Making the shift
Yesterday I picked up a copy of Larry Burkett's Women Leaving the Workplace from our church library. I think it's just what I needed: a how-to book on going to one income written from a Christian perspective. It does a good job of balancing the ideas of God's provision and our stewardship. The reason many women don't make it staying home is because of poor planning.

I was encouraged to discover that we've already done all of the right things to make a one-income lifestyle possible. If anyone else is thinking about doing this, here's some of the planning steps Burkett mentions: get out of debt, practice living on one income, cut luxuries, reduce monthly expenses, build a savings cushion, make and stick to a budget.

Our only debt is our mortgage, which we're in the process of refinancing (though we did put 20% down when we bought). We own one car. We don't have cable. We've tried to live one income for basic expenses since we got married, using the second income to get out of debt and build up savings.

The next big challenge is budgeting. I kept a budget when I was single and found it time consuming and tedious. I think I need a simpler system that what I was using. It was good to keep track of what I was spending, but tracking more than a dozen categories made it too complicated. I think this Burkett book has a sample budget system in it, so I'll have to take a look.

Amy Dacyczyn who wrote the Tightwad Gazette books said their family doesn't budget that closely, they simply spend as little as possible on everything to save for larger goals, like paying off the mortgage early and saving for their kids' education (she has 6 kids). I think I agree with her premise that if the system is too complex, you'll give up.