How we afford for me to be a stay at home parent

When we found out we were pregnant, both my husband and I were OVER JOYED. It honestly didn't even seem real. We had always planned on me being a stay at home parent, at the time I was majorly under employed, working in an infant class room at a local daycare center, so the idea of sending my son to my work, so I could take care of other kids, while other people took care of him made NO sense what so ever!

*this is not to bash working moms! I am all for working moms*

so it just didn't make sense to me to go back to work, and spend MOST of my paycheck on daycare! however, that was going to drop our income by MORE THAN HALF (yes I was the bread winner, if you don't count all of Eric's benefits, like housing, and health insurance)

BILLS:
1. we cut the cable- I know this is starting to be a bit of a trend, but we did this almost a year and half ago, before it was "cool".  I literally remember calling up verizon to tell them we would no longer need their cable, and they asked where we were moving, like people didn't just NOT have cable of any sort- instead we opted for the $99 apple tv, and then we already had netflix and added hulu!
Hulu has been AMAZING, even more so than netflix I think, since you can watch shows that are on tv NOW, just watch them the next day!
before we payed about $130 per month for internet/cable- we now pay $55 for internet, and $8 for netflix,  and $8 for hulu- grand savings of $59 a month
with apple tv you can also get showtime and HBO which we get every few months (i think its $10 a month) and then binge watch shows! also we occasionally get movies or shows off iTunes!

2. downgraded our cell plan. we dropped some data, and saved over $20 a month, we both have it so we pick up wifi automatically, both at home, and at local places we go to (seriously even the grocery store provides free wifi, connect once, and you will automatically connect every time you get close! you will be AMAZED how much data you can save!)

3.I have heard you can also call the companies for your other bills, and just nicely ask if they will reduce your bill, and often times they will, however we live in military housing, in which we do not pay any other bills!

4. WE DO NOT HAVE A CREDIT CARD- unless you pay your card in full every month (use it for the perks) there is no need to have a credit card- you will be paying more in interest than anything! if you cannot afford to pay for it in cash, YOU CANNOT AFFORD IT. Its that simple.

GROCERIES 5. Freezer meal/Meal planning- ok so this one does take a bit of work, and a bit of practice, but even for the novice, this can seriously save some money.  If you follow my other BLOG, you know that I am a major freezer meal maker! I try to find similar recipes, and make them in large quantities, and freeze them into the size we need for 1 meal.  This saves money in multiple ways 1. I can buy in bulk, especially if things are on sale (which im bad at the whole sale searching, but that could really make a difference) 2. we aren't wasting ANY food, I have literally gotten our meals down to a science, we rarely have leftovers and if we do, its like just enough for a late night snack or lunch the next day! we RARELY throw out any food AT ALL! and 3. It stops us from going out to eat, we just don't, unless its a special occasion, we just do not eat out, ever! I personally like to cook, so thats nice, but even if you don't, by cooking all your meals for a week in 1 day, it takes the pressure off from cooking every day!

6. infant lead weaning- we started with all of those fancy baby foods, and guess what? Bennett hated it, so we have switched to almost 100% infant lead weaning (we do give him oatmeal the 'old fashion way' just because im not willing to deal with that mess).  he literally eats what ever we eat (so long as its not too spicy) and not only does it mean we have started eating way way way better, but he gets so much more of a variety of food! foods you don't typically see in baby foods (hello! spinach!!).

7. non traditional couponing- I do not have time nor the patients to go around finding coupons and clipping them, no thank you, plus I find that I end up buying crap I don't need, just because I have a coupon.  but i LOVE the app Ibotta (use referral code kkjksg if you decide to try it out) it pays you BACK for the products you buy (and a lot of them are not even brand loyal, its just like "20 cents off a dozen eggs") seriously how awesome is that?? it adds up FAST, especially on things you already bought!

8. discounted liquor- both my husband and I like to enjoy a nice adult beverage every now and again (seriously look at the name of this blog) but it gets EXPENSIVE, fast! We have switched to almost exclusively getting boxed wine (and Ibotta has a $2 off black box wine) sure its less fancy, but by the time you drink a glass, or 3, you really don't care any more! unless its for a special occasion, we go cheap on our alcohol and beer, at first we were like "This is TERRIBLE" but its really not!  also costco liquor stores have excellent products at a great price!

9. feed the dog scraps- our dog has ALWAYS eaten human food, she is our first born, and if we are eating chicken, I feel like she should have some chicken- so any time we are having, or cooking, meat or veggies, she gets the scraps, either the scraps that we choose not to eat (like the trimmings) or just our left overs that we can't finish, or Bennetts pile of food he drops on the floor, she eats like a queen, and we rarely buy dog food (*NOTE: only do this if you have a healthy dog who is use to human food, don't switch up a dogs diet too fast)

10. Frozen veggies- we eat a LOT of vegetables in our house, LOTS AND LOTS, and that adds up really fast! we have cut our bill, by switching to SOME frozen veggies instead of fresh- especially frozen broccoli, or any veggies B eats for a snack! also frozen veggies work good IN cooking, like stir frys or fried rice, any freezer meal (I mean its getting frozen anyways) and it can save a LOT - another plus: is it doesn't spoil as fast!



PURCHASES 11. We discuss every non-essential purchase- now that probably sounds super ridiculous, but its a little easier than that, anything over about $50 we discuss, nothing crazy just a "hey im thinking of getting these $75 sunglasses what do you think?" and USUALLY the other person is like "go for it" but sometimes, we will say something like "you just got sunglasses 2 weeks ago, you don't need them" and BOOM you just saved $75! I cannot even begin to explain how much money this saves us. Its ridiculous!


12. we WAIT before making any "big" purchases, for example, my husband really wanted a new grill, we have a perfectly good charcoal grill, but he wanted some fancy gas grill, and so he put it up on the white board in BIG BOLD LETTERS. and we waited, and after about a MONTH, he still wanted his grill, so he started to research, and research and research, and THEN he bought his grill, and I was very surprised he decided to go with a much smaller grill than he had originally wanted (which saved us a few hundred dollars) once you are out of the "I WANT THIS, AND I WANT THIS NOW" mind set, you are much more likely to buy what you NEED, and not all the bells and whistles!

13. online shopping-we rarely just go shopping, every time we walk into a target, we leave with an entire cart of things we never even wanted in the first place! so we have started shopping almost exclusively online- need a pizza cutter? get it on amazon for $5.  need a pizza cutter, and go to target to get it? spend $150 on a zillion things, and walk out with no pizza cutter! Amazon prime is also awesome if you do a lot of online shopping, free 2 day shipping, and it almost always gets to us by the next day!


INCOME
14.  I do Direct sales from home-  this is not to advertise my business, but I do work for It Works! from home!  I do very minimal work, maybe 20 minutes a day, and I bring in extra spending money, its nothing HUGE, but its easy money! plus if we have something coming up, that I know about in advance, I try to make a lot of sales, so we can have that extra spending cash.
There are other great ways to work from home, just none that I was willing to do! but don't be afraid to look into them!


Trust me, if we can afford it (how much an E4, now an E5 in the military makes is public information, google it, its NOT A LOT OF MONEY) anyone can make it work!

was this helpful? do you have any other tips for saving money?? let me know in the comments below!! I love getting feed back from you!!