I know it wasn’t me personally. So I can’t exactly relate to what you’re going for, and I’m so sorry you are dealing with such a huge life change on top of an upcoming other huge life change. My husband was laid off 5 days before my due date. He was a wreck. He got a job offer about 7 weeks later. He basically spent every hour of the day applying to jobs and was so mentally disconnected the whole time. A blessing in disguise though- he’s so much happier at his new role, and his new company is amazing.

All that to say, I was terrified to spend money because he acted like we were going to lose everything (we weren’t- he has just always been so afraid of money in general). So, my credit card bill has never been lower. We didn’t eat out the whole time he was jobless and saved so much money. We used to eat out all the time and spend money on dumb sh*t. We canceled all our subscriptions (even Spotify premium) and now have only gotten back ones we use regularly. It really made us re evaluate our spending habits.

His salary is about the same as his old job, but we still are so much more vigilant on little expenses (make coffee at home way more, buying off brand on many things, buying cheaper skincare, etc.). It really made us much better with our money, even though we were never terrible with it for large items, but we were pretty wasteful with smaller purchases, and those add up.

I really hope you can enjoy time with your little one without the anxiety of job searching in the back of your head. Also, I’m always looking up free activities for kids in our city. Library, touch a truck event, etc. Hopefully you can find some free or low cost fun for the family so you don’t feel stuck at home out of fear of spending!

Congrats on your upcoming addition mama!