I gave up work at the age of 28 for 5 years to be a full time stay at home parent, on the agreement that I would go back to work once our eldest started school. We swapped roles after the birth of or our third child ( 10 years ago). It was hard at first I was earning a third of what she had been, but the tax credit system made up a lot of the shortfall we still had to cut back on our spending. I wouldn’t want to go back to that wasteful materialistic lifestyle now, we value our time together as a family more. One of use has taken the kids to nursery or school everyday of their lives and been home for them, I don’t think you can put a price on that.
Things we gave up, flying, new cars bought on credit and anything else bought on credit( we save up for large purchases), A glass of wine every evening (I barely drink now), eating out every weekend, takeaway coffee, smashed avocado on toast, new bikes ( my new bike is 11 years old, the kids all have second hand bikes), a 4/5 bed house the 5 of us live in a modest 3 bed bungalow.