Lady Q Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 In my personal experience (including myself), many families who chose to homeschool already had one stay-at-home parent. It's easier to continue existing on one income than it is to lose a second when you're used to it, I think. I agree. When my husband and I were married, we knew that I would be staying home with the children and probably homeschooling. If the kids did end up in school, I'd be working part time at the most and writing novels. It's not easy to get rich off of writing fiction *grin*, so our lifestyle has always been based on one income. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caitlinsmom Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 We are at the lower end of your list. We have definatly had to sacrifce for our kiddos education and get really creative. However because of the importance of their education we would sacrifice even more if we had too. Both my dh and and I attend school FT. Once we finish with school I will work of a very PT or volunteer basis at our local library and he will be a teacher. We will always have to sacrifice for the choice but as I said its important to us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigMamaBird Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 We're a single income family in the high end of your second choice. We're comfortable enough but have certainly made . . . well, not sacrifices, but careful choices. In our area the cost of living is quite high. So while I'd say that my dh makes a very good wage, we're lower middle class for the town we live in. We've also decided that to reasonable extents, we are willing to pay more for high quality hs materials. Educational expenses are a high priority for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
japhmi Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 $50k-$100k is a huge range, if you ask me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jill- OK Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 I don't think this will be a good representation of homeschoolers in general, but classical homeschoolers or maybe just those that visit here. I think this board is more diverse than the average homeschooler, although I could be wrong. People are more apt to speak there minds on a mb than in real life I suppose. ...is it even a real representation of the folks here? I mean, there are thousands of members...and generally speaking, a couple hundred people answer these polls. You can hope and assume that there's a good cross-section posting/answering, but the reality is, you can't truly tell unless you poll everyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebecca VA Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 Well, not only that, but debt is a huge factor. As Billie Boy said, some families are paying huge, huge amounts of mortgage money every month. If you have a $9,000 mortgage payment every month (as my next-door neighbors do), you don't have nearly as much spendable income as a family that has no debt. And savings are a big factor. Do families have a comfortable cushion of savings, or are they living on the edge? Is there money coming in from other sources -- investments, trust funds, etc.? The pollsters on this board would have to do a lot of sophisticated polling to really get to where people are financially. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WarriorMama Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 I agree. When my husband and I were married, we knew that I would be staying home with the children and probably homeschooling. If the kids did end up in school, I'd be working part time at the most and writing novels. It's not easy to get rich off of writing fiction *grin*, so our lifestyle has always been based on one income. Indeed it's not! This is pretty much the story of my life as well. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renee in NC Posted August 14, 2009 Share Posted August 14, 2009 We're currently in the bottom 5%, but we don't plan to be here long. A few weeks ago we had decided to put the dc in school so I could get a job. Unfortunately, daycare for the youngest 5 was going to be $513 a week! We did the math and quickly realized that was not worth the sacrifice of sending them to ps so that I could go to work to pay taxes, daycare, and not much else. Right now I am spending 30-35 hours per week working on the mobile home we will be living in soon. After I finish, we move in, and I get our homeschool back on track, I will be working 10-15 hours per week for my mother as well as anything else I can do to make money. If my dh can get a raise and I can make enough, we hope to get back into the $28K range. At least he did get to work 50 hours last week and this week - that helps some! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mama2cntrykids Posted August 14, 2009 Share Posted August 14, 2009 I wonder if this poll is sensitive enough. To me, there is a HUGE difference between $50K and $100K. You're right. To me, there is also a huge difference between 20,000-50,000. With that said, my dh is in between job changes and I just gave my notice at my work. We're in between that 20-50 K with dh's new job coming up. I am more than willing to sacrifice to be able to stay home and HS my kids. I've been sacrificing their whole lives to be able to just stay home with them. There was a time when I **HAD** to work, but that was because their "father" left us. Not sure where I'm going with this, lol. I'm going to go back and read the rest of the responses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mama2cntrykids Posted August 14, 2009 Share Posted August 14, 2009 In my personal experience (including myself), many families who chose to homeschool already had one stay-at-home parent. It's easier to continue existing on one income than it is to lose a second when you're used to it, I think. :iagree: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs. Frankweiler Posted August 14, 2009 Share Posted August 14, 2009 I haven't read though all the posts, but as others have mentioned (in some of the first posts!) PS does have it's financial obligations as well. I feel I probably spend as much on curriculum as I would on new clothes, backpacks, school lunches, field trips, the never-ending fund-raisers, gas money, etc.... In our situation, we'd always planned on sending the kids to Catholic school and we'd just deal with paying the tuition. We did three years of that, the last of which we paid $5000/year per kid (for 2 kids.) And ds didn't get the "Catholic" education I had hoped for (although he did learn lots of things that weren't very Catholic at all!) Anyway, this year we'd have 3 kids in school, and in this town (we've moved) that would be a $12000/year total tuition bill. So, I look at it like I'm MAKING money keeping the kids at home. It's just another one of the fringe benefits of homeschooling! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sgilli3 Posted August 14, 2009 Share Posted August 14, 2009 This is what I was thinking. I was already a SAHM before homeschooling, so we did not really give up anything but rather did not add any additional income when the kids got into school (which is something that many people I know did who send there kids to ps). Us too. I have always been at home, long before we began home schooling, so feel like we have never had to give up the extra wage etc. Sure, there have been sacrifices over the years, but we have also had some very fruitful years. I haven't added to our income for almost 12 years, and have no plans to do so in the future. When we return to Australia next year, our wage will drop ( as we will be paying taxes etc), but we are hoping to still live comfortably. The money made here, to some, may sound very, very high, but rent etc has also been very high in the past ( this year prices have dropped considerably). This time last year, rent for a 3/4 bed home in Dubai was still costing around $80 - 100,000 US dollars a year ( paid up front!!). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liz CA Posted August 14, 2009 Share Posted August 14, 2009 We were 2 incomes before I started hsing. Same here. But I was working only part-time and we gladly made the sacrifice. I would do it again. As far as homeschooling being more expensive. Well, sure some years are costlier than others but we have a wide choice of curricula and we can buy used as well. PS (in our area anyway) had constant fundraisers for this and that and kids were supposed to sell subsciptions and what not. By the time we donated or participated in all the fundraising endeavors, it cost us a chunk in money and time as well. ...and of course we did not get the individualized instruction and various other benefits of homeschooling for our investment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justamouse Posted August 14, 2009 Share Posted August 14, 2009 When my husband and I were married, we knew that I would be staying home with the children and probably homeschooling. If the kids did end up in school, I'd be working part time at the most and writing novels. It's not easy to get rich off of writing fiction *grin*, so our lifestyle has always been based on one income. Yep. Nuther fiction writer here, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Georgiana Daniels Posted August 14, 2009 Share Posted August 14, 2009 Hey, me too! Let me tell you, my paychecks are few and far between...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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