This Is How We Do It

When are you going back to work? Have you gone back to work yet? Are you enjoying your small break at home? These are the questions I get...often. I even got a similar question today from a fellow mom. I am not even going to go into detail about staying home and how it is far from a 'break'. People assume that I can't stay home. People assume that being a stay at home mom is not an option. I am happy to report for right now, in the present, I am staying home.

How do we do it? Well where there is a will, there is always a way. And in our case we have also had many blessings.

This Is How We Do It

No excess in our lives (usually).

We set a strict budget.

We own our cars.

We try and spend $40 on food.

I freeze extra food.

We cut cable.

I save all of our change and get gift cards.

I try to only fill my gas tank once a month.

We don't shop unless there is a NEED (usually).

We use cloth diapers - part time.

It takes a lot of planning and work to save money and not spend over our tight budget. BUT to me it's worth it. It was a goal of ours as a family for me to stay home, so it works. We also quickly realized with me working and the cost of daycare, I would be bringing in very little and I would be missing out on a lot of time with Lucy. And the fewer germs we exposed Lucy to, the better (See MCAD Momma).  It just didn't make sense for our family. So it was a choice, and we found a way.

Buy Used

Mike and I prayed and searched for cars that we could buy without having a car payment. And thankfully we were able to purchase two reliable cars within 1 year! We drive camry's and they are wonderful! Buying used not only goes for cars, but we buy most of Lucy's clothes used as well. We have wonderful friends and family that have bought clothes and diapers for us! And as Lucy gets older, I have bought a lot of her clothes used through consigning. I can probably count on one hand the number of clothes items I have purchased new for Lucy. She is growing so quickly, and honestly messes up a lot of outfits along the way!

$40 A Week On Food

When I wrote about spending $40 a week on food, I wrote a little about setting a goal under your budget so you have extra money. That is exactly what we've done. We looked at our budget, quickly realized we had no room for excess. I knew I had to make up some money somewhere. I love traveling and gift giving and date nights way too much!

Cut Cable

Cutting cable was a scary thing for me! I had routines each week of the shows I loved to watch, and a little part of me was aching thinking I wouldn't be enjoying some of my shows! But we save over a $100 a month not having cable, and we use Netflix a lot! I also quickly realized with having a baby, I don't get to watch much television anyways. And if I am really missing a particular show, I can usually get online and watch it if I NEED to. Even without cable we still get some of the basic channels. It works, and I love that I am no longer a slave to my television.

Save Your Change

One of my favorite things - Saving change! One of the coolest ideas I had heard a few months back was about the Coinstar machines in grocery stores. I had never used them before because when they convert change into dollar bills for you they usually take a portion of your money, like 9% or something. Well that just isn't right to me, so I wasn't about to use the machine. Mike hates carrying change around, and I wasn't always the best at using it. We also found that a lot of banks now charge you to take your coins...once again that just didn't seem right in our minds. SO we heard that if you go to the Coinstar machines and put your change in and choose the gift card option, instead of the quick cash, you get your full amount of money on a gift card of your choice! They don't have gift cards to every place, but they have a few great options. Mike and I usually save up our change to around $50 and then go and get a gift card to a restaurant. My next purchase will be an online gift card so I can buy some christmas gifts, all with our extra change! It somehow feels free, even though it is our extra change.

Drive Less

Filling up my car with gas once a month isn't as difficult SOME months. We walk a lot when the weather is nice. If I do drive anywhere it is usually only around town. We aren't spending as much money on gas with me staying home, because I am not driving to and from work every day. We are also lucky that most of our family and friends live relatively close.

Part Time Cloth Diaperer

In short, we use cloth diapers most of the time. I don't like using cloth diapers when I am running around for errands and things. They are too bulky in my purse (I don't use a diaper bag usually anymore). I do think cloth diapering is easy. I would recommend it. It does save us a lot of money, even doing it half of the time. We only buy disposable diapers every few months or if we are going on a vacation. Cloth diapers can be pricey up front, but we requested cloth diapers as gifts before having Lucy. Also you can get great coupons to BuyBuy Baby and slowly accumulate your own collection.

I have JUST posted about Cloth Diapering Here. 

Thanks for reading!
Sarah