As a new stay-at-home mom, what are some of your best money-saving tips that have worked for your family?

Answer 1

I've noticed that to save on groceries, making out a menu and writing your grocery list based on that can actually save money! I used to just go shopping and get anything. I then noticed that I had this high grocery bill and not much food to show for it. When I sat down and made a menu for the week and bought only the things on my list the grocery bill was much lower and I knew exactly what I was going to make that day which helped me in that way also. Bottle feeding your baby formula is also going to take a lot of money. My baby wouldn't take the breast so I bought a breast pump and still gave him his breast milk in a bottle. Now he's 7 months old and formula fed and it costs soooo much money. So breastfeed as long as you can. I was going to try cloth diapers but noticed that there are some things worth paying for! It took almost all my time to clean cloth diapers so I quickly got tired of that! Being a stay-at-home mom is the greatest joy of my life and I wish you and your new baby all the best!

Answer 2

Im not a stay at home, but totally thrifty.

Used stores like Once Upon a Child often have awesome stuff for a fraction of the price, always check there first. Plus packaging on toys stinks, just wrap something in your own box for a gift if you buy it used.

Sign up on websites, like pampers and target's. I often get $3 off diaper coupons sent from Target.com. When used on a small pack that saves a ton!

Breastfeed.

Answer 3

Cook things ahead of time. I do things like brown and freeze ground beef so I can throw it in with chili, spaghetti, etc. and streamline cooking, so the excuses to eat out are minimized.

Buy things on sale. Shop resale shops, especially for kids clothes. There's no sense in paying a small fortune for things you know they're going to wear holes in anyway. Shop in bulk if the price is right.

Buy electric trimmers and do the family haircuts yourself. It's not too hard to learn how; a guide frequently comes with the clippers. (I am the only one for whom we regularly pay for haircuts, since I can't see to cut my own very well.)

Conserve gas. When you have errands to run, combine as many as you can. If you have a dentist appointment one day, do your grocery shopping and get your hair cut and mail your bills, or whatever, on that day, as well.

Make the most of free opportunities. Take the kids to the library summer reading program activities, rather than paying for a movie or something. Go to free concerts in the park instead of paying for tickets to an event. Our town has Friday night activities downtown in the summer time, complete with inflatable rides for the kids and things like that. It's a great opportunity to get out of the house and have a good time without breaking the bank.

Good luck. It's worth it, when you consider what you're NOT going to be paying in child care, and all the time you're going to have with your children.

Edit: I read a comment about buying more inexpensive diapers, and I second that; however, my brand suggestion would be "White Cloud" brand diapers. I know they are available at KMart and I believe they are also available at WalMart. They are actually comparable in quality to Huggies, but WAY cheaper. They have the fabric-like cover and stretchy velcro fasteners. I know we saved a bundle there! If I remember correctly, Target's store brand diapers were similar to Huggies, as well, and considerably less expensive than the "real thing." (My youngest has been out of diapers for a couple of years, now, but I'm just getting ready to join the Diaper Brigade again with my son, due in November.) Best wishes!

Answer 4

coupons, also joining different websites, I joined the juicy juice and pampers website they often send you things by mail. Join a formula website if not breastfeeding, I joined the good start supreme program and they sent me coupons. I do a lot of cooking at home because eating out can be expensive. When my son began to eat solids I pureed my own babyfood and froze it in the freezer this saved tons of money, it's good frozen for up to two months (vegetables that is). Keep up a budget you will do fine.

Answer 5

breastfeeding
I make my own baby food
coupons
I make my own cleaning supplies
we cloth diaper
we walk everywhere within walking distance, plus that is good for you.
we do a lot of bulk shopping for foods and such too.
We recycle and compost as much as possible and are trying to get it to where we don't need to pay for garbage pick up
shop the sales and clearance racks.
thrift stores are great places to make great finds at too!
We don't have the room now but I use a friends gardens veggies, they'll go to waste otherwise.
you'd be surprised how much you can save by doing the little things or not buying the junk food. make your own you save tons that way!
When we do go out to eat we go somewhere that the kids eat free and we only do that 2-4 times a month tops.

Answer 6

-- breastfeeding
-- coupons,meal planning, and a calculator at the grocery store - don't buy anything not planned for
-- almost eliminate entertainment expenses (find free stuff, go to every festival, carnival, flea/farmers market, park...)
-- eliminate all unnecessary expense, like nail appointments, cable TV, only buy clothing when you absolutely have to - like your only 2 pairs of jeans have just ripped or stained - not because you saw some too cute pair at the mall - this also goes for baby, cute outfits only last a couple of months - get one for pictures, then save money on sale sleepers and the prepackaged carters/gerber 3packs.
-- cloth diapers are more expensive at first... but if this is your first child and you plan to have more... it's a worthy investment, BumGenius has adjustable ones, so you don't have to buy different sizes - and get neutral colored ones so your 2nd child - a boy - doesn't have to wear pink diapers :)

i think our biggest was handed down items... so much of what we had was handed down from cousins and friends I'm not sure how we would have done it otherwise!

Answer 7

Coupons and a strict budget re: extras. For instance, we allow ourselves to eat out once a week, and absolutely NO MORE than that. And we never throw out leftovers. Also, we have one "cheap meal" night to offset the cost of "take-out" night... Meaning, we might do sandwiches and canned soup or hot dogs... especially during the summers when we can just take some stuff onto the patio in the evening and nibble instead of buying the ingredients to make a "real" meal.

Answer 8

plant a garden

learn to sew

make as much from scratch as you can - prepared foods are expensive

Learn the difference between a want and a need. You don't NEED cable, a cell phone, dinner out... at one point we found we didn't need a car, even

See if you can be comfortable with the AC set at about 80 F in the summer. It gets a little sweaty, but it's not dangerously hot and your electric bill goes down dramatically

Try to make as many meatless meals a week as you can - red meat is expensive and bad for you in mass quantities anyhow

Answer 9

I clip coupons and save tons of money on groceries.
I buy Target Brand Diapers because they work well.
I use off brand products that work just as well as brand name things.
I buy things on sale. For example, Christmas is months away and I already have my closet full of clearence christmas toys for all the kids in my family.
eBay. I sell and buy things there.
Also, I made my boyfriend buy a Go-Ped to go to work with so we can save money on gas for the car.

Answer 10

I think the biggest way for us to save money was to not eat out. I make my DH's lunch for work and always send lunch with my daughter except on Friday because it's pizza day :) Another really good way to save money is get your Sunday's ads from the paper and collect all the good prices. Wal-Mart will honor any body's price but their own (at another Wal-Mart).