Top Ways on How Stay-at-Home Moms Can Save Money

Mothers find the most frugal ways to manage the household. Saving money is among the top priorities of any parent because what else is more important than securing your child’s future, right?

When you’re a stay-at-home mom, you know very well how money comes and goes. While your husband works hard to provide for the family, you’re the one in charge of managing the budget. And it’s not a walk in the park to handle your finances. You make sure there’s money for food, your kid’s tuition, the rent, your monthly bills, and your savings.

If you google ways to save money, there are about 91,200,000 results. It’s easy to search for the most comprehensive article with the best tips you can follow. The only thing that can make a difference is if you act on it and commit to your saving goals.

There are tons of ways stay-at-home moms can save money. Choose one or two to try at first then see how much you can save after a month. Pick new ones each month until you discover which makes the biggest savings.

1. Watch out for big sales

I’m sure you’ve been doing this for a long time now. And if you have a favorite grocery store, you probably know each of their holiday sale. You’ve signed up to their newsletter and followed all their social media accounts. You’re always updated on every promo and store-wide sales they have so it’s impossible to miss out on any of them.

Do you check out what’s on sale and buy whatever you think is a good buy? Think again. Not all items on sale are good buys so you better be a smart consumer. Never leave the house without your list!

What exactly do you need in the next coming weeks? Write them down and buy if they’re on sale. If they’re not discounted, at least there are items on your cart that you paid for way less than the original price.

2. Prepare a weekly meal plan

Okay, before you mumble how exhausting this could be, let me remind you of the good things that come with a meal planning strategy. One, you’ll promote a healthier diet to everyone in your household. Two, you won’t stress about what to cook when you’re too busy with other stuff. Three, you will save money.

When you plan every meal your family will have for the rest of the week, you can make sure what they’re eating are packed with nutrients. Come up with tasty yet easy-to-prepare meals. No fuss, all good food. Schedule the simplest dishes on days you have expected tasks so can still cook something up for the little time you have.

How can you save money with a meal planning strategy? If you know what you’ll be cooking for the rest of the week, you will only buy the exact ingredients you need. You’ll prevent impulse buying when you see an ingredient on a BOGO promo but not in your grocery list. This will also avoid kitchen waste. Both your pocket and Mother Earth will thank you for this.

3. Find the best time to shop for clothes

If you love shopping for clothes, you know that stores sell items with a huge discount when they’re off the season. Winter clothes go half the price when spring is just round the corner. But you can shop as early as January since most people already have them so retailers are lowering the price during this month. If you wait until February or March, the prices could go much lower but there might no longer be good selections left.

4. Invest in classic wardrobe pieces

Speaking of clothes, choose the classic pieces rather than the trendy ones when you shop. If you keep on buying the latest fashionable items, once they go out of style, you would just neglect or ditch them. Save money by investing on classic wardrobe items as you can mix and match and wear any season.

5. Buy in bulk

What items do you need the most that you have to restock every week or so? When these items go on sale, buy them in bulk. List down how fast you can consume, let’s say a toilet paper, and how many do you need in a month. See if you can purchase two to three months worth of these discounted goods with your budget.

6. Find friends who carpool

Save on gas by looking for friends who are carpooling their kids to school. Offering to drive the kids three times a week would still be helpful in trimming down your gas expense.

7. Pack lunch

This will be so much easier once you have your weekly meal plans. Play around the dishes all throughout the week. Your husband and kids will save money and have delicious and healthy homemade packed meals to enjoy.

8. Identify the right store for you

List down everything you purchase regularly — food ingredients, toiletries, cleaning agents. Visit all the nearby stores and compare their prices for every item on your list. This way you’d know in which store you can get the best deals.

9. DIY toys

Use your creativity and create toys for your kids. You get to save the money you were supposed to spend for a toy online (which you think won’t even last a day until it’s broken). This also helps you teach your kids to value simple things and find joy in them.

10. DIY anything

Aside from toys, there are many things you can create on your own. With helpful tutorials on Pinterest or YouTube, you can craft something even if you don’t have an artsy soul. Build your own storage boxes or prettify your living room with DIY accents.

11. Grow your own garden

Are you an advocate of the organic lifestyle? Then this one is easy-peasy. Plant vegetables. This guarantees you fresh produce and helps you save money, too. You can also grow flowering plants, which you can sell or give as a gift on special occasions.

12. Practice the 3Rs

Reduce, reuse, recycle. You can save money by doing even the simplest things at home. Reduce food waste, reuse wine bottles, recycle old clothes. These are just three practices you can implement in your household. Get everyone involved and save money — and the environment — together.

This list could go on as there are many other ways stay-at-home moms can save money. Which do you think you can do today?

Sophie is an aspiring blogger who supports special children through the use of autism awareness shirts.
Follow her at  @Sophie___Smith.