Reevaluating the Necessities

With Baby Girl on the way it has become painfully obvious with just a glance at our finances that me being a stay-at-home mom just isn't an option.  I have worked so hard to convince myself that I will be fine in returning to work - and I think I would have been had it not been for some unfortunate turn of events at work that have left me, well Less than Satisfied with my job.

We've been wanting for me to go back to school for some time now. I've found the Graduate program I'd like to attend and part of the degree plan is online - Score for flexibility! Now I really have the push I need to get my rear back in the classroom... but it all circles back to finances. 

When we look at our budget we see several things:

School - well unfortunately that means more loans but won't really "cost" anything right now.

 Child Care - If I'm not working, or not working as much this cost would obviously decrease, but there is no denying that this is an expense we would have starting in November/December that we didn't have in our current budget.

Daily Bills - No matter how I look at this category, I can't figure out what we're going to cut. We've chosen to live such a "bare minimum" lifestyle as it is to get out of debt. There just isn't much more we can cut out...

... or is there?  We've lived with a little bit of "koosh" in our lives for a little bit too long.
Yes we budget our money to death, but when I'm out and decide I just have to have a soda before I get home spending that extra $3 out of budget doesn't make us or break us financially. I've gotten spoiled.

Source

When I think about going back to that world, a world that isn't far behind us - a world where, an extra time of eating out will totally ruin the budget for the month. A world where I have to make clothes stretch past the time that my friends would, and hand-me-downs are a way of life because there just isn't any wiggle room in the budget for new things. It's hard. It's hard to imagine going back. Especially since we don't really have any friends living a frugal lifestyle on a tight budget (or not as tight as what we're about to be doing...).

Re-evaluating what we consider to be the necessities seems to be the current solution to the problem.  Cutting something that we've become so accustomed to, but isn't a basic need of life. Should we cut Satellite? or Internet? - I can go to the library for Internet, but could I with an infant in tow? For long enough to do school work since I would be in classes again?  TV, surely we don't need that - but I seem to have forgotten what life is like without it.

When is there ever enough money?  Do you ever have enough? My parents always said that if you waited until you "had enough money" to have kids, you never would. I agree. I didn't think there was room for our Little Girl in our budget, until I had to find space for her.

Spending more time with my child (even if I can't swing being an exclusive stay-at-home Mom), getting my Masters degree - those are the things that are important to us right now. Those are the things that matter in the long-run and we sacrifice for what matters, right? Even though we know it will be hard.

If you think about it - please say a quick prayer.  God has been so diligent in providing for us, we know He will again.  We got into this house when it seemed we were out of all other options and avenues of finding a home. We were able to afford more than we ever thought we could when it came to getting a new car before Baby Girl arrives {though these things may seem trivial, they were major stressors at the time!}. For the time being we're doing our best to keep all of our options open and available and wait for God to show us which path to take.