Not having a baby: Part 3

Planning. I love planning. I love looking at all the things I want to do and sit down and plan how I'm going to make it happen. I love looking at our incomes and and working out in the budget how we can do a holiday, go out for a fancy dinner, take a road trip, buy a new tv or whatever it is. I love planning and working toward things. I don't think there's anything that I've done that hasn't had some element of planning. And if it was "spontaneous" we had the money in the bank already in a "just in case" or "rainy day" fund.

Planning is almost my best friend I love it so much. Because of good planning we had an amazing wedding, taken a 4 week long honeymoon in Europe (a year earlier then we initially thought), built a house and sold it (a year earlier then we initially thought), bought a triplex, giving us a house to live in, instead of renting, and have 2 rental suits then onto of that (2 years earlier then we initially thought), and the cherry on top we got to get a dog because we got a house and yard for him. And those are just the things in the last 2 years! We have no debt (other then our mortgage) and have taken three major trips in our married life and we're planning the next to Thailand and Bali. (Note: We don't have large incomes, we're in the low 5 figures)

I'm not trying to brag, but like I said last week, I'm selfish and there are a lot of things I want to do before we have a baby and I'm going to plan as much as I can to make these things happen.

Part of planning not to have a baby is birth control. I'm on the pill, I've read up on all the dos and don'ts, we use condoms if I ever get sick in anyway or am late even an hour on taking my pill. I know my ovulation schedule and all of that fun stuff. Take the most anal person you know and 10x that's me when it comes to birth control.

When people talk about having babies and I tell them we're waiting I often get that "Ya, we were on the pill too" where I say "Oh, we're very careful, trust me. We're not getting pregnant" and they reply with "Ya, we were too.  And that's what we thought". I mean really...unless I'm drunk (which I never am) I can use a condom and take the pill. Let's be honest people, the pull out method doesn't work, and condoms as your only birth control is not a good option.

The pill costs $20 a month. Ok, yes, annoying to pay for but it's better then hundreds to thousands of dollars a month for having a child. It's a no brainier for me. I want to have $10,000 in the bank for having a baby before we get pregnant, and we don't want to have kids for at least four years, so that's not unrealistic at all. The last thing I want when I have that special new addition to our family is stress about money. I want to be planned and ready so that all there is is joy and happiness for this baby.

Planning isn't a bad thing, waiting isn't a bad thing, in fact it's a great thing. So plan I will and working toward financially and emotionally being ready is what I'm working on. All this brings me to my last issue: Simply not wanting a baby. I'll tell you about that next week.