Soon to Be a SAHM

Hi A.! Congrats on your decision to stay home! It's not easy but it's worthwhile!

I learned a ton from FlyLady.net - it's mostly about managing your home & finding peace there. But I learned a whole lot about menu planning. It makes your shopping trips more efficient - you spend a whole lot more when you're running out for this or that - you end up spending $20 when you just needed a gallon of milk. By planning and following your meal plans you save a TON.

I use an excel file with the things we always need then add whatever I think I'll make for meals then add all the ingredients I'll need. This allows you to also search your pantry & freezer for things you have on hand & plan how to USE them. :) I kept buying sour kraut over & over again, finally figured out I had a ton, so started planning meals I could serve with that (btw this stuff is great for keeping flu away!! When the bird flu went around there were reports that it stopped the flu! so chow down!). You get the idea. It helps a whole lot when you can use what you've already warehoused. :)

Good luck!
D.

ps, I really recommend you check out FlyLady.net. She taught me so much about managing my home & time, has literally helped save my marriage because we had bad attitudes about things. It's more than just how to clean your home when it's trashed, though it helps a whole lot when that happens too! lol.

Join a meet-up group or a playgroup. That way, your children will have friends and you will too!

I'm a member of Moms Club of Northern Chicagoland. You can search on google or yahoo to find our website- just type in Moms Club of Northern Chicagoland. It only costs 20 dollars a year. We do lots of playdates and free things.

I get my hair cut at the Mario Triccoci beauty school instead of going to the salon.

I use coupons whenever possible.

I buy my produce at Jerry's Fruit Market in Niles, great deals!

I never buy anything for myself...only for the house.

I buy my son's clothes at Target.

We do splurge on eating out once a week, but always use coupons.

My "best" SAHM find was all the YAHOO groups and other websites for coupon swapping, sale deals and meeting other moms for playdates.

I have become (one of the many) queen of shopping sales, using coupons, BOGO and meal planning. I have found these few things save us TONS of money that I never really thought about when we were a two income household.

Some of the BEST websites that give quick meal ideas and kid friendly activities and projects are Familyfun, Parents and Kraftfoods.

Finally, I think it's INVALUABLE to join a YMCA preschool class, Gymboree or Park District class. You should keep a routine of keeping your toddler active with other "friends" and in a program where there is a teacher. I know it's hard to justify this expense with a husband who is looking to cut back, but this is education. If you don't stay active and have your child in a program, I think it hurts in the long run - separation anxiety, crying, etc. Plus it is a great way to make new friends who are SAHMs with children the same age...read, playdate contacts.

Finally, the hardest thing I found about becoming a SAHM was the isolation. You really need to make an effort to make "new" mommy friends, stay in touch with your "old" friends and do something for yourself - either a yoga class, scrapbooking, whatever you find as "me time". I am a very social person and being stuck inside with only and infant/toddler to talk to REALLY got to me after awhile.

E-mail me if you're looking for some other ideas.

Good luck!

Sara

Here's some ideas for cheap/free outings that my boys (3 and 2) and I do especially in cold weather:

library story time - our library and I think most include an art project after story time.

regular library outings - it is a nice break plus they usually have toys, puzzles, etc.

indoor play ground at the mall - we live near Yorktown Mall and they have a free indoor play area which is fun on a cold, rainy day.

Menards - I am not kidding. The Menards near us has samples of all the outdoor toys indoors that the kids can play on.

Hope that helps!

Hi A.,

Find your local rec center, they usually are teeming with friendly, interesting people, good programs, craft classes, mommy and me stuff, pee-wee sports and swim camps These are all priced very low and the benefits are huge.

There are a few online programs that help you plan meals that build off of the other, (roast chicken one night, chicken soup with the leftovers), or help you build a menu off of recent sales, or just whiz the ingredients you have on hand. here are two to get you started but I encourage you to surf around to find the one that fits your needs, trust me there's a bunch out there.

www.betterbudgeting.com/frugalrecipelist.htm
www.frugalmenumamas.com

Here's a neat site with lots of money saving links.

http://lowermybills.com/

Here's another:
http://www.frugal-living-tips.com/

And last but not least check out Dave Ramsey and his Money Makeover programs. You can even look up testimonials of women whose families have tried his methods here on Mamapedia. The man has got some reasonable advice.

The one thing that you mentioned that concerns me is your husband's anxiety over you quitting your job.. could you possibly ease into it by cutting hours while implementing some of these methods until you get the hang of recycling and coupon clipping, etc.?

I was granted SAHM status by my ex but I was then expected to really hustle around the home, take care of Everything AND all without much support from him. We were in the church and he expected me to be a self sufficient industrious woman and I did ok, actually, for about 5 years. Unfortunately my main motivation was not wanting to listen to him moan and whine. These are the things that I did (that I can remember)...

I financed much of the new things my children needed by taking impeccable care of the things they had and selling them about every six months.

I filed coupons, rebates and saved pop-tops or labels or whatever the going promotion was and utilized them.

I wrote precise grocery lists for menu plans and stuck to them (I remember my daughter being so incredibly good I would tell her in the car what we were shopping for that day and she would help me find things, if she say a toy or candy I would just remind heer that we weren't shopping for that that day and she was cool with that...lol)

I recycled our children's books at the local Half Prics (not sure if you have one there in IL)

Finally, on holidays, I sold baskets that I put together from outlet store sale ribbon, baskets, candy and plushes. Simply that. Profit was about 300%. This helped to come up with surprise money for gifts to my loved ones.

gotta go good luck.