I wrote about six ways moms can contribute to their family’s finances over on The Better Mom today.
Psst! None of these ideas involve actually getting a paycheck–but they can all save you hundreds of dollars each year!
By the way, I’ll be talking more in-depth about some of these things in my Live Webcast this Thursday evening. I’d love to have you join us for lots of great discussion and Q&A.
They are good thoughts. I am a full-time working mom, so I contribute to my finances both through a paycheck and through many of the things that you shared. When I was younger, I wanted to be a stay at home mom, but it just makes more sense for my family to have a working mom and a flexible dad. He is able to get the kids on/off the bus and is there for them when they get a day off of school during the school year.
I loved your post! Thank you so much for sharing such great tips over at The Better Mom today :).
We live on a pretty tight budget, as I’m sure do most of the readers on this blog. 🙂 My husband works a second job, and we cut corners and DIY just about everything, from haircuts to bread. But I have to share: the most important asset we have is prayer. God has answered so many prayers. Once, I prayed for shoes for my daughter, and within 5 days God allowed me to “end up” at a local clothing giveaway that had the exact pair of shoes, right down to color and size, that I had been eyeing at the local store!! Although it stretches our faith to live on “the edge” all the time, not exactly sure how we’re going to replace that old van in the driveway, etc., I will be honest: the sweetness of seeing God provide for even the smallest details of our needs, of watching Him pay for water bills and give us Christmas presents we were almost afraid to pray for, is such a precious lesson in the love of God that I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Although it’s not often emphasized in blogs, we have to realize that sometimes it’s just not God’s will to provide extra money at certain seasons of our lives, because He wants to meet our needs even more directly and teach us to seek Him more in prayer. Maybe that can encourage those who are not finding as much success in getting extra income as others. And the body of Christ is also commanded to work together and reach out to the needy around us. Sometimes Jesus allows a need so that we can receive the blessing of lending a helping hand to another brother or sister in Christ. Those blessings are passed over when we all have full bank accounts. 🙂
I wholeheartedly agree! Prayer has worked wonders for our family. We are by no means wealthy, but our family of 5 has all we need. There have been countless times when we needed or even just wanted something, prayed about it and the need/want has been provided. And the prayer part is not always a deal where our whole family is praying, most times it’s just me in the car. For example, when my son needed a suit for his First Communion, we just couldn’t afford to buy one. I prayed about it, asked around, and was blessed with not one, but three suits to choose from! It was like a gift directly from God! :0)
It’s all great tips. I think it is much like anything else, whatever you do you have to work at it- work hard and efficiently whether your work is FT from home or out of the house. We all work in different ways and those of us with kids are always working. I work FT out of the house and I cook freezer meals, save tons on groceries, find ways to save $$ all the time and it works for us. You have to find what works for your family and what money saving/income generating tasks you can stick to also.
everything you have stated I am either doing it or learning to do..but it’s nice to hear it again. thanks again for that info
This is random, but I wanted you to know that I really appreciate your attention to grammar and spelling on your site 🙂 So, so many writers would have titled their article, “Six Ways Mom’s Can Contribute To Their Families Finances” or something like that. No one is perfect, but it’s refreshing and, quite frankly, a delight to read a well-written blog!
I agree – there are so many blogs out there that are just grammatical and spelling nightmares. Definitely one of the things I appreciate about Crystal’s.
I strive for excellence in my posting/grammar, but I definitely do make plenty of mistakes. Please feel free to point them out when you see them so I can correct them — and hopefully not make the same mistakes again!
I agree!!
I completely agree with you. Many times I’ve thought about commenting and telling Crystal the same thing. I see so many grammatical errors on other blogs and, honestly, it makes me stop reading them. The worst for me is the use of “should of” rather than “should have”. I remember the first post I read in which Crystal used that phrase (correctly, of course), and I thought to myself “thank God, she knows how to write properly and use correct grammar”.
The use of “should of” rather than “should have” is a huge pet peeve of mine as well. Along with mistakes like “bare with me” instead of “bear with me”, “loose” rather than “lose” (So many people make this mistake!), and of course the interchanging of “their”, “there” and “they’re” like they all mean the same thing. So annoying!
Whew! It felt good to get that out. 🙂
Great advice (as usual) Crystal!
When it comes to cutting costs, I think the grocery budget is probably the easiest and best place for people to start saving money. There are just so many ways from coupons to cooking from scratch to bring down grocery expenses.
Beyond that, I think we all just need to remind ourselves to slow down and stop spending. Our whole culture seems to revolve around us doing more and consuming more. If we take a giant step back from that mindset, we’ll probably save our sanity in addition to our money!
Can’t access it either. Same message as Kristin. Please share the list directly on your site. Gracias. 🙂
Try refreshing it multiple times — it took me a few tries since we’ve flooded the site with traffic right now.
All good suggestions! To take it a step farther, I would recommend taking an hour or two each month to review your bills, and see where you can save, whether it’s TV, internet, phone service, anything like that! Quite often you don’t use all the services you’re paying for, and there are usually cheaper options available. A little bit of research can save you A LOT!
Excellent advice! Thanks for sharing!
Crystal, tried it a few times and am continually getting this error message:
“Error establishing a database connection”
Try refreshing it a few times and let me know if that doesn’t work.
OK, I’m already doing those things and it’s still not working. What next?
Seriously, we have a budget we stick to, we use our freezer, we plan menus, we don’t go out (I actually took my daughter to the afternoon matinee of a movie for the first time in her entire life last week; it cost us $8 for the movie). We rarely leave the house; there are no parks or child-friendly activities nearby, and we live in the middle of the woods, where wildlife is always an issue if you choose to play in the yard. So, we rarely even leave the house. We don’t have cable, either.
Sometimes, just ain’t nothin’ gonna work.
It sounds to me like your problem isn’t with your money saving strategies, but with your income! I know that sounds kind of like a dumb thing to point out, but there’s only so much you can do or are willing to do to cut ends or save more. At some point, the solution to the problem has to become to raise your income.
I completely agree. As much as I know many moms want to be able to stay home with their kiddos, sometimes it is not the best thing for the whole family if it creates financial stresses.
It sounds like you are doing a great job of not digging yourself in a deeper hole. But it sounds like you need to get a bigger shovel by looking for ways to increase your income.
If that’s not a possibility right now (I think it’s a possibility for everyone — especially with the advent of the internet and hundreds of thousands of good-paying virtual jobs now available — but I also tend to be a very positive thinker! :)), then just be encouraged that you are doing the best you can, focus on the wonderful things in your life, make the most of your situation, and look for any way you can improve yourself/learn new skills with the hope that maybe someday soon, you’ll be able to transfer those skills into increasing your income.
Most of all: don’t give up. And remember that moving forward — even at a microscopic rate — is still moving forward.
I can really feel where you are! Almost 4 yrs ago my husband resigned from his pastoral position (we both agreed that was what God would have him do) with no other job waiting for him. For about a year and a half we lived on $2500 a month. There were 6 of us and I was expecting. It was incredibly hard. At times it felt like it would never end and that that would be how we would live forever. We saw so many blessings during that time. God used his people to minister to us while we healed spiritually. We also became more aware that God is our source of provision…not a job. We’ve always known this but it became so very real to us during that time.
After that year and a half we began dreaming again and making realistic plans for what we think God wants us to do. Then we started working that plan. Things have not changed overnight but I will say that we are no longer living on $2500 a month. BUT, my husband does work 3 parttime jobs – 2 ministry related and 1 blue collar.
I agree with Crystal that you probably need more income – I know we certainly did – instead of cutting back more, because honestly there’s only so much you can cut back. I would encourage you to pray and talk to your husband about what you could do together to increase your income. It’s hard to dream and goal set when you’re struggling to just survive, but force yourself to do it. You’ll be glad you did.
Where was the $2500 a month coming from? Do you also work?
I don’t work outside the home. My husband very quickly began working for a friend of ours who remodels homes. He worked very hard and very long hours to provide that $2500 a month for us during that time. I really respect the fact that even though we had some savings and he received two additional months pay from the church he began working right away… even though it wasn’t in his field. My point of sharing the story was to let Sporksoma know that while it may seem hard to visualize our circumstances different from what they are it is possible to change them – it probably just won’t happen overnight and it certainly won’t happen without a change in actions.
I knew that being a SAM was not a financial option for us for several reasons so I switched careers. I worked in mental health and took a pay cut to become a teacher for children with emotional/behavioral disorders. I worked hard through my first pregnancy to get my Masters degree which brought my income back up. It gives me more time with my children than the average working mom has and I am able to provide health insurance and income. I am trying to get out of debt so we live on a very tight budget. I spend about $50-$60 per week for a family of 4 with pets. I use a lot of coupons, stockpile, and I do rewards programs like mypoints.com, swagbucks.com, and superpoints.com. I cash in points for gift cards. I usually use my points for amazon.com cards to buy gifts and CVS gift cards to buy diapers, groceries, etc. Unfortunately, my kids have asthma and allergies so we end up seeing the doctor a lot. I transfer prescriptions around to get $25 gift cards. All these small things add up and really help out. I also freezer cook and menu plan.
Financial Peace University (Dave Ramsey)
Sporksoma, I just wanted to suggest a part-time job that you may not have thought of. I work, for myself, as a janitor. I make a good income and am still able to be a stay-at-home mom. My husband or my in-laws watch my child while I work and I work very little. I only do businesses and I have a few that are only on weekends, so I have from Fri at 5pm to Monday morning to schedule my work. Make up 3×5 cards or get free business cards from vistaprint (you pay shipping) and talk with your local janitorial supply. You can also find business by looking at local “for lease” signs on businesses and contacting the Leasing business, they need to keep the empty buildings clean – windows, etc. My costs are minimal and sometimes I can even take my son with me if I get a job cleaning an empty office.
That’s a great idea.
Can’t get either link to work
It took me a few tries to get it to work since it looks like we overloaded the site.
It’s not loading: Error establishing a database connection
Try refreshing a few times. It appears we overloaded the site!