What have you done to cut costs so you could be a SAH parent? - Page 2

[Mama Dragon]

Move to a cheaper house/apartment, get rid of car loans, only minimum car insurance, take in a day care kid or 2, no eating out...those are thie biggest changes.

[Millie Ivy]

Ditto to all the great advice, but I especially wanted to reiterate the in home daycare advice!

I don't make a ton of money (I watch one baby) but w/o paying for someone else to watch MY kids, plus the frugal choices I *try* to make (still evolving, thank you much!) it works out to be enough. My income pays for school stuff (we homeschool), my van, gas, some groceries (dh and I both pitch in for groceries, depending on how my funds are that week!) and my cc debt.

My goal is to be debt free, but even then I will probably always watch one child at least, because it fits with my Mama lifestyle easily and gives us a little extra money to play with. And it has been a great experience for my kids. they help with the baby and make a little money themselves and learn to budget, save, prioritize, etc..


Hth! I would totally do whatever it takes to have a parent at home. Esp inthe younger years. They fly, let me tell you!

[heatherdeg]

Just chiming in...

We did alot of the things listed above (including refinancing before I was without income--so we qualified). Some things that made it easier to do:

* Tracked EVERY LAST PENNY of our income. We budgeted prior, but not like this. What an eye-opener.

* Were VERY strict on groceries (a common black hole) and budgeted to buy in bulk during sales.

* Put cash for certain budget categories into envelopes. Another kick in the behind that kept us on track.

And then, yeah... there are the tons of other little things you do like going without cable, switching to Vonage, consignment shops, etc. In the end, our overall health and lifestyle were better above and beyond the quality of childcare!

One word of caution, though: Make sure you and your dh are on the same page with what your being home is worth. If you're willing to give up $50/month in cable to be home and he's not, it's going to require more than just making the numbers work... kwim? If you both feel strongly about your being home, you two will figure out how to make it work. If you're not on the same page, it may never work.

Good luck!

[justmama]

I am a sahm right now and have been for the better part of the last 2 1/2 years now. My hubby doesn't make very much and our budget is shoestring thin lately as we are in a geographically more expensive area. Here's a list of what we do:

-I watch a friend's daughter for MUCH cheaper than daycare rates but it still gives me some extra cash.

-we heat our house at 62-64 degrees and turn the heat off completely at night and when we are outside playing or running errands to save on the gas bill.

-all clothing and diapers are washed in cold with NO exceptions!

-turn off all lights and unplug appliances when they are not necessary to save electric bill.

-walking to run errands is impossible given where we live right now but we combine errands as much as possible into a general area to save gas(ie, putting off a return until I need to go to that area for at least 2 other errands, etc)

-cloth diapers and wipes. no paper products in our house except for toilet paper because that's a must for my husband

-breastfeeding for as long as possible(cuts down on food expenses and doctor bills)

-renting movies and books from library for entertainment.

-checking out local freebies like the free gymboree class at the local movie theatre every other Tuesday early in the morning for kid's entertainment or the project every other Saturday morning at Lowe's for older kids.

-simple frugal meals and shopping on sales. My MIL has a deep freezer that we utilize often.

-using family members for babysitting instead of hiring a babysitter. MIL gets to see her granddaughters and we get a date night once every 2 weeks or so.

-using dryer only for socks, underwear, and cloth wipes. hang to dry everything else. We have an indoor clothesline in the basement and a drying rack and a clothesline outside for nicer days.

-no internet(I'm at the library now) and no cable tv. it's REALLY hard without internet and MDC but maybe when finances improve. . . . . . . .

-shopping consignment shops(especially on $ .50 day!) and selling outgrown clothing

-knowing what we NEED and what we just WANT. This is huge for us because we are given to spending on things that we just WANT instead of actually NEEDing.

-cooking more from scratch and buying less prepared meals has cut our food budget in half!

-occasional store coupons like the 50% off coupons at A.C. Moore for projects to do with the kids.

-make our own playdough, paint, and bubbles.

-learning to knit! That was huge for me. I make longies for Lulu's cloth diapers, scarves, hats, mittens, sweaters, dish clothes, dolls, etc.

-pulling apart consignment shop sweaters for wool yarn.

-making homemade presents instead of buying.

Meg

[nannymom]

We track every penny. We have very little "fun" money.
I shop at Aldi's and discount grocery stores
Dh and I almost never buy new clothes (my mom buys dd and dhs shoes when he needs then for work)or anything that si not a complete necessity
We got less expensive cable
We really only do free activities or stuff that is under ten bucks
We only go out to eat once or twice a month
We conserve energy every way we can think of
We restrict our driving as much as possible to cut gas costs
We stopped saving into our savings account( ) now we just have dhs 401K
We got a cheaper cell phone plan for me
I switched our car insurance and that was a huge savings

I'm sure we do more the main thing is just that we pretty much avoid any frivolus speneding. The first six months were really hard. I cried a lot about being so broke and then I got kind of used to it and then things started getting easier.

It is all totally worth it.

[chel]

we had dd right after college, so we just kept the cheap "college student life". So not as much cutting back.
yeah, the free childcare really helps. Most of my friends that have had a great time with WOH were ones that had free childcare through family members. The main reason I didn't go back to work (after working all of 8m-the whole time pg) was I would have around $200 left after daycare!

I'm planning on returning back to the workforce soon. The only real change will be we could afford a house instead of renting an apartment.

[Sharlla]

When we were in Wa we had a roommate living with us, no cable, no cell phones and had one car that we paid cash for. For awhile I just started walking to work since we lived 15 minutes away and we dropped our car insurance which saved us a ton of money.

[msjd123]

Originally Posted by Sharlla

For awhile I just started walking to work since we lived 15 minutes away and we dropped our car insurance which saved us a ton of money.

Isn't it illegal not to have car insurance? Or was the car not being used at all by you or your dh?

[Sharlla]

Originally Posted by msjd123

Isn't it illegal not to have car insurance? Or was the car not being used at all by you or your dh?

We weren't using the car, which is why I stated that my work was 15 mins away.

[KAHMama]

What we've done:

1. Bought a house we could afford on one salary
2. Got rid of cable
3. Borrow books from the library instead of buying them
4. Borrow toys from the toy library instead of buying them. Mind you we still have A TON of toys :
5. Stopped eating out so much. Much easier now with one person at home (in our case, my dh is the SAHP) to cook and plan meals.
6. Got rid of the 2nd car

At this point, there isn't much I wouldn't do to keep one parent at home. We're homeschooling so it's pretty much a requirement

[Baby Makes 4]

Here's our list of lifestyle/spending changes we have made so I can stay at home but we don't feel deprived. (I added in the savings)

* Instead of 2 nice cars we drive a used minivan and a scooter ~ $150/month

* Cut our personal spending money down from $50/week each to $20/week each ~ $240

* Cloth diaper ~ $70

* moved to a place with cheaper rent and are currently on the waiting list for a place with even cheaper rent even though it will be tight quarters ~ $250

* No cable ~ $65

* We rent movies and educational DVDs from Zip (netflix in Canada) instead of the video store ~ $30

* Rarely eat out ~ $150

* Try to shop frugally and not buy packaged foods (This alone can save us $200 a month or more!)

*Found a cheaper phone plan ~ $25

*Taking advantage of free or inexpesive activities (parks, library, picnics) ~ $75

That all adds up to a savings of over $1000 a month but our actual lifestyle has changed very little.