Saving Money By Quitting Your Job

The common understanding was that we need a job to make ends meet but apparently for this lady, quitting her job saves money and time.

One of the main reasons she quit was because she wasn't making enough money after her paycheck had deductions from childcare.

"Once insurance was paid and day care paid for, for those hours, I had about 2 dollars left out of the paycheck"

$2? Well, that is not acceptable. It is tiring enough to bring up kids, and to go out to work, only to have only $2 to show at the end of the ordeal is ridiculous.

Fortunately, Allie has enough entrepreneurial spirit to launch her own day care center at home. For other mothers in similar position, working at home may be a better option indeed.

I will discuss a bit more about work-at-home schemes for mothers later since my wife is experimenting with a few concepts currently.

The key discussion today is about transportation expenses. I know this item is often overlooked, especially when gas prices have tumbled. Also, most people think they don't really go anywhere besides work and grocery shopping so these are necessary trips. But even then, there is much room to save money on gas bills.

I can easily save $5-$10 each time I reduce the trip to the grocery store or wake up earlier and take public transport for the day.

It is important to plan ahead and consolidate your short car jaunts. For example, it is wasteful to drive to different stores to chase down bargains, just to save pennies while guzzling gasoline dollars. To put it simply, this is penny wise, pound foolish.

You should also look for online stores. Many items are cheaper when bought online due to the lower costs of not running a business requiring a shop front, staff etc.

Don`t forget about bargains at thrift stores, or charity shops too. You can buy designer clothes which are often sold at very low prices. So whenever I drive there, we buy in bulk. It is silly to pick up just one or two items which cost as much as your gas expense.

Allie's case may be rather extreme that her income is reduced so drastically by child care and gas expenses. However, do not underestimate the effect of transportation expense on the household budget.

Managing gas expenses well will put you in good stead when gas prices rise back or exceed $4 per gallon.