Being a stay-at-home mom is not an easy job you are forced to budget on one income and having something to save is not easy. In this article find out simple money-saving tips for stay at home moms in case you are surviving on one income.
10 Money-saving tips for stay at home moms
Budget
Failing to plan is planning to fall. Create a budget for your house and stick to it. Budget help create the list of the basic item you want like flour, milk, cooking oil, and sugar therefore help reduce impulse buying.
If you are not good at budget try Ramsey envelop system
Buy in-season product
When something is in the season it is available in plenty and sellers to tend to sell at a cheap price because it is in excess and available for everyone. Buying in season will help spend less and you eat healthily.
Take kids to the free park for outdoor activities
Most town has a free park where you can take kids to play or outdoor activities.
Some of these parks parent organize free fun activities for the kids to get involved. Like our nearest park, there is a football team that plays four times a week and more interesting kid game.
Buy an item at a discount price
Stop buying disposable products
Most disposable products you use once and throw them. Most of these products are costly they only lie to us we saving money and time on cleaning them.
Stop buying disposable diapers and buy cloth/ reusable diapers, buy kitchen towels instead of paper towels, buy a water filter instead of bottled water, replace plastic wrap with reusable storage containers, and buy a reusable water bottle and not bottled water.
Disposable products are not environmentally friendly and cost a lot.
Buy second hand
Children outgrow things fast so there is no need to spend a lot of money on buying expensive new clothes.
Second-hand clothes and toys cost less and therefore you save money.
Also, the used book cost less than new books.
Carry packed lunch and water when going out
When visiting places like parks, zoos, museums, or going for a family picnic instead of buying food from cafeterias bring your packed lunch and fill water in reusable bottles.
Share a meal in restaurants
This applies when you go out to eat. Most restaurants pack a lot of food that is too much for the kids. Instead of having a waste split the food.
Sometimes it’s even happened to an adult if the restaurants serve too much you can order less and share.
Swap clothes with other mom
Instead of getting rid of clothes that no longer fit you can decide to swap them with other mom stuff.
Resale children outgrown clothes
You can decide to sell kids clothes that no longer fit them and use that money to buy other clothes or items you want in the house.
Exchange book in the nearest library
Instead of buying a book now and then find the nearest library where you will be exchanging with the book you want.
Use money-saving apps
They are apps like Ibotta that give you money back when you shop with them.
Find free kid activities
Instead of for paying fun kid activities you can check out your nearest park or library whether they have free craft activities, holiday programs, movies, educational activities, concerts, and more.
Buying clothes offseason
Buying Christmas clothes during the festive season is expensive the same case for summer clothes, Easter, Halloween, and thanksgiving.
If you want to save money purchase those clothes offseason
Buy clearance items
Visit your favorite store and find out what is on clearance now. Last year after Christmas I visit my favorite store and found out they were these nice boots that were on sale. I bought the bought and it lasted up to next Christmas.
During this time you can buy the product at a discount price.
Don’t bring kids to the store
Every parent can relate to these, kids and babies ask for everything in the store. Others become fussy you even end up buying what you had not budgeted. If you want to save money and stick to your budget go alone in the store for shopping
Rent movies
Instead of taking your whole family for night movie rent and have a family movie at home.
Make popcorn, pizza, or any snack at home and you will save money.
Recycle thing at home
Recycling mostly applies to kid creative things to make. You can save things like boxes or containers for your kids to make things out of them. This helps improve your kid’s creativity and save money.
Not only kids there are the thing that you can recycle in the house and become useful. For instance, I buy plastic container biscuits and use the container to store cereals.
Join mom clubs or groups
Joining a mom group is the best way to get out of the house without spending money.
Most mom groups meet in one place like a park where you don’t pay anything and you get time to have an adult talk. During this time kids play together as you learn something new from other moms.
Use dollar tree
At dollar tree, everything is one dollar. You can find a lot of deals mostly on school supplies.
Cook at home
Cooking at home is less costly compared to going out to eat. Have a menu plan and make sure you include kid’s favorite meals.
Use kitchen garden
If you have a kitchen garden you can decide to grow your vegetable or use containers in the house backyard.
Learn more
Being a full-time stay at home mom does not mean you don’t have time to learn a new culinary skill or improve on one.
Like my case, I learned how to blog when I was a stay at home mom. I used free online courses and now I have three blogs that I am earning money from.
You don’t have to pay for expensive courses you can use free online tutorials or YouTube.
Turn off electricity and water
When you are not using electricity and water learn a habit of switching off to save money on utility bills.
Use coupons
Use coupons when shopping in the stores it helps save a lot of money.
Start a side hustle
Relying on one income is not easy to start a side hustle like a home-based business or learn a hobby or craft that you can turn to make money
Buy item in large quantities
If you have a large family buying item in bulk help save a lot of money. You are sold the items at wholesale price.
Start own playgroup with other moms
Starting playgroup help reduce daycare cost. If you want to get things done or go for errands you can take a turn watching each other kids.
Also, in the playgroups, kids play with each other.
How do you save money if you are staying at home? Please share with us your money-saving tips below
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