We told our daycare lady about AS's pregnancy the other day. NT had hinted around earlier by asking whether she ever took infants (she's more of a preschool teacher), so when we officially told her, she asked if we wanted her to watch it when we went back to work.

Uh yeah!!! She's the most wonderful caregiver, and even though she doesn't specialize in babies, she's had her own, plus she's got a baby granddaughter who's going to be spending more time at the daycare soon.

Plus, she's dead cheap! You can expect to pay anywhere from $600-$1000/month for an in-home provider, to $1200-$2500/month for a center, in the downtown Minneapolis area. Our daycare lady charges $575.

I'd worked out a 2012 budget for when we were all back to work full-time and paying for 2 kids' daycare (probably mid-summer). I'd assumed $1000 because we'd probably want to go with an in-home caregiver. It wasn't a terribly tight budget, but I'd had to cut back a bit in many areas. Well, after I figured kid #2's daycare costs at $575 instead, it was like getting an instant $425/month raise! We can essentially go back to our normal budget that we have now, because NT's recent raise covers this smaller daycare expense.

At my job, things are looking promising, but I'm not taking anything for granted. My supervisor sent his proposal to the president and head of HR for our division, and they agreed to it. Now they've sent it off to our DC headquarters, who are the final word on raises and promotions. I have very high hopes because they seem to pretty much let us operate independently in many other areas, but I'm not sure how that translates to paying employees more, so we'll see.

Anyway, I'm asking for $5000/$6000 more per year. I doubt they'd give me the full amount I asked for, though I did send proof that I'm on the very low end of the payscale for my position and years of experience, so who knows?

I'm trying not to spend the money before I even know whether I'm getting it, but of course I can't stop my mind from running scenarios. I'm so trained to strategize with every penny; I can't help it!

The first priority if we got more regular income would be to improve our transportation situation. We do fine with no car and one kid, but a second kid would make things a lot harder re: bus travel and long walking trips. Also taking cabs would be more difficult because we'd have to lug two car seats wherever they dropped us off.

We don't want to buy a car if we can avoid it; that would eat up any raise I got, easily, and possibly eat into our existing budget.

We've considered a car-share service in the past, and that's looking like a good possibility. You pay a monthly or annual membership and also pay an hourly fee when you actually use the car. Our best friends use the service nearest us, so we'll find out more about it from them. Of course the most essential element would be that the cars fit 3 adults and 2 carseats. We'll see.

My other big priority would be upping our retirement contributions. We're not too far off what we need to be contributing, but $300 to $600 more per month would make me feel much more secure. I don't know whether I'd have us increase our 401(k)s or send more to our Roth IRAs.

I have no idea how much of a raise I'll be offered, if any, but if I could put $300 more toward Roths, and have enough money for using the carshare occasionally, my budget would be pretty much complete. There's nothing else I feel we're missing. It would be so awesome. I should find out soon, and my supervisor says that if it's approved, it would be effective Oct. 15!