatly, for us my fiance has a very good job and he works very hard. He is actually working 2 jobs right now to put away money for when the baby arrives (we should have about 4000 saved by then). We do live at my parents house but its pretty much like we are on our own. We pay rent to them almost $600 a month, and my parents dont help us out with anything!!! We also have other bills like cell phones, car payments, and insurance. He has a bran new 2008 Dodge Caliber and I drive a 1999 Honda Accord...which will be paid off in January.

We will not be recieving any assistance unless we can get housing assistance to move out of my parents upstairs. Its not that we dont like it here its just my niece and nephew are over ALL the time (2yr and 1yrs old) and they are always sick and I dont want them around my baby all the time. Also because we just really miss living on our own. Plus we are very anal about how we live, like we dont like dirty dishes sitting in the sink (which my parents will do, even though we have a dishwasher)....there are just a lot of stuff that drives us crazy about my parents, not to mention they are always fighting.

Im sure some months will be hard but we will make it through the tough times. Oh, I am also staying home with the baby becuase I will continue going to college, and daycare would cost us more then I would make working part-time.

Thank you all for the responses.

In my situation we bring home weekly between the two of us $1300 a week. Which sounds decent enough but when you factor in our rent ($1300), internet/cable/phone ($150), car payments ($450), insurance ($225), food (varies), and GAS which is crazy expensive costs us $80 a week just to and from work, and whatever else we may need to do or purchase I still feel like we're running out of money way too close to when the next paycheck comes in.

I'm quite proud of myself for having saved just in the last month and half $2000, and am **hoping** that by the end of my pregnancy I will have saved at LEAST 12 thousand to make up for when i'm going to be off work. I'm also very fortunate that we are going to be living within walking distance of my mother and she doesn't work so she already said she will be more then happy to watch the baby for us when I do go back to work.

Once again thanks for the responses and the honesty. I'm a big worrier and am good at saving money, I just despise being completely broke especially if i'm going to have a child who i'd like to give all the opportunities in the world to.

I know the current one runs out at the end of this month, I'm not sure if I still qualify, but I know I have to reapply if I still want it.

I think your daughter will get it, but I don't think you will qualify.

My fiance earns about £900 a month (approx. $1800) so he's not on a high wage, but we also receive working tax credits & family tax credits (money we get from the government for earning less than a certain amount per year) which is about £280/$560 a month. We pay a lot of bills.. water, electricity, gas, phone, internet, council tax, car insurance, home insurance, tv license.. (that's all I can think of right now but there's probably more) as well as £450/$900 a month for rent. Oh & petrol prices are stupidly high right now so it costs at least £50/$100 a week to run my car.

We don't even have a very big house, it's just a 2 bedroom terraced house & it's not in the nicest area. Houses are ridiculously expensive over here.. this one was on the market for £105,000 before we moved in. We won't be able to afford to buy a house for years at this rate, but renting isn't too bad.

Anyway, we manage to provide everything Jenny needs as well as some "luxuries" for ourselves. Jonny gets paid weekly, which does help.. we constantly have money going into our account (as well as coming out!). It's become easier since Jenny's eaten "proper" food.. no need to buy special baby food or anything. I received vouchers for formula milk when Jenny drank that, so that wasn't a problem. We buy nappies in bulk so it's cheaper that way. We're lucky in that we don't have to pay for medical insurance over here.. & we all qualify for free prescriptions because of the benefits we receive (& the fact that Jenny's under 16).

Sorry this is so long.. I didn't mean to go on like that.