As a stay at home mom for almost 11 years, I have been very prudent when it comes to our finances. We are both freelancers and between me and the husband, he takes more income than me. Our income also depends on our clients each month, so I really have to manage our finances well. As a stay at home mom, I have to think of ways on how to handle our finances well. We can do it in our own little way through the following:
1. Cable subscription. This is the very first thing we had to let go of. We have to pay Php 1,750 monthly for our cable subscription and that is Php 21,000 annual savings! Since I restrict the children from watching too much TV, and rarely watch even during the weekends, so I decided to let it go.
2. Create a menu plan. When I only had one child, I just buy whatever I see from the grocery store and not mind about what we eat at home. But now that I have to feed three children, I have to be mindful of our food so as not to have so much food waste. This also prevents wasting ingredients and excessive leftovers that are most of the time put to waste.
3. Make a List of Expenses. Every household should have a list of expenses, this is for easy tracking where the household's funds are usually spent.
4. Save on Gas. Make sure that you schedule your trip. This is to prevent waste on car fuel or excessive transportation costs.
5. Devise a budgeting method. In every household, it is important to devise a budgeting method that works for the entire family. In our case, I use the envelope method since we are technically freelancers and don't have a fixed monthly income. So whenever we have the funds, I immediately allocate it in different envelopes.
6. Grow your own food. Our household's fund allocation mainly goes to food because I have three growing children to feed. On top of that, two of my children loves eating fruits and vegetables so I really have to allocate more on food. In order to cut costs on food, one way to do it is to grow your own food. On best example is to grow our vegetable backyard. If you do not have enough space, you can search on how to grow them in pots.
7. Save money on sale items. There are a lot of promos going around online and in stores. You can take advantage of that by buying items that are on sale so you could cut the cost of items you usually use in your household.
8. Use reusable things. Too much convenience sometimes really hurts your budget and sometimes adds up to the garbage. I suggest using reusable stuff which you can use on a long term basis like cloth diapers, menstrual cups, cloth table napkin, and etc.
9. Use of all-purpose materials. Due to the rise of capitalism, there are more products that are introduced almost every day. One example of which is buying excessive cleaning stuff that you really do not need when you can just maintain one product in your household. We have to admit that cleaning stuff costs hefty price and if you are to buy all of it, I am sure it will take a toll on your monthly budget.
10. Needs VS wants. This is something that you need to discuss within the family. Tell the importance of needs VS wants to your children so that you will not fall a victim to excessive buying of toys that will end up scattered on the floor every single time. It is also a proper way of teaching children to give importance to their stuff.
Do you have anything to add? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
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