Getting started on a VERY limited budget

So, if you take care of the child until you are called in that adds $600 a month to your income. And, if she quits if you are called in then she can save you folks the $600 a month instead of earning $600 a month.

Day care is starving your family. In your situation I'd start to find some way out of it-- God forbid you have a second child inadvertently-- your wife can only barely out earn childcare for one. (edit with your new info... she may not even be able to do that)
As I see it your options are:

1.) get a relative or family friend to sit with your child as a favor; to do it for free, in exchange for help around the house/handyman service, or for cheap ($20 a day r similar). Try an assortment of people if grandma is available 2 days a week and auntie for 1,etc.

2.) work opposing schedules from your wife-- one of you days, one of you graves and meet for dinner in the middle. Grave shifts usually get paid 1$ an hour better than the same job on day shift.

3.) One of you quits working, while the one with better income prospects focuses on getting a job that pays enough to be sole income.

I'm not familiar with gardening in CT, but I bet you could do potatoes in barrels. You put a layer of soil on bottom, plant your seed potatoes, when they get a lot of green tops you put down another layer of soil, and continue the process to the top of the barrel. When harvesting you simply dump the barrel contents and you'll have taters all the way up.
For my seed potatoes I am sprouting out organic yukon gold and red potatoes I got in a 5lb bag from the 99 cent store chain at $1. That would be a cheap and easy start if you can get food safe barrels/cans/totes cheap.

For meat, a trio of rabbits would go a long way to produce fryer bunnies. They can be fed pretty cheaply, processed easily and kept under the radar inside a garage. The pelts are also marketable. Raising pigeons for squab is another option (tastes like tiny, sweet chicken-- yum!), though not quite as low key as rabbits,and has an even bigger stigma.

You both need to be thinking about side businesses. I sell eggs and birds I breed or take for free to pay the feed bill (or come close) DH does computer and wireless networking where he does stuff like set up the wireless entertainment center/speakers/programming remotes, or makes the printer, ipads, computers and what not all talk to the router.
That's just what works for us, but I bet you have skills and time people will barter for at least even if they can't give you cash.

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Check the cost of feed before you invest in critters: it varies from area to area. In my area it costs more to feed my layers than the eggs are worth. So, I supplement their feed with table scraps and any produce that has bugs in it. Chicken likes bugs: I do not! Right now they are working on apples from my tree that had bug bites: the good apples are mostly in the fridge!

But I am getting sidetracked: before you invest in critters find out what it will cost to feed them in your area.

And if you can get access to a steady supply of scraps or harvest feed from friends, family, or local grocery stores enough to offset or eliminate buying feed.

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There is a time and a place for decaf coffee.
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Unfortunately, it's a difficult time of the year in the Northeast to get started with any sort of crops, even in containers. If you have a good, sunny window, you can grow salad greens in window boxes, inside. We used to grow cucumbers and zucchini in pots indoors in a sunny window. Often times you have to help with pollination (we use a feather) when you're growing squash and cukes. You can grow bunching onions indoors as well as tomatoes, again, provided you have ample sunlight (and ample means direct winter sun for several hours every day.)
My mothers family is from New Haven CT. If I remember right, it's not too far from apple picking season. Can you find any pick-your-own orchards and ask them about "drops"? Most orchards sell "drops" for less than they sell good apples. Drops make great jelly, apple butter, and yummy sauce. Find some cheap pumpkins (around here, at the end of the season, late oct. early Nov., people sell left-over pumpkins very cheaply. You can use the pumpkin flesh for pies, soups, as a veggie, and you can season and roast the seeds for a yummy snack. Do you know how to can? Perhaps while you are off work, you can learn to can, at least water bath canning since you don't need any great equipment to do that, just a large stock pot will do for jelly, etc. Maybe look for some inexpensive canning jars at yard sales, etc.
But if nothing else, use your time to visit the library, or browse the internet and read, read, read. Read everything you can about homesteading. If your dream is truly to homestead, you'll soak it up like a sponge. But homesteading because you have to rather than because you want to isn't always the best way. Somethings cost more in homesteading than in retail purchasing, but you know what's in your food and how it was raised and handled, and you have the satisfaction of know you can provide for your family, regardless.
Can you hunt? Do you have the where-with-all to hunt, ie., a gun/bow, money for license, etc.? Wild rabbit, squirrel, deer, turkey, waterfowl, etc. all help with the food bill a lot.

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Have to agree that daycare expenses are eating up all your income. Just does not make sense to me to pay more than what you earn for childcare unless someone has really good health insurance (ins alone can cost over $600/month). If she doesn't have insurance it doesn't pay for her to work.

Your unemployment won't last forever.

I don't know your zoning regulations. Make sure you check them before investing in any livestock. I would hate to see you spend a lot of time and money getting set up then finding out livestock is illegal where you are located.

Crops; do you have room for a garden there? Will the family allow you to keep a garden there once you get back on your feet? If not, forget about raising crops. Again, the time and money put into it to have to give it all up before you get any benefit just isn't worth it.

Do you cook from scratch or do you eat a lot of pre-boxed dinners? If you eat the pre-boxed dinners you need to learn to cook from scratch. Watch sales and buy what is on sale. Work a meal plan around the sale ads. Cut back on your meat consumption. Meat is the most expensive grocery item and one Americans consume too much of. Check the value of fresh vs frozen fruits and veggies. Many times the nutrition content is higher in frozen veggies than fresh. Learn to use veggies as the main course of the meal with meat as an addition. Casseroles can be good eating.

You said you are living with MIL, but not if she is on board or not. What you can do is gonna depend what she will tolerate at her house. Talk to her if you haven't already.

From what you posted, my priorities would be as follows:

1) drop the daycare. If you get a job, the wife can quit hers and your net income will be the same, actually more if you allow for the gas and wear and tear on the car for her commute. Or, you can work different shifts and "tag team" your child. That is what my son and his wife did, one worked days the other worked nights so no daycare expense and their baby was never left with "strangers".

2) Cook from scratch. You can save a lot of money by not eating out and by cooking with basic ingredients instead of "instructions on the package" type of foods.

3) Garden, if MIL is OK with it. Try a couple of containers for this fall, do more in the spring.

4) Live cheap. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Check out the frugal thread on the Families forum. Get rid of one cell phone. Get down to one car. Use the library for internet. Don't pay out one cent you don't have to.

5) Save. Stick money back every chance you get, even if it is only a few dollars it will add up over time. And as you see your savings grow it will help motivate you to save even more.

6) When you do get a job, don't run right out and rent something. Stay right where you are another few months (if MIL is agreeable) to make sure the job pans out, and save, save, save. Then you will have an emergency fund when you do get back out on your own.

Best of luck to you!

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Wow. That is kind of a rough spot. I do agree with some of the other posters. There really isn't any reason why you should have your child in daycare if your home. Your wifes not even making enough to pay for it. You said your living with your mom, Can your mom (or a friend?) help babysit a week if you are called back in so you'd have a little more time to put your little one into daycare again? Can your wife work evenings and weekends so you don't have to pay for daycare during the day if your called back to work? You could work days, she could work evenings and weekends. That would save you most of your daycare except maybe an hour or so if you can't be home before your wife has to leave. See about getting a pre-paid cell phone (we pay less than $10.00 a month for each of ours) that would at least be something. It is a little late in the year for trying to plant something. If you only have windows/patio/balcony etc. available Can you rig a hoop house? That would give you a little more growing time. Your salad greens can all be grown in pots for the most part.

Hope things start looking up for you and your family. Best of luck!

Move. Go to where the work is, up here in ND there are construction companies that would hire you on the spot. If necessary leave your wife and child with her mom for a few weeks or a month until you can find a place to live but move and go somewhere you can actually make a living. You have skills that are valuable, there is no reason to scrape through like you are. You have other options than to stay there and starve. I'm making more money waiting tables part time here than you are in a month, the jobs are available. Yes it's a long way from home but if it's the difference in being able to provide for your family or not, well, it just doesn't sound like you have much to lose.

There is nothing you can grow in a pot that will save you $600 a month.

Your biggest savings would be to pull the daughter from day care. I think you know this. If you do go back to work- great. You won't be spending your wages on day care. If your wife quit today, you wouldn't be any worse off than you are currently without the day care fees.

If I had no hope of going back to work for more than a month or two, I'd be looking for another job. Open your own home repair business, roofing or lawn care -something. I wouldn't be sitting around waiting for that call.

The idea of homesteading sounds so nice. Reality is that it's a lot more work than you can ever imagine.

Become a WOOFER. Not roofer. I was in the pipe fitters union. You need to go find your way. I have no respect for the union I was in. You need to find out how to use your skills to take care of your family. Being called a scab by those who would let the pride of being a union man stand in the way of feeding the children are just plain...Harsh words I know. There is a lot of building going on all over. You can go to your BA and become a traveler. Your pay will out weigh your starvation status. Sorry hope it works for you. If you stay there. Look up window farms for fresh green veggies for your family.

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I pay $260 every 2 weeks here for one child. I'm working as a cnc machinist so I highly recommend that you consider entering the field of Machining Technology. It's pretty much a good paying job but you would have to start at the bottom which is $15 an hour here and go up from there. Good luck.

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I agree with others about having dw take care of dd and taking in another couple kids to have an income. There may be programs that would help pay the food expenses of the children in home day care, plus tax considerations (writeoffs for equipment and area of home used for day care.

Next: While you can grow some things in buckets, etc.. think of these as only honing your skills. These edibles will be extras, not enough to feed you. Things don't grow as well in buckets so you won't get the yield you would in a garden. Go to the gardenweb.com forums section and see what people in your garden zone are growing (I'm guessin you are in zone6/5?)

Use this time to hone your skills for your eventual ability to live this way. You don't have to have a farm to do this. A large city lot can do alot. Grow vertically up the sides of the home, Take out the grass, raise chickens/rabbits/goats. It's possible to have very little in feed for these if you hustle and plant your own feed. Our chickens free range mostly and receive our scraps.

Can you work as a handyman while waiting to be called up? I've seen people who are handy make lots of money doing odd jobs. If you are known as a trustworthy person, there will be jobs and jobs for you (same with day care). I lived next door to someone (who wasn't disabled) who paid someone to change the overhead lightbulbs!!!

Once we hired a handyman who began his business while laid off as a computer person. He never went back because the money was so good.

If you can work as a handyman, you can also sell other services, like DW cleans homes or organizes closets and garages. Everyone couple I know who do this do well because there is always something else. For instance, client says, "I just want the garage clean--take everything you want." They do and are able to sell and barter all that stuff for what they want and need.

From one cleaning job, a friend got referred to clean a historical home on the national register. That led to more things, opportunities, etc.. Husband does landscaping. Sometimes they are asked to paint interiors, and they do.

See?

When you have a job, start obtaining good tools at yardsales for the garden. Read the Reader's digest book: Back to Basics and Carla Emory's book about homesteading.

Most importantly, come join us on the Tightwad tips thread to learn about how to economize and live this lifestyle.

I'm just curious, why don't you or your mom/some other family member watch your child? It makes no sense to pay for childcare, add it up. child care 600.00/wife's income, less than 600.00 + food and gas and wear and tear of vehicle = your in the hole!!!!

If you watched the child you could put that money away. Seriously, think outside the box. Can your wife sew, crochet, embroider........anything you can do to maybe barter for supplies or babysitting? Sell stuff on E-bay, craigs list, swap meets? You can dumpster dive and restore stuff to sell..............people do it ALL the time!!! You can do house cleaning, yard work, heck you can wash and detail cars........people pay big money to have that done.....little to no start up either! Just some ideas

You should also start going to the library and reading up on Homesteading skills and put them into practice........there are plenty of things to learn before you get onto your land. Instead of just watching movies and dreaming.

Just a thought, Christmas is coming up and people PAY to have lights put up, homes and trees decorated ............something to think about, you and wifey could do together!

Mobility is your answer. You say that you have no one to watch your child, which to me says neither of you have family in the area.

I know for a fact that in this area the gas drillers can't get enough workers. They even advertise on the radio.

It may not be what your trade is, but it pays very well. There was some foremen discussing at another breakfast table how much trouble they have getting reliable help. The one was talking about how much they paid just to wash trucks and that it was a sun up to sun down job but they couldn't keep help even though there was potential to make $50k to $60k a year. People were quitting because it was easier to be on unemployment.

Google Search #1

Google Search #2

he's in Ct.....

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I'm in the Union. Stop thinking the union is there to help you. They are not, they look after their own self interests. Your union will do less in a month to get you a job than you can do in one hour. In short, stop waiting on a union that isn't going to help.

Cut the daycare. What a ridiculous way to throw away $600 per month on the hope that your union will give you a job.

Advertise in craigslist, put up flyers, advertise in newspapers (many have free sections). You'll find more work than your union will ever give you. Make sure you have reasonable prices.

A link to many links on container gardening:
No land? You can still garden- MSN Money

Have you thought about getting a CDL? Lots of local hauling work out there right now, if you're willing to work from home go down to the marcellus shale areas in PA, OH, WV,VA, and work all school year.. get all the OT you can, save it all, then go home for the summer and watch your kids. They'll only need a sitter/daycare during non school hours.