> childcare. Even if all the kids are in school all day,
 > very few jobs allow work hours only during the school day :-/
 > Add to that the higher tax level for the combined
 > incomes, transpotation costs, and more frequent take out food because of 
the
 > exhaustion of trying to be mother, housekeeper, and work an outside job
 > too...very few of those two income couples actually come out ahead.
I can add to that list. Depending, of course, on your work place: work 
clothes, donations for this baby shower and that pot of flowers, snack and 
coke machines, panty hose, lunches out (or perhaps more expensive brown bag 
lunches than you might prepare if you were staying home).
Since I'm in the world of the work=away mother, I come up on these situations 
all the time. I've got a somewhat ideal situation, tho: I work part-time, 
during the school day, away from home. The other part-time work I do is a few 
hours a week from home. However, in my work-away world, there are lots of 
things you can do to stay ahead of some of the extra expenses that come up, 
and I do them.
The goal for me is still, to be able to grow in my after-school-hours job so 
much that I will be able to give up my day job. Whether we will homeschool at 
that point will depend a lot on how the kids are doing. Jenn's just rolling 
right along in school right now, and Kristin is too (tho she still dislikes 
it).
                                 -donna
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