Frugal living

Meal planning and shopping the sale flyers will save you a bundle on groceries.
If money is really tight, you may be eligible for WIC.
Restaurants, even fast food and coffees, can really eat into your budget.
Don't make unnecessary car trips. The gas, tolls, and wear-and-tear can really add up.
Turn off the lights, TV, computer when not in use. Unplug chargers.
Reevaluate services/extras like housekeeping, yard care, salons, season tickets, high-octane cable TV, etc.

Good luck. It's hard when money is tight, but it's such a gift to be able to stay home with your children.

Do not eat out. Plan your meals each week and only go to the grocery store once a week. Go to the grocery store or places like Target with a list and only buy what is on it. Take your self off the e-mail lists from online stores, you won't be tempted if you aren't getting their ads. Check things like your cable or direct TV bill. Do you really need all the features you are paying for? Are you paying for lots of data on your cell phone plan? Cut that down if you are going to be at home most of the time.

Good luck! I know you can do it and it will be worth it.

Stay out of stores but if you do go stick to your list. Really look at what you and your hubby are spending money on. Eating out or even grabbing a snack when getting gas adds up. Look for free things to do with your child.

I found mommy and me classes so I still got out of the house but it didn't cost much money at all and the kids had fun to. We met at a different park each week. The activities changed based on how old the kids were - there was usually some discussion that helped with coping as well - staying home comes with its own challenges - talking to others going through the same thing helped me immensely. I also learned about other free or nearly free entertainment from other moms in the class.

Sit down and write down everything you are spending money on and see if there are places you can cut back - cable, phones, entertainment. Discover your library - ours had DVDS and sometimes even free classes as well as books - it saves us the rental fees. We no longer go out to movies but borrow or rent DVDs.

Good luck staying home is wonderful but stressful at the same time. I hope you can make it work and you love it as much as I have.

I just thought of something else that I love to do to save money - garden. If you have the space it is great but start slow - if you know you can get peppers cheap then don't bother with them but try something you eat that is more costly like tomatoes - homegrown tomatoes are wonderful. I also love to grow my own herbs. I love being able to just step outside and cut a few to add to dinner. Starting a garden can cost a fortune though so start slow. This may sound stupid but only plant what you and your family will eat. It took us a while to figure out what grows in our garden and then we moved 60 miles away and I have to start all over again this year.

I work but we are trying to pay off our debt.

Meal Plan - Less waste of food and you will eliminate extra trips to the grocery

Eating out - its been said here before but we only eat out 1x a month - and its cheap chipotle, portillos or pizza from our favorite place. We really only go to sit downs for special occasions - birthday, anniversary or vacation.

My favorite tradition with the little is in the summer every friday night we pack a picnic and went to a new park or nature center. Its free and nice to be out. Lots of trips to the library.

Lots of Redbox movies for DH and I, we only go to the actual movies a few times.

And with a baby - try to stay out of target even if diapers are $3 cheaper. I sometimes bought mine at the grocery store, because I would take an extra trip to target to save $3 on diapers or wipes or what not and end up spending $75 on other crap. If you can control yourself than don't worry : ) but for me - it became a problem.

If you do go to target - take advantage - you can use a manufacturer coupon, store coupon and cartwheel discount plus if you use your redcard its another 5% off.

I follow this blog and she sometimes has great tips.
The frugal girl

I won't claim to be an expert on frugal living by any means, but I was on an extremely tight budget as a college and grad student, so here are some things I found helpful.

1. Meal planning, as people have said. Go with a list, stick to the list, eat at home. I don't mind eating vegetarian and find that it can be cheaper than eating meat/poultry.

2. If you can have one car, have one car. I didn't own a car until my 30s (although I lived in cities with good public transit, which is necessary to make the no-car-at-all lifestyle work), and when dh and I moved somewhere without good public transit, we shared a car until my job required me to buy one.

3. See what, if any, recurring expenses you have that could be cut. Cell phone (less data, cheaper plan), cable, etc.

4. Join Freecycle, if your community has one, and Buy Nothing, if you can find a local one on Facebook. It is absolutely amazing the things you can get for free. You may not want to take a free car seat for the baby, obviously, but a free exersaucer? Yes, please.

5. Similarly, see if you can find a friend who has a baby a little older than yours who might be willing to pass things on to you temporarily. A friend of mine and I who have had our kids in alternating years have passed a lot of time-limited baby equipment (bouncy seats, etc.) back and forth.

HTH. Honestly, I think it feels so much nicer when you are cutting expenses for something you have chosen (a baby, a graduate school degree) than because of circumstances beyond your control -- you have your eyes on the prize (in your case, your arms as well), and hopefully that will help focus you as you trim costs.

Our grocery store sale inserts come in the Tuesday or Wednesday newspaper, I can't remember which right now. The same information is probably available online, too.

If you sit down with the flyer to make your meal plan, you can organize yourself to save as much money as possible. Like, if chicken thighs are on sale this week, you're going to buy chicken thighs. If your recipe calls for chicken breasts, save it or substitute thighs instead. (They taste better anyway, despite the fact there's a bunch of mealy-mouthed people who refuse to eat dark meat.)  Buy extra for some time when they're not on sale.

I always buy an extra turkey for the freezer at Thanksgiving because that's when they're cheap, and we have it in the spring or summer sometime. Same with corned beef in March ... I buy several for the freezer. Save lots of $$$.

When eggs go on sale, stock up. They last a lot longer in the fridge than the so-called "expiration date" suggests. You can make quiche or frittata for dinner for practically nothing.

You can roast a whole chicken (very easy for a beginner cook) and get several meals out of it. The leftover skin and bones can be used to make stock for soup.

You can also stock up on things you use a lot of if you watch the sales, like ketchup, detergent, whatever.

When the baby gets older and you're buying regular milk, sometimes you might have too much left at the end of the week. Make pudding or custard or tapioca with the older milk (unless your family hates them, of course). Leftover bread makes good french toast or you can cut it into cubes for stuffing or croutons. I keep a plastic bag in the freezer and just toss in bread cubes whenever I have some. Leftover veggies can go into a pot of soup.

When the weather warms up and if you have the yard space, hang your clothes out to dry instead of using the dryer. Keeps the house cooler, too. I let my clothes dry on the line, then throw them into the dryer for 5 minutes or so to soften them up. They still have the wonderful sunshiny smell, which I love.

Good advice so far! I'll add some more ideas that help us.

Utilize your local libraries! You often don't need to be a member of one in a neighboring town to participate in their story hour or whatever and they have a ton of free activities. I swear we'd go nuts without our two fave libraries! One of ours has an event for babies that's all songs and movement. Like a freebie gymboree class. The other one has AMAZING story times with a craft. They've even done some special classes with art focus, animals, etc. All free. Sign up for their emails if you're not getting them.

And obviously the free books to check out at your library is awesome. Most even have a digi lending library where you can check out books to read on your kindle, ipad, phone, etc.

join meetup.com and see if there are any mommy groups in your area. I've met some great ladies through this and these women always seem to have the scoop on what to do that's free. Even if you don't do much with the group, just take note of the activities and you'll get a feel for what's fun and free (or cheap) in your area. There's lots of play dates at homes, too, those are always free and a great way to pass the morning and be around other moms/kids.

Start thrifting. Almost all of DS's clothes are second-hand. Kids grow so fast and clothes in the younger years are usually in good shape used or barely worn at all. I'm super picky about what I buy and have my fave places. It's also a fun and CHEAP way to shop if you miss shopping. I also shop end of Season clearance sales at regular retail stores where the stuff is an extra % off the sale price for the next year. Have scored swimsuits, shoes, etc brand new for thrift store prices that way. Most areas have children's consignment sales twice a year too. Google and ask around. These are gold mines for toys, clothes, furniture, etc.

I'm also a Goodwill addict for toys. I loooooove going and so does DS. This week we found a Little People pirate ship in excellent shape for $1.99 He's been playing with it all week. I know when the time comes to get rid of his toys I can pretty much make my money back at a kids consignment sale because I've spent so little on them. Some dawn dish soap, water and a little scrubbing does wonders. And magic eraser gets off most any crayon marks or scuffs on toys, too.

Thriftbooks.com is my fave for children's books, too, especially if you're looking for a specific title. Shipping is included! Otherwise goodwill or local thrift stores are great places to look for kid books.

coupon at one of the drugstores for cheap toiletries. CVS's program is my fave bc it's so easy. Stockpile this stuff so you have it when you run out & you'll avoid paying full price for deodorant, shampoo, etc. I haven't paid a penny for toothpaste or toothbrushes in probably 6 years. Ha. I don't go overboard. My stockpile fits in our guest bathroom's under sink cabinet. Not excessive. 

Trade services with people. You & a friend can take turns babysitting so you can go out for a date night. That way you're not paying for a sitter AND dinner out or whatever. 

Congrats on your baby! DH and I were married 10 years before having DS so I get we're you're coming from Being a SAHM is awesome and you can definitely make it work!

If you shop at WalMart, use their savings catcher program. I don't save lot but the $10 I have int he account will help my SIL who lives on disability. Check into other programs like Ibotta. Every little bit helps.

Watch the newspaper for specials on dining for that special occasion. Some places still offer sunset dinners mid-week or between certain hours.

When my circumstances changed I
Cut all subscriptions
Cut cable to basic - I could have gotten rid of it, but I was living at home
Cut telephone to basic services
Cut monitoring for alarm
Planned meals... My big treat was chili at Wendy 'a once a week... No picking up fast food cause I was in a hurry .
Set heat down and wore more clothes in winter
Did not use air conditioning
Shut off rooms not in use
Planned trips out to combine errands.
Clothes were purchased only as needed, not just for fun, and were purchased in thrift shops
Lights off when not in use
Shopping to buy only what was planned.. No impulse purchasers
Library books


I was able to stay in the house that we could barely afford on two incomes with just my income and I was able to pay off amounts in of debt that my ex left me with. I was also able to do the occasional nice thing for myself and purchase my daughters wedding dress.

It can be done

Great tips so far!

See if you have a thrift bread store near you. I get name brand loaves, buns, bagels, english muffins for $.99 each. They are fresh and still in date too! They usually have a manager special table where the stuff is as low as $.25. One time I walked out of there paying $2 for eight loaves of fresh sliced italian bread that I used to make a bunch of french toast. Threw it in the freezer and I had breakfast for a few months.

If you have the time and inclination for couponing, that is another avenue, even if it is just for health & beauty or household stuff. If you buy something online, see if there is cash back through something like ebates.com or TopCashBack (which I think usually gives more money back, that is my referral link BTW). I have also started making a conscientious effort to use some money making apps like ShopKick, Receipt Hog, SavingsStar, Ibotta, Wal-Mart Savings Catcher, etc. My goal is to make enough money through them to pay for Christmas. I already have close to $75 in cashouts and I almost have enough kicks for a $50 gift card with ShopKicks. I haven't had luck with paid online surveys since I don't seem to qualify for most of them but you might do better.

We also have a credit card for points that we can use for cash back or gift cards. We throw just about everything on that card (and pay it off every month) and a couple of times a year I cash out our points for a bunch of gift cards for us and for Christmas gifts.

I also second the sentiment of don't go shopping to do something. I would spend so much money walking the aisles at Target and stopping in to browse at Michaels because I was bored or the weather wasn't agreeable to going to a park.

Good luck! I love staying home with my munchkin!

Consider getting rid of any unnecessary items on Craig's list or a local Facebook buy and sell if there is one. ( it goes without saying that this requires caution...meet in a public place, etc)