Downsizing and living off one income intentionally. Have you done it? How did it work for you?

My vote is to work part time, you never know what will happen down the road. At least this way, you have an income to fall back.

Put all your part time money in the bank. Treat your part time money as invisible money and put it straight in the bank not to be touched. Learn to live on one salary and buy a house not a mansion. Kids do not need to have their own rooms (until they are older - this is a first world problem), no tvs, phone etc in their room, that is being excessive.
If you have a mortgage starting paying an extra $50.00 or $100.00 per month, you will be amazed at how quickly your mortgage gets reduced - make sure to let the bank know that the money should be going towards the principal - that is important.
Any extra money you have put in on that mortgage, thats the monkey on your back and your goal should be to get rid of it as soon as possible. Most people do not realize that they may buy a house for say $250,000.00, but forget to add in the interest over the number of years, which can work out to over %150,000.00 as bank charges.

I paid off my mortgage over 2 years now; I can tell you the immense freedom that I have achieved from that burden. I started paying an extra $50.00, then when I could afford it paid $100.00 and was shocked at how quickly the loan was decreased. Forget about the mortgage tax relief, it is not worth carrying on a mortgage just to get a couple of dollars back from the IRS, which is your money anyway.

Cook everything from scratch, it is so much more rewarding and healthier. At least this way you know exactly how much sugar/salt etc is going into your foods.

My cell phone bill is $32.00 per month, I do not need an iPhone to make calls. I have a cheap Moto phone costing $149.99 and it does everything that an iPhone does. I get unlimited data and enough to make my calls for the phone. Use What Apps, its free and saves a lot of money. I call my friends all over the world on What Apps savings both long distance and overseas calls.

Not sure what you do, but is there any way you can job share with someone (another mother at your work). One week you work 3 days and the other week you work 2 - that way both of you work the same number of hours.

As yous said, do you really need cable? $110.00 is a lot of money a month. How about Netflix or HULU. Get basic on your home phone, most cell phones carry long distance, so you do not need that on your home phone.

My cell phone carrier is Virgin, can use it everywhere.

You are going to have to be creative with saving money.

After my second baby was born my husband left on deployment and decided I was in over my head with a newborn and a 2 year old. I "quit" my job, but my employer offered me part-time work whenever I was ready to return. I stayed home for 6 months.

After my third was born 19 months later I stayed home for 9 months and went back part time again. I've been part-time ever since. My "baby" is three now.

Part-time is perfect for me. It pays for my kid's tuition at a private school, I get to keep my career skills current, we paid off our house in less than 9 years, and we have a bit of wiggle room to enjoy some nice things.

It's all about setting priorities and focusing on them. Don't compare yourself to anyone else or you'll always be unhappy.

Here's what I did-
I couldn't stay home 100%, so when my son was little I only worked during school hours. I was there to put him on the bus and there to pick him up. I never missed a school party back then because I made sure I had a job where I could leave for 30 Mins to attend every class function.
I cleaned houses and made it work. It was a way to still be there for my son but yet still bring in money. ( housekeepers make more then most think )
Now my situation is different so I have to work longer hours but while my son was small, I made it work.
I got rid of the expensive Verizon cell phones and went with boost mobile ( 30$ per month unlimited data and texts and calls ) so what I didn't have the latest iPhone but the phones still worked just as well.
I also used coupons and sales for everything that I could . cook cheap and cook in bulk ( lots of rice and beans )

Keep it simple. If you can afford it, do it. If you can't, then don't.

Don't make life more difficult then it needs to be.

Never had the luxury when the kids were still at home, but I don't think having us both working in any way caused us to neglect spending time with our children. You budget your time and make it work. My wife and I both worked 40 to 50 hours a week. Still made Sports practices, plays, music and dance recitals. Now the kids are adults and we still work and still make time to see our Grandchildren do all those same things. We never gave anything up and we never missed out on anything.

Every family dynamic is different, but I feel that if you give things up, you may resent it eventually. In addition, being with your kids 24/7 may take some of the "special" out of the time you are together. You can have it all, with a little budgeting and time management.

Dave Ramsey changed my life! Went from 2 incomes, 1 infant and a TON of debt ($60k including student loans, car, cc) and am now (7 years later), on one income, 4 kids, private school tuition for 3 kids, and NO DEBT!!

It can be done. Its not easy.....but ut is SSSSOOOO worth it!

My wife considered being a SAHM but ultimately decided she would go insane with that...not to mention she's always been pretty career driven and she didn't want to fully get out of the workforce as it can be difficult to get back in. She ultimately decided to work part time 30 hours per week.

This has required us to cut back on some things, but it hasn't been terribly drastic. We're both pretty frugal anyways...we never had a "keepin up with the jones' kind of house for example...all of our friends have rather large homes and large mortgages to go along with them...we bought a comfortable home of 1,800 sq ft before we had kids...we put a big chunk down and before kids we paid down on it heavily. We refinanced a few years ago and now we have a $650 mortgage. Since having the kids, we've considered moving and getting a bigger home...but the one we're in is just fine and still bigger than anything I had growing up and if anything happens to either one of our jobs I think we can still come up with $650 to keep a roof over our heads.

In regards to vehicles, we tend to buy them and generally own them for 8-10 years before buying again and we never owe on more than one at a time.

Also, things like eating out tend to be occasions and we eat mostly at home and brown bag lunches and whatnot. My wife did have to cut back on the Anne Taylor and other clothes/shoes/handbag shopping but it doesn't seem like it's been a big deal. We never watched a ton of t.v. but we were paying $120/month for satellite...we changed that to the most basic package they have and it's $50. We used to have a ton of magazine subscriptions and whatnot as well...we just had them because they weren't that expensive (by themselves) and they were somewhat interesting to us topically...but with the amount we had, $$ added up quick...we now only have a couple for the one's we really like and actually read.

Basically we went through everything and found little things here and there to cut out and it all really added up.