WOHMs - could you afford to take 3 mo...

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-22-2005
WOHMs - could you afford to take 3 mo...
1595
Mon, 11-05-2007 - 11:13am

WOHMs - could you afford to take 3 months of totally unpaid leave?



  • Yes, we have enough saved up for that
  • Yes, we could save up enough for that
  • Yes, DH makes enough to get us by
  • No
  • other


You will be able to change your vote.






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iVillage Member
Registered: 09-04-1997
Tue, 11-13-2007 - 11:32am
My sister has a latchkey kid (12) who has to stay home until she gets home from work. She keeps busy without Cable TV. Homework, mostly. Or yakking on the phone to her girlfriends. Still doesn't need TV. Tweens who are too old for camp but too young for jobs? That's been my world the last few years. Found ways to keep them busy. Volunteer work, sleepover camps, all kinds of stuff. Still not convinced.
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-27-2005
Tue, 11-13-2007 - 11:34am

This is what is under the plan when I put in my zip code, not East Hampton. I do not live in the Hamptons. It is a different township.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 09-04-1997
Tue, 11-13-2007 - 11:35am
Again, you have a very strange definition of "need." Just because somebody uses something, even on a daily basis, that person does not "need" that something. Often, that person could easily do without that something.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2000
Tue, 11-13-2007 - 11:35am

<<

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2000
Tue, 11-13-2007 - 11:38am
I wasn't insinuating that kids who have these things don't ever play outside.
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-27-2005
Tue, 11-13-2007 - 11:39am

More ways to cut costs and save that do not involve cable:

1) Get an energy audit to see if your windows are leaking so much it would be better to get new ones.

We have brand new windows. The new siding, windows, roofing, oil burner and appliances has lowered our electric and heating bill.

2) Make sure you change the filters in your furnace. Get furnace/AC "cleaned" every year.
Get oil burner checked and cleaned once a year.

3) By non brand name products to eat/ household products.
Use non brand name and store brands every week.

4) Buy compact flourescent bulbs for your lights.
Have done that in every room.

5) Eat three meatless dinners per week. We regularly have pancakes/crepes for one night, and egg based dinner one night and a pasta dinner another night, in winter I make a bean soup.
Do not have meat every single night.

6) Pack lunches with left overs from dinner, make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches once or twice a week.
My dh has lunch at work, pack lunch for daughter, son eats at school, I eat salads at home everyday or leftovers.

7) By a roaster chicken (7-8 lbs). It lasts for several meals in our house. Two nights with stuffing, cranberry sauce. Then we have chicken sandwiches for lunch twice. Then I make a killer chicken soup fromt he carcass and leftover bits on the bones.
Have tried that. Everyone very picky in my house, we don't eat brown meat. My dh also eats for 3 so we don't have much leftovers-lol!!

8) Set a limit for the holidays. We set a $100 per child limit for our December holiday celebrations. If relatives ask about Holiday and birthday presents, give them the sizes of your children. We used to have a drawing with the adults in DH's family- so everyone had one adult to buy for- now we by them a goat from Heifer (we get the tax deduction and no one really wants or needs anything anyway).
We only spend our bonuses for Christmas, nothing more.

9) Find inexpensive places to vacation. We have used the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club's cabins - they are dirt cheap nad have some of the most amazing scenery. Plus, I get to play Laura Ingalls Wilder.
We haven't been on vacation in 5 years. Then, we stayed at families homes to save money. This year is the 1st year for son to ever go away and we are fortunate enough that we are not paying for the vacation.

10) Put money into savings first- before you set your spending budget. This is sometimes referred to as paying yourself first. Whenever you get a raise- put that into savings- so you don't increase your spending. People (me included) tend to increase their spending as time goes by. If you can't put at least half of the increase into savings.
We do as 401K and IRA gets put away first. Unfortunately raises usually go for an increased bill of some sort.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-27-2005
Tue, 11-13-2007 - 11:40am
You do not tip your dog groomer?
iVillage Member
Registered: 10-30-2007
Tue, 11-13-2007 - 11:41am
So how do all those children in third world countrys function without tv their whole lives?
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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2000
Tue, 11-13-2007 - 11:42am

She loves to play devil's advocate.

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-04-1997
Tue, 11-13-2007 - 11:43am
Yes, I do tip my dog groomer. But you said the reason that you don't tip your doctors and lawyers and other service personnel was because those people don't make minimum wage or less. If that were the criterion -- how much the person was paid -- my dog groomer wouldn't fit either. She makes about triple minimum wage.

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