We have a nanny that watches our 3-years-old son and 6-month-old daughter during the day.  We pay her $80/day or $400/week.  That’s $1,600/month for typical months and $2,000/month for longer, 5 week months.  Annually, we’re paying $20,800 to our nanny.  Not a large income, but it’s a huge sum of money for us.

I’ve seen a number of articles stating that daycare costs more than college.  I’m not sure about that, but it’s pricey indeed.  We have reduced our nanny’s schedule to three work days a week, for $240/week, while I am not working.  This arrangement gives me three days a week to focus on my job search, while saving us $640/month for typical months and $800/month for longer, 5 week months.

We choose to go with a nanny over daycare for a few reasons:

• We love the personal attention that our kids receive
• We can come home anytime to see our kids
• Using our home security camera system, we can check on thing remotely

I dream of the day our kids begin public school.  The boost to our cash flow will be awesome.  Sure, there will be other expenses, but they will be small by comparison.  Technically, our son is already in school, but it is preschool and costs $297/month.  LOL!  Kids are expensive, but worth every penny.

My wife and I already spent her unexpected $1,000 bonus she learned about on Thursday. Yeah, it didn’t take us long.

We purchased a new bedroom set yesterday for $920 including tax, delivery and set-up. The photo below is of the complete set, but we only purchased the bed, nightstand, and the dresser (without the mirror).

We had planned to pull money out of savings to get a bedroom set, so word of her extra bonus came at a perfect time.

-1MansMoney

I hope you all have a safe and happy Thanksgiving! Thank God for all of the blessings that we have and the great country that we live in.

Happy Veterans Day to my Dad and all of the vets out there!

My Dad joined the Army as a young man and was the first recruit in Los Angeles to earn a perfect score on his entrance exam. I remember as a kid looking thru my Dad’s boot camp photo album at the photos of them firing rifles, throwing grenades, and crawling through obstacle courses. That was back when they really fired live ammo over your head as you crawled in mud under barbed wire. Because of my Dad’s high test scores, he served on an intelligence team in Japan & Korea during the Korean War. He lived the kind of stuff you see in spy movies, except if a mission was compromised, he or one of his team members could have been killed.

Serving in the military is very tough work that most of us regular citizens could never handle. Often times, we don’t have a clue of the sacrifices they make to protect our freedom. We should thank your vets and troops every chance we get. This Toby Keith song American Soldier is dedicated to you: American Soldier video

Thanks Dad for what you did for our country!

Merry Christmas!

My wife and I just returned from spending Christmas with her Mom (yesterday) and her Dad (today). It was a lot of fun, as always. We were talking on the drive home about how lucky we are to have such great families.

On a financial note, we were able to keep our gift shopping within reason this year.

1MansMoney now has an RSS feed! I just learned about RSS feeds and love the convenience they provide. Inside of visiting your favorite blogs each day to see if there is new content, you can subscribe (for free) to your favorite blogs and visit one website to see updated content from all of them.

To subscribe to 1MansMoney’s RSS feed, click on the icon in the upper right hand corner of this webpage. You will be prompted to choose a reader (I use Google Reader) and create a user id and password. Then, whenever you want to see if there is new content from 1MansMoney and other blogs you subscribe to, you just log onto Google Reader. What a time-saver.

1MansMoney.blogspot.com’s disclaimer:

If it’s not completely obvious, I am NOT a financial professional. The information you find on this site should not be considered financial advice. Before making financial decisions, do your own homework or hire a certified financial planner (if you’re lazy).