To get an idea of why we decided it was time to live a truly budgeted lifestyle, I need to back up 2 years – to the beginning of my pregnancy with B. We’d been trying to get pregnant for a year to no avail. We were on our last cycle of trying before getting checked out by doctors. Then R lost his job. Devastating. Luckily, he qualified for unemployment pay and his 401K plan was too small to roll over to an IRA so it cashed out to us, so we weren’t in real trouble yet (or so we thought). We figured we’d set aside what we thought we’d need to pay the remaining taxes owed on the 401K disbursement and use the rest to pay off chunks of debt and hold in reserves if we need it. That was a Friday. Over the weekend, we talked about how I didn’t think I was pregnant this cycle, and it would be a good idea to put having a baby on the back burner until we figured out what was next. The next Friday, I got my BFP (big fat positive). Talk about a BIG surprise!
Excitement, relief, and then fear – mostly of the unknown:
² How long with R be unemployed?
² How will we afford my maternity leave (my company didn’t have a paid maternity leave benefit)?
² How will we afford my pregnancy and birth care (birthed out of hospital with midwives – not easily covered by insurance)?
² How will we afford everything we need for this baby?
² If R is unemployed long-term (thank you economy), will his unemployment still come in?
But my excitement overshadowed all these worries and questions, and R’s reassurance that our finances were fine (he primarily handled the finances until last year) put me at ease. Little did I know we lived in a house of cards, waiting for one to slip…
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