Frugal tips?

[jolenegreen2]

Im soon to be a SAHM. I was wondering if anyone could help em and give me their BEST TIP or most money saved way of doing things while being a SAHM? I have 3 kiddos and one on the way! Any advice would be great....seeing how I am used to more $$ comming in? THANKS

[Marie78]

I'm interested in hearing what other mommy's suggest. I'm a mommy to be and we are considering having me stay at home full time and that will mean 1/2 our income.

I will have to make all our meals at home, scratch cooking when it saves us money.

Breast feeding

Cloth diapering (if washing the cloth diapers costs less than buying the disposable kind). We have to pay to wash our clothes and it's $2 a load, and I'm not sure how easy it is to launder the cloth diapers.

I plan on making our own laundry soap when our store brand runs out. I already make our own all purpose cleaner.

I will make the extra trip or two to Aldi each month to save the most money.

Visit the $ store for greeting cards for birthdays, holidays, etc... and check out what they have their before making department store purchases, just in case I find a deal there instead.

No clothes shopping for me, if I'm at home all day I will have casual clothes and a "nice" outfit to go out in when I need to.

Inexpensive hair cuts at Super cuts a few times a year for Dh and I.

I foresee our most expensive unplanned/planned for costs being: car repairs, co-pays for Dr, Dentist, and Eye Dr., auto/renters/life insurance.

[NovaMater]

Honestly, what's made the biggest difference is tracking our spending and having a budget. That may be more elementary than what you're looking for, though!

[my4littlebuffaloes]

Lower your utility costs. Turn down the thermostat, unplug things, turn lights off, hang your laundry, get rid of the extras on your TV and phone, etc. These regular bills can really add up, so cutting them will really help your money stretch.

Jennifer
my blog

[IntlMom]

I would say that the simple tip of just staying out of WalMart is a huge help.........where DOES that money go?

[TigerGirl1226]

I would say stay home as much as possible...not to the point of cabin fever, but stay out of stores. When you do go out to purchase things have a list and stick to it.

[iida]

I would say that eating leftovers and cooking and baking from scratch is a big money saver. And I only by meat when the price is down 50%. Then I buy as much as I can and freeze the extra meat.

[momofslg]

What saved me the most was

-breastfeeding- in having 3 kids I NEVER bought formula
-Use the library - books, movies, games, story time
-Find free entertainment near home-parks, museums etc
-clothing- buy secondhand or from thrift stores
-get together with other moms and form a playgroup,you get adult talk and the kids get play time.
-meal plan, shop the sales and stock up when available
-cook from scratch, make double batches and freeze for nights when you just don't feel like cooking
- get out of the mindset that you "NEED" stuff.

That's all I can think of right now

[Momto2Boyz]

The biggest thing that saves me, is having free or really low cost entertainment. Especially during the summer, when both kids are out of school. If we don't have things to do, that is when we tend to spend more money! At the beginning of each season, I try to take a notebook and write down all the free/or super low cost things to do.

The list for summer includes things like:
Play at the park
Take a walk
Take a bike ride
Play in the sprinkler
Have an art contest with sidewalk chaulk
Take a picnic to the park

And the list goes on. I try to list every single thing I can think of for us to do. Then once summer comes around, and the kids are bored and we are wanting to get out of the house, then we can pull out the list and pick something to do!

[mombottoo]

I have pretty much been a sahm most of my adult life...now I'm a grandma !

Grocery Shopping (or any other type of shopping for that matter): shop sales, compare prices, stock-up when the price is great, use coupons when you can and rebate if the rebate is worth it. Cut every coupon, whether you will personally use it or not and form a coupon exchange with friends (I used to do this and we'd visit and have a great time while sorting through each other's trade boxes; mine was an old shoe box that I decorated).

We have always purchased most of our clothing from yard/garage sales or thrift shops...I was never one to buy the latest gotta have it name brand clothing or shoes.

Most of the toys the grandkids play with at my house came from yard/garage sales and thrift stores. I have a fisher price piano thing that I bought for 50 cents at a yard sale when my oldest grandson was 2 or so...he is now 12 and my youngest grandchild who is 3 still plays with it...great investment for 50 cents.

Limit going out for entertainment...when our kids were growing up we had card nights at our home or at a friend's home and we took the kids with us if we went away. We also used to have pizza nights with friends...made everything from scratch...each family would bring different things & it was a blast.

I also hosted many in home parties (tupperware, home interiors, friendly homes and various other toy parties, etc.) and I did all my gift shopping with the free credits I earned...this is how we provided Christmas gifts for our kids, extended family & friends. I'm still using the tupperware I got for free eons ago today.

If you can have your own yard sale a couple of times a year to move stuff you no longer need and use that money to replace things that need to be replaced.

[gardening momma]

Haven't read the other replies yet....

I'm a SAHM of 2. What saves us the most is buying kids' clothes and shoes from thrift stores and resale shops. I also find kids' books, toys, etc... there. I also use the library a lot. I do all my research on kids' books online, through the libary website and amazon (then check to see if the library has the book), then request the book online through my library's website. I usually pick up the books from the library drive thru.

Staying out of the McDonalds' Playplace! Although it has been great for teaching my oldest dd to climb (she was afraid of getting up into the playplace for a while), it costs us money because I love to get lunch there when we go.

I do like to check out Walmart's kids' clothes clearance racks. I often find nice clothing for $1 or $2 there.

I think when shopping for things like clothes & shoes, you need to develop a mentality of what is "too expensive", so when you do go to somewhere like Walmart, you know what your limits are. You can say, "That's crazy! I'm not paying $X for that!" I really needed to get shoes for my dd, and hadn't found any at the thrift or resale shops, but I still can't bring myself to spend $15 for them at Walmart. I just keep looking.

[Megareader]

I would say that the simple tip of just staying out of WalMart is a huge help.........where DOES that money go?

I live just a few blocks from WalMart and Kohls. Today I set the sale ads to one side so I wouldn't be tempted to go "save some money."

[lisettelovebug]

I became a SAHM in January of 2007 when my daughter was 4 months old. I can honestly say that even though we have less income coming in, we have more money. I think our yearly income dropped about $18,000 when I quit. Then when dh got his new job last January our income dropped even more because he didn't have overtime. But that's ok, because with making less we qualified for WIC for the little ones, a regular HEAP benefit every year (usually about $300) and we are buying our house through Rural Development.

Now, if I were you there are a few things I would do. I would save a certain percent of your income. You could consider this your safety net. I would also either start stockpiling or expand your stockpile. Having at least 3 months worth of food will come in handy for those times when money is tight. I would also do up a budget. Figure out where you can cut costs and find alternatives to spending money. For example, dh used to spend quite a bit on buying coffee, now we buy a huge bag of beans at Sam's Club and it is extremely cheaper than $1-$1.50 each cup of coffee.

Shop the loss leaders each week. You may even want to consider shopping bi-weekly or monthly. I know with 3 kids in tow, that taking them out for a once a month shopping trip is so much easier than weekly. Plus we tend to spend a lot less. We get the bulk of our food at Aldi's, then go get a few things at Sam's and Walmart. We also have designated this day as our eating out day. We will go to a semi-decent restaurant like Chili's or Olive Garden for dinner. One of the other nice things about this is that, especially right now, I am not taking the little ones out in the cold all the time.

If you think you might qualify, sign up for WIC, HEAP and other programs. I know that for a family of 5 to recieve these things you can make over $800 a week in New York state.

Plan your menus and make a list before going shopping. Also, bring cash. Don't bring a debit card, and definitely not a credit card. Having only cash means you can spend a certain amount and when it's gone, it's gone. Make a lot of foods from scratch. Use convenience foods sparingly - they usually cost a lot of money. Now, I don't make spaghetti sauce from scratch but that;s pretty cheap. Also, I buy gravy because I use it to make chicken and biscuits.

Ok. I got side tracked. 2 yr old started crying upstairs (must of had a bad dream) and I had to go console her. If I think of anything else I will post it later.

[froggy]

I decided to track my spending over a week and then for the entire month. I was blown away with how frivalous I can be. Buying a bottle a milk then a magazine and something else I really didn't need. At the end of the month it worked out that I spent and extra $150 on items I really didn't need or in the end want. I am glad I did the exercise and now when I go to the shop I will only get what I truely need.

Cheers Froggy

[Trishagirl]

When I was a SAHM I babysat other kids to help with extra income. I would take the kids to the library for storytime and get books, puppets videos ect. We went to the park and had picnics was a great free outing for all of us. I would read a book while they played. Everyone had a great time! Sidewalk chalk & bubbles are easy fun things for the kids too. I would think of challenging games with water in the hot summer days. Make a water slide with plastic on a hill that the kids can slide down.