Our kids are teenagers now, so I am getting ready to go back to work part-time (very part-time) and gradually work more hours as they all go through high school. But for 18 years I have been home full time.
We started planning for me to be home full-time while we were engaged. I was working as an engineer, and when we got married we saved my salary and spent his. We also bought a very cheap house (for the time) and slowly added on to it, rather than moving into a bigger house.
We did this because a wise older woman at our church had told me before my marriage to *live on one income* even if we had two. So for some years we lived on that one income, and between that and buying a cheaper house, it was worth it.
We always made it a point to pay cash for cars. If we couldn't afford to pay cash for a new one, we bought a used one.
We haven't saved very much money for our kids' college - but to be fair, we haven't been prepared for the *huge* increases in tuition, either. In the past six or so years our instate college tuitions have *doubled.* They are still going up at 8% or so per year. I have no idea where it's going to end.
I wish we had had the sense to live on one income back when we were childless and both working. Unfortunately, we lived beyond both of our incomes. Its taken a lot of scrimping, saving, and refinancing to get us back on track.
Earlier in the thread someone--muir redwoods, I think--posted a link for a federal financial aid website. Definitely worth looking into!
I'll be back in a few hours, everyone!