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When I was pregnant with our first son, I was teaching at a school that I loved. I was enjoying working and loved the children and staff that I worked with every day. With all of that said, I knew that I wanted to be a stay at home Mom.
I was going to have to learn how to become a stay at home mom on one income. As much as I love teaching and working with my students, I knew that I wanted to be a stay at home mom even more. I knew that I could afford it, with a little work on my end… saving and trying to supplement Mickey’s income. I knew that it was going to be hard.
Since I first made that decision years ago, back in 2006, our family has grown…
We now have four children… 3 boys & a little girl. (you can read about them here)
I knew from the month that I quit that I loved being a stay at home Mom. I missed my students, don’t get me wrong, but I loved being home with our children. I knew that one day, I could choose to go back to work, when our kids were in school. Quite honestly… as a teacher in North Carolina, if I worked and put four kids into daycare, I would be making little to no money each month, after I payed the preschool bill.
I work in the evenings on my blog (you can start on here). I love writing and I earn an income doing it, which allows me to stay home with our children…
So.. How did I go from working full time, as a teacher, to being a stay at home mom? Let me tell you…
Today I want to share a sneak peek of my book, You Can be a Stay At Home Mom on One Income {money saving tips}, where I talk about making money from home, among other things.
- DON’T GO!
Don’t go shopping for things that you don’t need! If I go to the store, I will be buying things. Of course, I love to shop, but shopping with young kids is a challenge in itself, so that is enough of a reason for me to stay home or do something a little more kid-friendly (and free!) - SAVE ON GROCERIES:
If you are thinking about grocery shopping and saving money, you will want to refer to this post that I made earlier: saving money on groceries- 10 steps to save you a LOT of money at the grocery store, without coupons.
- SHOP DURING SUPER DOUBLES.
I do use coupons when our local grocery stores offer triple coupons (they triple the coupon amount) or super doubles (where the store will double your coupon up to $1 now, so if you have a $1.00 coupon for toothpaste, they will double it to $2.00, making thetoothpaste free.) I get most of our toiletries completely free using coupons. I also get baby wipes for free, snack foods, cereals and many times juice and other food items for free and a lot of other items, too (make up, medicines…) - GATHER COUPONS.
I get my coupons on Sunday (usually from my Mom and my husband’s parents) and I file them by date in a little file-folder box. I wait for the great sales and I start clipping them. I didn’t want to go into how I coupon, because this post would be WAY too long, but I do explain it in my e-book. - Shop only on sale
I NEVER would pay full retail for anything. Getting a great deal on your car- If you are not afraid of a base model, you can get a great deal. My husband loves cars, but we have to be practical. We can not spend a ton of money on a car that will depreciate the moment it leaves the lot, while we have four growing children at home that are getting MORE expensive as they get older. We normally buy either a (well-kept, low-miles) used car or the new car that they were trying to get rid of because it is a manual instead of the automatic. Getting a stick-shift will save you thousands on a car purchase, if you can drive one (trust me, it is easier than people think!). - CLOTHING & SHOES:
I stack clearance items with a coupon. (Kohls has so many sales of 75% off on their clearance sections. Match that with the 30% coupon that comes in the mail and you’ve got a great deal!) Our kids all got new tennis shoes for $22 total (They were about $7-$10 each on sale and over $60 each at full price, so we saved over $150). They had their tennis shoes on clearance at our local Kohls, so we just went in and found them and added our 30% off. Our kids shoes DO NOT last long in this house- they love to play outside and run around, so getting a good deal is a must when they only last a few months (not to mention how quickly little feet grow!) - SWAP:
Also, try having a clothing swap with your friends! It will save you ton of money and everyone loves it! It’s a win-win
- KIDS EAT FREE:
I also take advantage of the KIDS EAT FREE restaurants. There are a TON in our area! If you are looking just search: “Kids eat free restaurants in YOUR-CITY-HERE”.
- FREE ACTIVITIES:
The local libraries offer PLENTY of great activities for kids! Our library has Mommy & Me classes, as well as “drop off your child for an hour class”. They are all geared towards learning and socialization. - Along with libraries, if you look around, you will find a lot of great, free places to take your child. Look up online “Free kid activities in YOUR-CITY-HERE”. I’m sure you will be amazed by the amount of free things that you can do every week in you area.
- Free coloring sheets and activities at home. Here is my free Potty Training Coloring Book that you can download by clicking on the image below.
- TOY SWAP:
Have your friends bring over their “not played with anymore” kid toys & you all just swap them out for each others toys. (This is best to do when the kids are not around to say “WHAT?! You are giving away the Barney toy that I have not touched or looked at in three years? That is my favorite toy in the whole world! You can’t give it away!” See more on Hosting a Toy Swap Here. - PRESCHOOL
Have your own “Preschool” with friends: The above activities (find more activities here), paired with a few play dates and lessons from you at home can easily replace preschool, in my opinion. I think preschool is great when your child is about to enter Kindergarten, but if you can save during the years prior… do it. You could even find a free Mothers Morning Out program- I was in one years ago where we just all had our kids at a local church (8-10 kids at a time). Once every six weeks, I would be the “teacher” of the kids. During the other five weeks, I did not have to be there, because someone else was the ‘teacher’. You could easily arrange this with a few friends. Find a local church or swap houses each week. - That being said, I sent our kids to preschool when they turn four, but that is not to say that I did not heavily debate keeping them home to teach them during the preschool years. In the end, I decided to send them. I wanted them to be fully prepared for school (not academics, but socially & in the aspect of how to listen to their teacher, etc…) Sunday School is great for this, too. PS- here is an older post that I did on the average age to send your child to preschool.
- FREE Date night:
When we have date night, it is normally at home. If we have to go out, my parents will watch our kids for us, but we have our kids in bed by 7:00 on most nights, so we normally don’t have to go out anywhere because we have plenty of time to ourselves in the evenings.This eliminates the need for ‘date night’ since we can have a ‘date’ at home every night- we play board games or card games some nights. We rent movies at Redbox (sign up on their website & they will send you codes for free movies). On special occasions, my husband will run out after the kids are asleep and pick up dinner (Chinese food, anyone?) and I will feed the kids earlier – here are some easy meals. (If you want to find out how important eating dinner as a family is, check out this post on “dinner as a family“. )
- CREDIT CARDS:
We do not use credit cards, unless we are sure that we can pay off the full amount when the bill comes. We have a few that we can pay off over several months, during one of the “12 months free financing (pay no interest for 12 months) This means that we can buy something (example: material to build a porch at Lowes) and have it paid off before we get any interest- we pay it off at least two months before the interest rates kick in. Most stores do this.To name a few: Best Buy, Lowes, Home Depot, Ashley Furniture. JUST MAKE SURE THAT YOU CAN PAY IT OFF IN FULL A FEW MONTHS BEFORE IT IS DUE… BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY. They will charge you interest on the entire purchase price if it is not paid off in full first. - Credit cards make it too easy to say YES when you should say NO. I have family member that will pay everything on their credit cards to get the points, which is a great way to go if you are disciplined enough to keep track of all of your spending. You need to pay it off in full when that bill comes in. Raising a large family without stress would be hard to do with the weight of debt on your shoulders!
- KID ITEMS:
Buy used! Do you know how quickly kids go through things these days? I love to shop at our local consignment sales or to buy things from friends in my Mommy Groups. It is a great way to help other moms and help myself. In the end, we have both had a financial gain: I save 75% on that toy & they gain 25% back of what they paid for it originally.
- DIAPERS:
Diapers are a huge expense, so I potty trained our kids early! I trained my kids early, at one year old (around 20 months). I wrote a book about how to train them in three days (over a weekend). It has so much information in there, so I know that anyone can have their kids trained in a weekend. If you would like to read it, you can find more information on it here: POTTY TRAIN IN A WEEKEND.
- CARS:
I actually had my Dad write a full book on this! This book has such great info. (My dad is a scientist that has worked on car safety for over 20 years. He knows so much about getting the best price for the best car!) Remember- it is the OUT THE DOOR price that counts, not how much you will pay every month!
- Make Money:
You can make money on all sorts of ‘online’ places! You can be a ghost writer and earn an income writing anonymously, rent your things out (house/cars/boats), sell used toys, sell furniture that you buy cheap or get for free and fix up- I do all of this on online groups. If you have a talent, use it! Tutoring? Sewing? Writing? Crafting? Or start a blog and teach others how to do it (they’ll pay you to do it!) I know one woman making over $60,000 teaching people how to knit on the internet.However you save money… remember the reason…♥
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For more money saving tips, You can purchase this ebook for $9.99: You can be a stay at home Mom
Great tips! We enjoyed many activities at the library when the kids were little. In fact, a couple of the librarians got to know us by name, lol!
We DO have a credit card but we pay it off every month. We use it to build up rewards. We used to pay cash for everything in order to easily stay within our budget. Now we just pay with our credit cards, but you have to be careful to stay on target or you will easily go over your budget!
Good point! 🙂 That’s a tip that I shared in my book (about earning the points). 🙂 My brother & sis-in-law do this, too. (even their bills go on there).
This is an awesome site and a great post! I made sure I pinned this one to our Mommy Monday Hop for sure. I am happy to say that I’ve been doing so much of this stuff already! My son is 16 months and we are prepping him to potty train within the next month too using the 3 day weekend method. So glad we connected. I’ll be coming back to your site to get more tips! Thanks so much for linking up with us! 🙂 Following you now on social media
Thanks, Brittnei!
I don’t think that Moms should ever stay home. Don’t you think that you are teaching your children to not work? Don’t you think that teaches laziness? I am pregnant with our first child and I will only be taking 6 weeks off before returning to work. I will be able to provide more if I am working, teaching our child that working is important. What does staying home teach them?
In response to last comment: What a horrifying attitude. Children need their mothers at home with them. There is no appropriate replacement for a mother. Children will see you work IN YOUR HOME. Just because I don’t dump my kids off somewhere for 8 – 10 hours a day everyday, so that I can go work for someone else, doesn’t mean I don’t work. My job consists of washing clothes, and dishes, and cleaning, and caring for my precious babies, and even if I didn’t run an at home online business (which I do), I would still be perfectly able to say that I WORK. I work HARD. Don’t look down on stay at home mom’s as if they were lazy people who sat around all day doing nothing. We are doing the single most important job in the universe; raising our children!
In response to last comment: Learning how to run a household is work. Once upon a time it was even valued. Valued so much, in fact, that the rich paid people to do it. Oh wait, they still do. From keeping a budget, to cleaning, to cooking, to possibly homeschooling, being a taxi driver, a nurse, a therapist, well…the list is endless actually. I think that teaches our children a lot.
My circumstances do not allow me to be a stay at home mom. So, I am teaching my girls (ages 15 and 17) that moms contribute in anyway needed which includes working outside the home if need be. While they were younger I was able to stay home with them and I am very grateful for the time I had. I don’t want other people teaching my kids things that I should as a parent.
Just my own humble opinion though.
In response to last comment: Wow. This is a pretty broad assumption. I personally left my career as an educator to stay at home to be with my three children, ages respectively 4, 2, and 5 months. I LOVED my job. I still miss it some days. I miss making an impact on their lives. I miss being their ‘favorite teacher.’ I miss hearing the words, ‘Hi, Mrs. D!’ But once you become a mother, and I’d stretch to believe that you will see what I mean once your heart starts existing outside of your body in the form of your own child, that you will long for them throughout the day. You will want to hold them, touch them, smell his/her little head, kiss their cheeks ALL DAY long. I know, because I went back to work after my having my firstborn. But you know what – SOMEONE is teaching your child. Someone will be teaching them to use manners, sing their alphabet, pick up their toys, stack blocks, wave ‘hello’. Someone will do those things while you are working, and that is a full-time job. Motherhood (the right way – meaning you’re NOT being lazy or neglectful) is challenging. I am exhausted – far more than I ever was while ‘working.’ Mothering requires alertness, stamina, patience, knowledge, compassion, wisdom, and more. I rarely sit down before 9 pm; there are no restroom or lunch breaks. I have to be their counselor, their driver, cook, maid, TEACHER, life guard, soccer coach, librarian, crossing guard, potty-trainer, safety net, and guide. Every single thing that I do and every word that comes out of my mouth is teaching them something – and growing or damaging their character at the same time. Every single moment is a teachable one, which is why my 4 year old knows nearly every animal, how to write her name, count to 20, knows her address, can fold clothes, knows how to measure, and can point out a ‘waxing gibbous moon’. My two year old has dressed herself since she was about 18 months, is potty trained, speaks in fully developed, intelligent sentences, and can even pour herself a glass of water. If you think that you child will just pick up on these things naturally, there’s a pretty good chance you will be mistaken. Your child will learn what you teach them. We talk with our children often about jobs and what the people around them do for a living and why it is important. Our girls can probably explain, in detail, what their dad does for a living and that Mommy’s job is to take care of them, and take care of them well. I don’t want the world teaching my kids what they should be learning at home. Sadly, the time my husband gets to spend with them after a day’s work is so little, that all he wants to is enjoy them – snuggling, wrestling, talking about their day… Not much time there to teach a whole lot, if you are talking formally. I could go on, but I won’t even get into speech development, phonics, word recognition, social cues, life skills, fine and gross motor development… The list is long, so just hang on before you go jumping to such a negative opinion of what it is that is done in the home. You are that child’s everything. Blessings…
In response to last comment: You’re right. In your case, you should let someone else raise your kids.
Hello so many great tips, but I am sorry one negative comment form me….right when I opened your page the feeding bottle was looking at me. The best tip I can give to all moms is breasfeeding :O). Can you change is into a lovely breast :O). THanks and keep up the good work. Hana
True, but just because its a bottle doesn’t mean that its not breast milk- I exclusively pumped & breasted two of our kids from birth through age 1. 🙂
I found your blog because a friend of mine pinned it, and now I’m following you on Pinterest and will on facebook too! I am currently expecting my second (due in January) and my first will be 4 in February. I am VERY tempted to buy your book to see if our family could live on one income. Neither of us are good at finances (that’s why we pay everything on auto-draft), but my husband has wanted to be a stay at home dad since the beginnning. I would love for him to do it as well. As much as I love my family, I get enjoyment out of working and having something that is for myself, and I still get plenty of time with my family. But he really wants to, and I would love to find a way for him to do it. I make less than he does, and we’ve crunched the numbers before and it was just not possible. But I’ve been thinking lately that I should revist this idea to see. I feel like we already cut back everywhere, but truthfully I know there are more places we can cut and it would really be up to us to make a few sacrifices and MAYBE it could work. We make very little money [less than most teachers I know ;)]
Also, forgot to add that I have a few friends who were/are sahms and they used cloth diapers and claimed they saved a TON of money! That was never an option for us with the first because he was in daycare and they wouldn’t give us the option, but I would’ve tried it if they would’ve let us.
I never tried that either – we always just bought disposable ones (lugs). I trained our kids early (18-23 months for our three boys), so I felt like training them early saved a lot of money. 🙂
Welcome!! 🙂
Love this!
We don’t have kids (yet), but these are just great money saving tips!!!
Sahms are so very important! A tip from me- try seeing if any of your friends need child care, even for a couple days a week. I watch 2 other kids for 3 days of the week in our home (as well as our own baby) and it’s a win win. The kids get to play with each other, and my friend knows her children are being well cared for. And we get extra money in the bank! It’s a great way to still get to contribute financially, but also get to be at home with your children.
Great idea!
Great tips for an expecting mom, who although will probably go back to work full time, is planning on a long maternity leave.
With that being said, incase I would ever decide to stay home, do you have any tips on saving for retirement and/or college on one salary? I worry about those two things so much!
I do, too, but we just put all that we can into our 401K (my husband’s company matches it) & into our money market. We have 4 extra money markets (one for each child) on top of our own money market.
Almost forgot to leave a comment you have so many interesting links and I found myself with 4 different of your other blog posts open in the browser as well. Such great information! I would love to be able to stay home with my new little guy! Thanks for sharing!
haha- too funny, Amber!! Well I’m glad for that anyways. 😉
I’m not a mother yet, but when I am I want to stay home and this has some great tips. My husband and I are trying to budget right now to prepare ourselves for hardships in the future, and there are some great tips in this. Thank you so much for sharing!
Oh, I’m glad you found it helpful.
Lots of great tips here-thank you so much for sharing them! I love the idea of a clothes swap.
If you have a minute to spare I’d be thrilled if you could link up your post to my weekly Say G’Day Saturday party. It has just started and this would be a great addition.
Best wishes,
Natasha in Oz
Sure! 🙂
I absolutely love these tips, and it is so great that you are teaching people how to make their dream of staying at home with their kids a reality! I had never thought about doing a toy swap or restaurants.com! Great ideas!!!
Thank you!! 🙂
Awesome post.|
Fantastic post! I need to work on my discipline in terms of putting these into action. I am particularly interested in how you got into blogging and earning money doing so. I love writing and have been writing various “fun” things for almost 20 years, it would be wonderful to take something I enjoy and use it to supplement our family income. Currently, I’m home with our DD and trying to juggle her needs while completing my degree.