I am curious what home day cares charge in your state. The lowest end in RI that I could find was $175 a week per kid. Facilities are $275 - $375 per week. Did you know that making $14.00/hr for a family of three means you have to pay full price in RI?

I just want to break this down for you guys who think I'm refusing to give up luxuries here. It's not like that.
$14.00/hr full time is roughly 1600 a month after tax.

Rent for a 2 bedroom apt in RI is $1,000/month if you are lucky. And that is in a not so great neighborhood.

Now let's throw in $500/month for student loans, and we have $100/month left over! Woah! Not good. That doesn't pay for gas, electric, clothes, car insurance and so many other necessities.

Thank goodness we have a second income of 1400/month. Now just over half of that goes to daycare (175/wk and that is cheap here!).

This leaves us with 775 for the month. (the 100 from the first paycheck, and the 675 remaining from the other paycheck.)

Now we cannot live off of the 100/month for gas groceries etc., but the second income can help pay for those things.

Now we barely make it. We don't go out to eat. We shop at grocery stores like save-a-lot or price-right where the food is never fresh and often questionable. Our cars are over 10 years old and probably wont last much longer. We don't qualify for any assistance because we make too much.

If we went from paying $175 to paying $275 a month we would have 400/month for gas, groceries, utilities and clothes.

It's not that I am not willing to sacrifice for my daughter. It's that we cannot afford to.

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