How I Save My Family Money as a Stay-at-home Mom

Saving money as a stay-at-home mom (SAHM) is definitely possible.

I am going to share five things that I do to save money as an SAHM that make a big difference in our family's financial future. We are able to push our financial dreams forward without getting another job.

So what are the top five things that I do at home during nap time – or any other time – that moves our family financially forward without having to go out and get another job? These are things that may not make us any money, but they save us a ton of money.

1. Strategizing our spending

I strategize about our food spending. Will we save more money if I buy brown potatoes instead of red potatoes? Or, if we canceled this subscription, could we save money? Could we do some adjustment over here to save a little bit of money? Is something cheaper on Amazon or at the store?

I have some time to think about how to source things so I fiddle on my phone to figure out what an item is really worth and where the best place to buy might be.

2. Budgeting

I spend time budgeting. Budgeting takes time and effort. My unique situation where I need to just be home a lot taking care of our kiddos, it gives me the opportunity to spend time on the budget. The budget is not my favorite thing to do, but it is so helpful for us to see our money, what it's doing, where it's going.

I spend quite a bit of time making new budgets, handling receipts, and learning more about what type of budget works for us. I also take the time to see if we are staying on track. So I can bring it to our attention that we may be over budget in one category or have extra money in another category.

So if I've got five or ten minutes here and there, I can do budgeting in little chunks of time. This has made a huge difference in our financial gains because we can save so much money if we know where our money is actually going.

3. Researching

I do a ton of research for projects that we're doing around the house. I find out where we can get the materials and in the least expensive way. I search for coupons and I call around for data to help us get things done better.

For example I saved over $1,000 by doing hours and hours of research about where we could get the exact specifications for a utility trailer that we needed for a lot less money.

When the kids are asleep, I can be doodling on my computer figuring stuff out and saving us money on our big purchases and projects and that money really counts. I also research and source gifts and other smaller items and that all takes a lot of time.

4. Learning

As a stay-at-home mom, I have time to read books and watch YouTube videos to learn about topics that can help our family.

I'm watching financial videos to learn about how Roth IRAs and 401Ks work and I read lots of books about money which has given me some great ideas about how to make, save, and strategize about money.

So part of how I save our family money is that I am a knowledge worker. I am learning things, I am coming up with ideas, and I am researching.

5. Providing quality child care

And the number one thing that I do as a stay-at-home mom to help us save money is to provide quality, loving child care. If I did nothing else on this list and all I did was take care of the kids, that would be enough and that would be a huge contribution to our family and our financial future.

I know this is not an option for every family. But for us, it's a blessing for us to be able to have me as a stay-at-home parent, providing the one-on-two child care.

It would be so expensive to replace. I can't imagine how much we'd have to pay for that kind of full-time care because child care is so expensive. By taking on this task, I am saving our family lots of money.

Saving money as a stay-at-home mom

So what did I miss? Do you agree with the ways I save money as a homemaker?

Let me know down in the comments what you do to save money as a stay-at-home parent that saves your family money.