My story:
I am a married mother of two preschool children living in Portland, OR. I work full-time ($72k/yr), as does my husband ($80k/yr). Our children are in daycare full-time to the tune of $1985 a month (would be $1885 if my son would just learn to use the potty!).
We also own two–count ’em, two–houses. One, we live in ($2100 mortgage); one, we rent out ($1200 mortgage mostly offset by $960 rent). We got into this situation by needing (wanting?) a larger house; we now rent our first, smaller house and live in the larger house.
We own two cars, which are both paid off. We both bike to work 1-2x a week, when we aren’t doing daycare transport. We go out to dinner only twice a month and generally live frugally. However, we seem to barely be getting by sometimes.
My question is this: How do we get out of this hamster wheel?? I feel as though we are working our butts off to pay for daycare and two houses, not spending enough time with our amazing children, and are often unhappy in our marriage because stress gets the better of us. (In related news, we spend $175 every two weeks on couples counseling.)
My dream is to become a freelance writer/blogger/editor. I have a journalism degree, and made a partial living freelancing as an instructional writer and editor for 6 months before giving it up for a stable job with benefits (I returned to full-time work in March). I made anywhere from $60 to $80 an hour (pre-tax) as a freelancer.
I long to spend more time with the kids and have more flexibility to get stuff done during the daytime hours. My heart breaks a little each time I leave the kids at daycare, and it’s killing me that we got ourselves into this situation. Our precious time with them can be so hectic that we are unable to appreciate it.
My question: Is there some way out of this rat race that will not cost us our home or security? Is it worth it to jump ship and live incredibly frugally in order to have less stress and more family time? I feel as though I am living in complete opposition to my values–help!
switch2richnow 