Tips On Living Frugally
 |
| No items matching your keywords were found. |
How did you afford to be a stay at home mother?
Any other tips on living frugally would be greatly appreciated.
Someone else asked a similar question, so I wanted to share my answer to them with you too. I'm a SAHM, because luckily, my DH does make enough money to support us. I'm planning on being a SAHM until this fall, when our son will be one year old. Then I am planning on finding a part time job(preferably). Until then, here is how I save us money:
Grocery Stores (this way I've saved over 40 dollars in one trip):
1) Join the frequent shopper club (when you get the key tags that you swipe at the checkout).
2) Keep current on their weekly flyers.
3) Coupons (if possible - who has time to clip?!)
4) When key items are on sale, stock up a few weeks worth of food - chicken breasts @ Food Lion can be a steal; loaves of bread keep well in the freezer; buy in bulk, then break it down and freeze portions
5) Buy fruits and vegetables at discount grocery stores (i.e. ALDI) They are MUCH cheaper than regular grocery stores, and quality is great! I paid $1.45 USD at ALDI for a 3lb bag of Gala Apples this week.
6) Cook what you can at home instead of eating out. Even if it's just hamburger helper, you're getting more for your dollar than if you picked up KFC or McDonalds. Salads are an easy side dish, and healthy too. Rice-a-Roni or Pasta-Roni are cheap & easy side dishes too, often on sale for only $1 USD a box...
7) Eat the leftovers of that food! I used to snub my nose at leftovers until I realized how much money I could save from buying lunch if I just ate my leftovers.
Energy Bills:
1) I try not to run the TV all day, turn off lights when I'm not using them, even unplugging the coffee pot when its not in use (how much power does that little green screen drain all day?).
2) I turn down the heat during the day, and use a space heater to heat the living/kitchen area (where me and baby hang most of the day anyways). Why heat a whole house if I'm only hanging out in one part of it?
3) Use your dryer less. I went to IKEA and purchased a metal (not as bad as it sounds) drying rack for $19 USD and some clothes pins. I hang dry what I can to save the electricity. Usually all it takes it one night to dry your things. Plus baby clothes shrink so darn fast, so line drying is all I can do with them.
4) Hand wash little loads when appropriate. I hand wash my sons bibs (he goes through sooo many @ 4 months old). Then I line dry them. Honestly I could do the same with some of this other things - socks etc. Maybe I should...
Other Stuff:
1) I don't buy any clothes for myself, or DH, just baby. I've gotten pretty good at clothing repairs, so I can hem, sew buttons, close holes to make what we have last longer.
2) Cheap fun - We rent our movies from RedBox ($1 a night) and for the new releases, you can reserve them online for free for pickup whenever is convenient to you. Also, when the weather gets warmer, I plan on visiting the library for free books and movies for our family.
3) Accept help. We are lucky to have family near by who invite us over for dinner and company, and we don't turn down those offers. Not only is it quality time our son spends with family members, it takes the pressure off of me to prepare dinner for an evening, and saves what I would have cooked for another night. Also, if they offer outfits or toys for our son, we never turn those down either, even if the outfit is hideous (lol - some have been). He can at least wear it inside if not in public.
I know my post was crazy long, but I hope I helped in some way.
Good luck in whatever you decide.
