How working cost me more money than staying home

Recently I posted that I quit my job, and that I am actually making more money staying at home with my children than I did working. This is true. At first, we thought I made a little, but once we really examined the numbers, we realized we were losing hundreds of dollars a month for me to work at a job I could not go any further in and that I did not particularly enjoy. Here is the breakdown for that decision and an explanation of the variations:

My net pay working part-time: $1015
Minus...
The increase in taxes because of the extra income: $300
The cost of part-time preschool for one child: $290
The cost of gas, lunches, dry cleaning, etc., for work: $75-125

Additional considerations:
The additional student loans because my husband had to quit school (that would otherwise be deferred): $125
The student loans I must pay because I had to quit school: $360

Total not including student loans: $715. Subtract this from $1015 and I get a $300 monthly paycheck, which means I actually made $3.75/hour -- far below minimum wage. This is one way to examine our finances, with me bringing home a few hundred dollars extra money a month, but it is a near-sighted view and doesn't include all the data.

If you include the student loan payments, which will now be deferred (interest paid by the government) it means we will actually make $185 more a month with me not working. Add to that the $975 he will get from his GI bill for going back to school, and we not only break even with me staying home, we bring home a whopping extra $1160 a month -- $145 more than I brought home in the first place, without any of the expenses or even taxes! This is a direct increase of $9,280 a year to our take-home pay without an increase in our tax bracket (we do not receive the GI bill in the summer).

By me quitting my job, we will both be able to finish our degrees and then move into better jobs. I could not move up the ladder any more without a master's degree. My husband is still 45 credits away from his bachelor's degree in computer science, which will set him up for jobs making as much as double his annual salary now. Although many of my feminist friends were understandably upset that I left the workforce, it was a no-brainer for us financially. Our school is free, since my husband works at the university, we get the additional money from his GI bill, AND I can actually spend time with my very young children. Leave the workforce indeed! I have never made a smarter financial decision.

Want to know what drives women from careers? Reality. I can stay home with my children and make more money than I would have working. The numbers are real; this is real life. Feminist movement, please take note -- you want women in the workforce? Fix it, and we'll come back.