Make sure you check with your day-care provider because in Illinois you pay no matter how many days you have them. The provider is paid a standard amount, they get even if your child is sick or someone else watches them for you.

Don’t know what it is in your state, but you might want to check.

Enjoy being a SAHD.

It is not that we are criticizing Trent, it is that we want know what is actually truth. In many posts he states one set of actions is normal for him and outlines what he does to save money, then in this post most of those things are, on average, thrown out the window when it comes to the daily grind and pressure of life. My question was does he actually do the things he says he does, or are they just “good” content for an article.
It’s one thing to offer suggestions about how to save money. However its quite another to pass off those tips as something you live out in your life on a daily basis. As someone earlier pointed out, technically eating out 3 out of 5 days of the weekdays on average is not abnormal, but the normal.

I hvae just gotten a better paying job and while I am strict about saving and debt elimination, I find it a relief to know I can buy Subway for lunch for $7 and ten minutes, instead of going to the shops to buy ingredients for sandwiches at ~$3 each and forty minutes.

That’s the mistake many young SAHM’s make. They consider THIS YEAR’S fulltime daycare costs and THIS YEAR’S salary. But in a few years your kid will be in school and daycare expenses will drop. Meanwhile you’ll have missed out on several years of raises, and you probably won’t be able to get back in the workforce even at your previous salary, if you’re lucky enough to get back in at all.

Just curious… Do you plan on mentioning the “working lunch” costs to your employer during your exit interview? When attorneys left my old law firm, we always appreciated it when they shared things like this. It may be that your employer isn’t aware of how expensive the “working lunches” can be for employees.

Saving money has two variables:

1. How much did you make by doing X Effort
2. How much did you spend to do the Effort

Then comes savings. So, if you are going to make the SAME amount of money as you made at your employment place, and now you are working from home, then put all your expenses down in Column 1 and 2 of a spreadsheet. Column 1 is titles and Column 2 is Savings.

Revist this every 3 months.

Now, if you NOT going to make enough money (and you are the man of the house), then “Savings” is a false statement. Your net savings will start going down, and even if you save, it is still a ‘negative year to year growth’.

I know enough about this, and know it well, since I have done something SIMILAR:

1. I kept the same employer.
2. Kept the same income.
3. Started working VO (Virtual Office at Home)
4. Jotted down everything like you have done here
5. Noted the savings every 3-4 months
6. Annualized the numbers each time
7. Number were staggering in the $7K to $9K range at any given point in time over the last 3 to 12 years.
8. I included all the +s and -s (like others have suggested above).
9. Net-net……I came out ahead on what MATTERS MOST > Lower Stress, Y-o-Y Growth in Savings, True Savings as opposed to Working in the Office, More Productive at home vs office
10. Of course, this is a privilege and I leverage it to the max, and understand that it is not an option for everyone to leverage.

SO, JUST WANTED TO SHARE MY STORY…..

Kenny

I think the “negativity” is based on what people perceived of Trent, and reality. That could mean two things – readers are suffering the normal phenomenon of not being able to get a true picture of a person they only know through the internet, or that Trent’s writing has highlighted the best of his financial decisions, but there are still others that haven’t been a part.

Personally, I do not put as much weight to the “work-driven” expenses as Trent lends. You can’t play $30/week incidentals to a “work-driven” expense just because a coworker needs to stop somewhere on the way back from lunch. Ultimately, the $30/week is still a personal decision. Also, personally, I don’t get 3 times a week for work lunches that aren’t reimbursable. That means your company is taking your time for free, or as is more likely the case, you are volunteering it for free. This is not necessarily bad from a work standpoint, I’m sure it makes you look good, but from a financial standpoint it has a negative effect. If it were me, and it was really leaning to 3 times a week, I would approach my boss about the expense and ask about policy. If they refused reimbursement, then I believe I would have to cut back on the “working” lunches. There has to be SOME weight to the social gain, but it’s not $100+ a month (for me). Again – maybe Trent’s “social” gain was far greater than the “financial” loss – maybe he never calculated it – but either way, the numbers side of it is a negative, period.

All told, I think there is enough information to know that Trent would not be jumping off the edge of a cliff with a blindfold on with this decision, he’s obviously in tune enough with himself, his family, and his financial situation, to have made an informed decision. We have been privy to some of that process, this is not a “new” announcement. I just think some of the realities that have never been previously disclosed differed with what people had conjured up in their minds.

Of course he’s losing income by quitting. He has clearly stated that he is quitting to focus his life on other priorities and that financial discipline has enabled him to get to this point. A simple post about the money he will save by not working his traditional job is well in line. It goes without saying (although it’s been covered in other posts)he is leaving his salary behind. Good luck in your new ventures Trent!

I think it’s great that you’re going to pursue your dreams, but from the tone of your article and posts it sounds to me like you’re trying to justify your decision and make it sound financially savvy. It really isn’t accurate to say you’ll save $8,000 by quitting your job. You may indeed eliminate $8,000 in expenses, but you’ve also eliminated $50,000 in income (or $38,000 if we go by your post no. 49). That’s a net loss, not a net savings.

Like I said, I think it’s great that you’re in a position where you can leave your job to pursue your dreams. I also think it’s great that you’re willing to share your financial calculation with us all. But I think there would have been a lot fewer critical posts if the gist of your article had been “quitting my job won’t be as big a financial hit as I thought because …” instead of “look how much money I’m going to save by quitting my job.”