I've always been a SAHM, in fact I've never had a real full-time permanent grown-up job in my life! I've done some long weeks (as a student, in my breaks, waitressing), I've done temp work and contract work as well. I've worked casually too. But I haven't really worked for a boss for many years now. At the moment I have some regular and some casual writing work, which I enjoy. I also have Spiral Garden which is like most 'new' small businesses and not exactly paying the bills yet. After recovering the purchase and start up costs, I'm now trying to grow the business a little more to get to a stage where it's paying me for my time!

Hubby's just changed jobs, 2nd week into it. He does some shift work, so is home at different times during daylight hours which is nice. None of the shifts are during overnight hours - earliest starts at 4am (ouch) and latest ends at 10pm. He gets shift allowance for anything other than day shift, which is nice too. He'll have to work some weekends, but will have some weekdays off, and sometimes 4 days off in a row too, so it all balances out well for us.

At one stage, we could afford for dh to work just 3 days a week (for 2 years or so) and we just loved it. Now we have the farm, though, we need a higher income again.

Ideally, we'll get back to having dh home more either through me working outside the home or my business growing or some income from the farm... Who knows!

Most importantly, we've been pretty strict with the budget, always had a mortgage and lived simply, but abundantly.

I stay at home and survive (just!) on PP and FTB. The Woolly Tree provides some occasional extra cash which is nice, though it can never be relied upon. For a while there I received Child Support from my child's "father" but for now (indefinitely) I am not getting anything from him, which is disappointing. I am about to get some house mate in to help with the rent, which should make a HUGE difference to our financial situation - not only really cheap rent, but shared expenses etc should make a big difference. I am very excited.

I count my lucky stars I live in Tassie, cos much as finding a rental is a PITA (we are about to move back in with my parents until I can find something after searching for a month) it is possible to find on that is $230 a week or under. it means I can survive on PP and FTB and continue to save etc for my own place. I very much doubt this would be possible as a single parent in many other places!
I am studying to be a doula/cbe/breastfeeding counsellor as well and when that is finished will set up a business which will a) keep centerlink off my back and b) get us some extra money and c) enable me to do something I'm passionate about and d) provide many learning oppourtunities for the kidlets

and when you consider the costs of sending kids to school, HS can actually be cheaper.

definitely - the only school I considered was little community school which was gonna strain the budget - was doable, but a stretch.