How to survive as a one-income family
By Teri Cettina • Bankrate.com

One of the big financial questions parents often ask themselves when a new baby joins the household -- right after "What is this child going to cost me over the next 18 years?" -- is "Can one of us possibly afford to stay home?"

Making the decision to step out of the work force to raise children can seem overwhelming. Some families consider it impossible to live on one income in today's world of huge mortgages, large credit card balances and looming college costs. Yet some parents do manage to make the leap homeward. According to 2003 U.S. Census data, of 23 million married couples with children less than age 15, about 5.5 million parents (overwhelmingly the moms) opted to stay at home to care for the kids.

Susan Siverson and her husband, Robert, struggled with the "two incomes or one" decision for more than a year after their twins, William and Alexandra, now 3, were born. While the babies were small, both parents commuted more than an hour to work in New York City. Susan Siverson was often needed in her investment banking office before 7 a.m. It was a quick-burnout scenario.

"Even though we lived on less than we earned and were good savers, we ran the numbers to see if I could afford to quit and the initial answer was 'No,'" says Susan Siverson. "I contributed more than 50 percent of our household income, and we just couldn't see a way to make it without me working."

For the next year, the Siversons continued to think about the question while they put their financial house in order. They paid off their home, saved their bonuses and bought a conservative minivan instead of an expensive sport utility vehicle.

"One day, I realized that I wasn't going to have any more children, and I really wanted to be with them before they started school. They were getting older and that window was quickly shutting," Susan Siverson says. "At that point, the math really didn't matter. We were going to make one income work for us, no matter what."

In a very short period of time, Susan Siverson quit her job and the couple moved to Fairfield, Conn., to be closer to family. Along the way, they fired the housekeeper and lawn service, stopped using credit cards, got comfortable with second-hand clothes and started eating at home more often.

Their one trade-off: They often draw from their savings to make their monthly bills. However, Susan Siverson has recently taken on some part-time consulting work, and she plans to return to work when the twins enter kindergarten. In the meantime: "I haven't regretted my choice for one minute," she says.

Jonni McCoy, now of Colorado Springs, Colo., also dove into being a stay-at-home mom with a "sink-or-swim" mentality.

The McCoys were living in the San Francisco Bay area when she left her job at Apple Computer Inc. to stay home with their son. They planned to sell their house to downsize their lifestyle. But McCoy had a change of heart about moving. Her husband agreed to give the "one-income experiment" a four-month try. If they could figure out a way to make the arrangement work, they would stay put and McCoy would stay home.