New stay-at-home mom-- any saving money pointers?

[elissam]

With the birth of our latest baby, we have decided that it would be best for me to not work for atleast one year. Without my job we are about $1000 over budget every month. We have noticed that we have very high grocery bills ($400+ per week) and high drugstore bills (we've identified film and film development as a culprit here). We would be interested in any pointers on saving money, especially groceries. Thanks in advance. We'd really like to swing this!

 

[Serena]

I can't help, but I'd sure like to hear the suggestions. btw, if I hadn't said it before, congratulations.

 

[wdw4us2]

I became a SAHM for the first time last October. The best way I have been able to save some $$ on groceries is by shopping at BJ's Wholesale Club. You can still use maufacturer's coupons, and a lot of the items are cheaper when purchased in bulk.

Before I began grocery shopping there, I wrote down the prices on items we buy weekly and then compared them to the grocery store I had been using (Publix). The savings were significant on most items.

Also, fast food is no longer an option in our house except Saturday Night Pizza & a Movie. The savings from no fast food was huge!

Lisa

 

[Lynn CC]

I was at home for the first year with DS! You'll be happy you took the time. After a year I didn't want to go back to my job at the hospital, so I took in another child to take care of...which led to getting my Daycare License and taking care of 6 children(including DS) for 11 years! It paid for A LOT of extras, plus a lot of Disney trips.

During that first year, I would always try to keep the temp of the house just comfortable. In the winter I would put a sweatshirt and sweatpants on myself & the baby and turn the thermostat down to 65 instead of having it set at 70. Same thing in the summer except we wore our bathing suits and kept the temp cool but not cold in the house.

I used to make a lot of my own baby/toddler food myself.
You can check with your local electric company to see if they have some kind of free program that will come and check out your house for you. Ours in MA is called Mass Save...they gave me all kinds of energy saving devices from light bulbs to filling up air holes (they do everything).
Also if you have to buy a new appliance of any kind make sure it's Energy Star.
That's all I can think of for now.

 

[Lars624]

I hope this helps... I know that film developing is quite a bit cheaper at Costco compared to the drugstore prices.

 

[poohandwendy]

Plan a monthly or weekly menu, shop after you have eaten a full meal and stick to the grocery list. You would be amazed at how much impulse items add to your total grocery bill. Also, without a menu you will tend to get home and realize that you need to go back out and get OTHER items at the store to complete a meal...bottom line, the more trips to the grocery store the more money.
just my 2 cents
good luck with the new baby,
wendy

 

[NancyIL]

$400 a week for food sounds VERY high. To start, write down every penny you spend for a month to see where all your money is going. Once you identify the budget busters, you'll be better able to cut back on your spending.

A GREAT book is The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczn.

 

[caitycaity]

i'm not sure where you live, but dh and i live in a pretty expensive area and groceries for the two of us are ~$80-$100/week. i could see that number getting up there when you add in all the baby stuff.

although i am not a mom, and i work, i try really hard to keep grocery costs down. i ALWAYS clip coupons, and trade them with friends. the advice you've gotten here about menu planning, having a list and sticking too it, and tracking where your money is going is all good. good luck!

 

[nancy679]

I agree with the other posters, $400 a week on groceries is very high. I spend about $150 a week for 5 people. I can recommend watching those shopping fliers and stocking up when they have specials, like buy one get one free. Or 50% off sales. The best way I find to cut down on my food shopping bills is going there only once a week, and to plan a weekly menu. Also I cant buy things on a whim, I usually wait till sales are going, especially for clothes. What amazes me is the more money we make, the more we spend. I cherish being home with the kids and the sacrifices are well worth it.

 

[EROS]

MY DW is a SAHM as well, and we're on a pretty tight budget by necessity. If either of you is a tech type, I'd urge you to get QUICKEN and devise a monthly budget. Of course, you have to ENTER your expenses as they come, but you'll be able to see at a glance where your expenditures are going.

Good Luck,

 

[caitycaity]

they have really good programs for pda's as well that can sync with quicken. dh has one, but i forget what it is called. i'll have to ask him.

 

[dizneegirl]

If you take a TON of pictures, you may want to look into getting a fairly inexpensive digital camera. For under $500 you could get a decent camera, plus extra memory, and save a lot on film & processing... just print out the pictures you REALLY want. Would also be a great way to share (via e-mail) pics of the baby with your families.

Use regular diapers or a diaper service, rather than disposable diapers. You wouldn't BELEIVE the savings - AND - you'll be helping the environment!

Clip coupons. If you don't get the paper, go to one of the on-line coupon places (coolsavings.com, coupons.com, q-pon.com, valpak.com), or even go to the manufacturers you most often buy (kraft.com, etc.)... sometimes they have on-line coupons as well. If you have a store in your area that doubles coupons, check their flyer... when they have a sale on an item you have a coupon for - go get it. You can get some things for almost free that way.

Look at buying things you use most often in bulk. Be sure to check the prices though... sometimes the bulk will cost you just as much, if not more. Know how much the "other guy" sells it for.

Cut down on snack foods and pre-packaged foods if you buy them a lot. You can just as easily fix some of the pre-packaged stuff for a lot less money (frozen dinners, convenience foods... you're paying for the convenience).

If you don't care about brand name, try the store brand or generic. Many of the products are just as good as the name brand (though I'd stay away from generic rice krispies). Trial and error, but you can save quite a bit that way. If you have an Aldi near you, go check out their selection. They often have name brand cheaper than the big guys. They also have great deals on baking supplies (sugar, flour, chocolate chips, nuts), their soup is pretty good, and they have the BEST potato chips.

If you eat out a lot, cut back on that. Eating out will kill a budget.

Don't buy toilet paper, kleenex, detergent, etc. at the grocery store... check out the prices at Walmart - they're usually cheaper. Know where to go to get the best prices, and plan your trips so you're not wasting gas.

As much as possible, don't buy the "single-serve" packages. Buy the regular packages, and split them up. Those new(er) Ziploc and Glad "disposable tupperware" containers are GREAT for this... they go from freezer/fridge to microwave and into the dish washer. And if one doesn't make it home, it's not a huge investment. They're fairly sturdy, and don't leak.

My best advice? The more convenient, the more $$$. Work a little harder, and you'll certainly save more.

 

[Pembo]

My best pointers...We shop for groceries every 2 weeks, when dh gets paid. Except for Milk and fruit which we seem to need more often. Compare prices at different stores in your area. Sometimes I go to 3 and 4 stores to get deals.

Watch out at Wholesale Clubs...you can really overspend if you are not careful. (Been there, done that )

Pay cash! Take only a set amount of money each pay and when it's gone, it's gone!

We make do with very little...it can be done!

 

[Cindy B]

$400 is way tooo high. I can do for a family of four about $50 a week.

Personally I find Costco/Sams too high for me.
I use coupons, and only buy things if they are on sale and then th ecoupon. I comparison shopped and found that the sale were better at a local grocery store, than at Sams'.

I make many things from scratch. Pancakes/cakes/muffins are just as easy making from scratch than it is opening the mix box.

I substitute for less expensive ingredients.

Diapers are expensive. Some people say service is better, but I found that the diapers were less expensive than the service

Don't eat out. Learn how to cook your favorite Chinese, Thai, Indian food for when the mood strikes, you can make it yourself at a FRACTION of the cost.


Tightwad Gazette is an amazing book. (there are three volumes).
I bought baby things second hand as well, and accepted hand me downs... in fact my son is almost 8 years old, and I have not hardly bought any clothes for him until this year.

Find free entertainment. Going for walks, looking at foliage, is all free.

 

[marlasmom]

$400 for food is outrageous. I don't know how big your family is, but I think you can easily feed any family for $150.00. The savings of $250 will readily account for the $1,000 you are overspending. Try the menus published bi-monthly in Women's Day. They are very cheap. And the obvious - make it yourself - season your own rice and noodles instead of buying the packages - cut up your own lettuce, buy cheaper cuts of beef and slow cook them. I am now spending about $80 for the two of us and I don't stint. I only use breast of chicken, use lots of prepackaged stuff (although I am telling you not to) and since we are both retired, that's for 3 meals a day.

Congrats on the new baby. You will love being home.

 

[susy]

Wow! $400!
First of all, I would do all of the above suggestions- plan a menu based on sales/ads, coupons, warehouses, etc.

As far as the baby goes, you can try to breatfeed as long as possible and make your own babyfood. The book I used was the Super baby food cook book. It was actually quite fun! look up mkaing your own baby food on the internet. Lots of info.

A great website: weebees.com! Read the diapering experiences and My sermon on diaper pins (not what you think). This lady had six kids and had three in diapers at a time twice!


Videos and eating out! This is where we waste money! You can get FREE videos at the library and I make sure that I have enough meals for the whole week. I also start cooking early on the weekends, so I don't get lazy.

 

[LuvTigger]

WOW, everyone here has offered great suggestions! While I have a full-time job, I try to be budget-conscious and I've been recently evaluating EVERYTHING BF and I spend money on.

We definitely eat out too much, and I'm trying to cut that down and make it so we only eat out say, once a week (my Aunty did this and it was a great way to have a family night out and something to look forward to).

For grocery shopping, the only thing I would add to what everyone else has said is to try to buy things only on sale, and create your menu around what's on sale, rather than buying food around your menu. For example, I would look at the ads in the paper and if I find roast beef on sale, that would be a menu item for one of my dinners that week (and would probably be leftover lunch for myself or BF too--another great way to save money, pack DH home lunch!), rather than saying, "let's eat chicken on Tuesday" and pay whatever price the store was asking instead of it being on sale.

Also, I think separating food into portion sizes as soon as you get home from the grocery store helps. For example (I have to credit this tip to my Aunty), if you buy a pack of bacon, most likely you will not eat the whole pack at once. What my Aunty does is wrap them in groups of 2-3, and when it's time to have breakfast, she just takes out 1 or 2 of the prepackaged sets. Another benefit is it defrosts a lot faster that way! She will also buy sausage and cut them, group them into 3-4, and freeze them. I find that if I don't do this, I will cook the entire package of bacon, and we will MAKE ourselves eat them! I do the same thing for salmon, I will buy a large piece of salmon at a local warehouse store, and I will pre-cut them into the portions I want and freeze them.

As far as saving money in other areas of the home, I try to be very conscious about leaving extra lights on unnecessarily, turning off the water until I'm ready to rinse, etc. I also look for ways to save on my cell phone service (because I'm a State employee, they offer discounts). Also look at the features of your home phone service and decide whether you really need call-waiting, caller-ID, etc. Even though it might only be an extra $5 a month, it's $60 a year, and that on top of $$ you could save with electric, water, cell phone, and other things like that, could make a difference of several hundred $$ a year.

 

[Kirby]

Another way to save a little money is to hang your clothes out to dry instead of using the dryer. Also, find out if your electric company have an average out program where they average out your monthly electric bills each month. It helps when trying to live on a budget.

 

[damo]

No alcohol, cigarettes, magazines. Use cloth diapers and breast feed as long as possible. Formula and disposable diapers are so expensive. Stay away from popular labelled clothing and shoes. Use concentrated drinks and make your own. Prepared orange juice and other prepared drinks are mostly water anyway.

Oh, and I forgot. No internet

 

[PRINCESS VIJA]

The tips already provided are really great! I just want to say that I am TOTALLY Jealous!!!!! I wish I was in your shoes. But alas, it isn't possible. Enjoy your time, and have fun!