Next to rent or mortgage payments, childcare often ranks as the second-highest expenditure in a household budget. Working couples can pay a whopping 10-20% of their incomes on childcare while their children are small. Seeing the high cost needed to be expensed for their children's care, some couples decided to take a better financial sense for one parent to take a few years off to stay home with the baby. {relatedarticles} But a little inventive planning can save you money without ...