Frugal Living Tips for Stay at Home Moms
Before I had my first baby, I knew I wanted to be with her all day every day. I had been working and going to school full time since we had been married, but we were determined to do whatever it took to allow me to stay with her all the time. We were not shipping her off to daycare!
6 years later, I’ve been with my kids since day 1. It’s taken creativity, frugal living, figuring out how to work a few hours a week without leaving them, sacrificing some niceties, and not worrying about what guests think about our ugly countertops.
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In the beginning, though, frugal living as a mom didn’t mean staying at home playing with my baby and baking sourdough every day. I was fortunate to have jobs that allowed me to bring my little girl along—cleaning houses and working in the office for the local fair.
But by the time I was pregnant with my second a year and a half later, it was getting hard to lug a toddler around to my jobs 3 days a week (and naps were rough!).
We prayed and the Lord provided.
He provided a flexible job that I could do from home for 2 hours a day to make a little money. We had already reduced our expenses so they were incredibly low, and it didn’t take a lot of money to keep us going.
He gave me some piano students that didn’t mind me having my baby around.
He had already blessed my husband with a job where he was growing and learning new skills, but not much room to grow financially.
Then we took a leap and my husband started his own business, which has continued to grow over the last few years.
Our expenses are still very low. We’ve always lived below our means, and honestly, that’s what makes it work.
But figuring out HOW to do that isn’t always easy.
Whether you’re a stay at home mom trying to live frugally or WANT to be a stay at home mom and make it work financially, here are some common and some unusual ways we make it work that might give you some ideas, too.
7 Frugal Living Tips for Stay at Home Moms
Sometimes the old fashioned ways to save money are the best—cook from scratch, buy used, and make it last. Fitting these into the modern world, living below our means, and contentment go a long way in living frugally and making it work financially as a stay at home mom.
1. Hone In Your Cooking Skills
A typical meal for our family of 6 costs $10-15 total. Meat, potatoes, and a vegetable or a Mexican meal like tacos are common in our house. There’s no question that cooking at home saves a lot of money!
For a lot of people though, I think cooking at home can be intimidating for two reasons.
- It’s a learning curve!
- It doesn’t taste the same as eating out.
But if you can hone in your cooking skills, you can save your family hundreds of dollars per month.
Here are a few tips and ideas to make cooking easier, more delicious, and more enjoyable.
- Start with a handful of recipes that you eventually make with hardly any thought. Keep it easy and don’t try to learn a new meal every night. Buy grass fed burgers from Costco. Dice up some potatoes for American fries, drizzle them with olive oil, salt and pepper, and bake at 400°F for 30-40 minutes. Add some sautéed green beans. Add one or two new recipes each month. Take it slow.
- Use plenty of butter and salt. You can’t really go wrong here.
- Get a meat thermometer. No one wants tough, overcooked meat.
- Find ways to spruce up your meals. Homemade taco seasoning and sourdough tortillas crank up the flavor and make a simple meal a hit with the whole family every single time.
- Meal plan and keep a recipe box. Meal planning takes the mental stress out of daily cooking. (I explain how I meal plan in this blog post.) I also love keeping a recipe box (I have one similar to this) where I write down only recipes that we love. It’s the ideal resource for weekly meal planning because it has only our favorites!
2. Stop Worrying About What Other People Think
After 6 years in our home, the bathroom cabinets are still outdated and the kitchen countertops are an ugly off-white. It doesn’t bother me one bit.
Would new ones be nice? Sure.
But you know what’s way nicer? Getting to spend every day with my kids. Waking up and reading Bible stories at the table together instead of having to pack lunches and rush out the door. Being home in the late afternoons to make nourishing dinners for my family. Having the time to get together with friends during the day or bring a meal to a new mom. Morning walks on the dirt road with my babies in the stroller and big kids riding their bikes in front of me. Being able to to host because we have the time and capacity to be home so we can invite others into our home.
In my opinion, I have the best life ever. And I don’t worry about what guests think about my countertops.
3. Learn To Buy Secondhand
I’d say at least 80% of the things in our home have been purchased on Facebook Marketplace or at thrift stores or garage sales. Clothing, furniture, books, appliances, and even vehicles.
Buying secondhand saves enormous amounts of money, and it’s also a great way to make your home interesting and full of character.
We tend to find that Facebook Marketplace is usually the best resource for big-ticket items like vehicles, appliances, and furniture. (Here’s a quick guide to how we find good deals on Marketplace.)
Thrift stores, resale shops, and garage sales are great places to get clothing and kids’ items.
Here are my top tips for thrifting for kids’ items and how to take your kids thrifting (without losing your mind).
With four littles, I have minimal time to shop, but we make it work! I like keeping clothing bins in the basement a few sizes larger than my oldest girl and boy, so I can stock it when I find a deal and it’s ready for them when they get to that size.
As the kids get older, I’ve also found deals on specific items (like snow boots, for example) on online thrift platforms like Poshmark and ThredUp.
4. Have an Afternoon Quiet Time for Your Kids So You Can Work
Since I started working from home about 5 years ago, we’ve had afternoon nap time pretty much every single day from 1-3:30. This has given me the freedom to be able to work from home without ever having to be more than a room away from my babies. Now that my oldest ones no longer nap, they know that afternoons are quiet time, and they listen to stories while doing a quiet activity or resting. Having this time when the house is mostly quiet allows me to focus hard for about 2 hours and then give my full attention to my babies the rest of the time they’re awake.
Having this routine in our day could be considered a sacrifice (although for us, it’s really not, because we all look forward to it!). But it’s part of what allows us to be together every day, and it’s totally worth it!
Get inspired by part-time work-from-home job ideas for moms.
Even if you don’t have a paid job, having an afternoon quiet time (even if it’s only an hour) is such a wonderful respite for you as a mom to learn something, catch up in the home, or sit down for a bit, and it’s a good chance for the children to learn to be independent and have some down time.
5. Be At Home
It can be a temptation for stay-at-home moms to want to fill the days with park visits, coffee stops, playdates, shopping trips, and other day trips, and of course, none of these things are wrong in themselves. Moms need community, too!
However, constantly leaving the home can get expensive, even if you’re not actively spending money while you’re out. Obviously, frequent coffee stops, zoo trips, and shopping sprees cost money. But on top of that, being out too often also makes it very difficult to keep up at home.
In order to meal plan, cook from scratch, keep up with household cleaning, and have a good routine (all of which save money!), you actually have to be at home most of the time.
For us, it works well to plan 1 or 2 mornings out (or with friends) per week, and then have a routine that we truly enjoy the rest of the days.
Here’s a glimpse into some of our family routines.
Related reading: How to Make a Stay at Home Mom Summer Schedule THAT WORKS FOR YOU
6. Use Cash (When You Can)
Spending cash hurts a lot more than using a credit card. We use a modified version of Dave Ramsey’s cash envelope system to keep close track of what we’re spending and where.
At the beginning of the month, we allocate money into each category (or envelope) so that we get to choose exactly where our money is going, rather than looking back and wondering where it went.
7. Live Below Your Means and Be Happy With Less
Living below your means is honestly such a simple concept, but it can be hard to implement. Living below your means just means spending less than you make, and it’s what’s made everything work for our family.
There are a LOT of complaints about how expensive the world is right now. And it’s true. Everything is expensive. But we also live with so. much. more. than we actually need. Living below your means is not impossible, even with multiple children and only one main breadwinner.
And, the Lord provides for His children.
But sometimes (usually) this means making sacrifices. For me to stay home with our kids, it’s totally worth it.
Living below your means also means saving—even if only just a little bit—so you can be prepared for emergencies, a broken vehicle, or an unplanned for medical bill.
Hebrews 13:5 – Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
