Marriage Expectation: Finances

Since I've been married, and even before, I would have always thought that I would be working. Even if it was just at Tim Horton's, I would still be working. As you know, if you have read any of my previous entries, my husband is a little bit old-fashioned.

I couldn't imagine myself not contributing to our income, I would feel very bad and limited. For some reason, more recently we have been talking about our distant future. He imagines me staying home and taking care of our children. I do not. I imagine myself going back to work after having kids. I understand that daycare can and probably will be very expensive, but I think we could profit if I do end up working. As much as I would want to ask my in-laws to watch the child, I wouldn't want to put any pressure on them. I do understand that other woman can't, which makes me extremely jealous. Your husbands must earn a lot of money or something. I do know for sure that I am making the most money I could be per hour in my field.

I wouldn't go as far to say that I want my future children to be spoiled. But I do want to them to have all their needs met. I think he would agree. Even now, I know that out house could use some updates and renovations. We do want to start farming and buy livestock. We also want to build a nice heated shop. Why am I saying we? My husband would love to get all that done. I would love to put a fresh coat of paint in a couple rooms and prepare for a bigger family.

I just can't see it being viable at this point in our marriage. I think we live comfortably, even since our hours have been cut a bit at both our workplaces. I know you think I have bad spending habits, and not all the food I buy at the grocery store is on sale. I know you hate it, I just wasn't raised that way and you were. We have very different opinions. If I know we will need a certain item, I will buy it, whereas you would rather stock up on something if it's on sale that we may never use. We both are wrong and we both are right.

I know we could change our spending habits. Just because it's snowing out doesn't mean we need to buy a snowmobile. I know you buy a different tool every week or every two weeks, at least. You do need them for work, but you hardly ever look at what's left in our account. I am definitely not saying I am frugal. These past two years we have been able to spend money on whatever. Now we have to start to look at being more thoughtful when spending.

I know things do not always go as planned, but I would be so grateful to save up at least 10,000 dollars before we even think about having any kids. I can honestly say we are about halfway there, and if we do not spend that money on anything else, I would love to start our family.

I have never had this issue before I was married. Of course, I hardly had any bills or rent to worry about. I always thought that combining our two incomes would make me a millionaire. Well, not a millionaire, but that we would be able to live more comfortably. I think we can eventually get to a place that we are financially comfortable if we re-prioritize what we would like to do around the house and stop spending so much money on things we do not need. For now, we are just stuck and times are sure tight.