Since I have not really worked outside the home beyond *extremely* part time in the past three years, I have decided to see how much money I really am going to earn. You see all those reports that outline the second income and how little money it is by the time you subtract extra clothes, car miles, daycare, etc. I've looked at those figures, and I am pretty sure I can do it cheaper, but I know it will cost me some to work. I don't really have much of a work wardrobe, an I've *blushes* lost some weight since I bought a few clothes to sub in, so I'm going to need to upgrade that a bit. Beyond that I think my biggest expense will be transportation. I do not have children, so daycare is not an issue.
Here are my current categories:
Work Clothes
Transportation
Eating Out*
I know that there will be more, but that's what I have off the top of my head. The eating out category is any extra meals we eat out because we're too tired to cook. I will not include meals we likely would have eaten out anyway- we tend to eat out about 3x a month, so that's a "normal" expense.
I plan to take the bus most days. It's not terribly expensive, and I'm not sure my car would make it across down daily for six month!
Can anybody tell me where you find those lovely bar graphs that so many bloggers have in their sidebars? I've looked but never found them.
So far I've spend 5.50 on my new job. I bought a new dress shirt for three dollars at a thrift store, and I spend 2.50 on bus fare to attend the orientation. Since I've not earned anything yet, that's a loss of -5.50!
6 comments:
This post makes me smile. I am a stay at home mom of three and we have often thrown around figures of me working. We always come to the same decision...it would cost more for me to work than to stay home. It is awesome you see that in order to earn, you have to spend a little bit. It sounds like you are on the right track though!
Jenn
www.fullofboys.wordpress.com
I'll be watching to see how the figures turn out for you. As you already know, I'm a SAHW like you (no kids). I tutored for the TAKS test in the spring. I worked at a middle school all day, three days a week for two months. We definitely spent more because I needed a few new clothing items and we ate out a lot more. Teaching has always worn me out, and tutoring was no exception. I think there's something about the fluorescent lighting in school buildings...
I hope you'll enjoy your new job. The extra money, of course, sings to you, but I understand about how much this will change your life since you're used to being at home or just subbing occasionally.
What a fun series! I look forward to following it. I agree that work expenses can be done much cheaper than most of the figures that you read.
Thanks for sharing the figures. I have often thought about going back to work, but with 2 kids in day care, it would be too expensive. I love your blog, and I'll be checking back often.
Most people figure how much money they *make* with an outside job, not how much it costs them. And the work-related expenses certainly adds up! There's a great book on it called Women Leaving the Workplace by Larry Burkett. It helped me come to the decision to stay home. (After so many kids, it's pointless to work if you have to pay for childcare anyway)
I love this. Whenever we are in a tight squeeze I think about going back to work. With four kids I'd have to be making some big bucks to make it worthwhile! It will be interesting to see how it plays out for you!
Post a Comment