Ways To Save Money As a Stay-At-Home-Mom

Hi Mama, 

It’s been a little over two years since I decided to quit my job and stay home with my daughter. This decision wasn’t an easy one. I didn’t do it because we are rich and don’t need two incomes. I did it to keep my daughter safe during the pandemic.

Two years later and I still don’t have any plans to return to a traditional job. I’m expecting my son in just 2 months and plan to be home with him for at least a year.

While I am a stay-at-home-mom, I do make a side income through my blog/YouTube/Instagram. It’s not much compared the the full-time job I left but it’s something! While I love being able to make a small income, I spend a lot of my time on finding ways to SAVE money rather than ways to make more money.

Today I’m sharing my favorite ways to save money as a stay-at-home-mom! I hope you find this list helpful! Please share your tips in the comments!

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How To Save Money As a Stay-At-Home-Mom

1. Don’t be afraid to shop secondhand! When I was a first time mom expecting my daughter, I thought everything had to be new. After all, this was my BABY! Why wouldn’t I want all new things for her? I quickly realized that babies don’t need NEW everything. Sure, a new car seat, crib, diapers. But clothes, toys, books, swings, baby wraps/carriers… those could all be found secondhand, and usually in perfect condition! Kids don’t use things for very long and parents don’t have a use for the items after a few months. My favorite place to shop secondhand is the Facebook marketplace. I can find things locally that I can swing by and pick up that very day. Some times I’ve gotten from Facebook are a wagon, clothes, a baby swing, a changing table, etc.
2. Get involved with your mom community! This is sort of related to getting items secondhand. When I had my daughter I was new in town and didn’t have many local mom friends yet. But over the past few years I’ve made friends and gotten involved with the community. I found out that our town has a mama Facebook group where people are regularly getting rid of things, usually for FREE! When I found out my second baby was a boy, I posted in the group asking for baby boy clothes. Within a week I had a complete wardrobe from newborn to toddler for my son FOR FREE! Just make sure that you also are willing to give back to other mamas in your community!
3. Buy things in bulk. I’m a Costco member and so I find that one of the best ways to save money on things is to buy them in bulk at a warehouse store. Some of the things our family stocks up on from Costco are toilet paper, paper towels, spaghetti, dish soap, laundry detergent, tissues, canned items, and other non-perishable foods. While there is a yearly membership fee for stores like these, if you have enough things that you can stock up on, it usually evens out the cost or saves you money. Plus, you can save money by not running out for toilet paper every month (and in turn buying a bunch of other stuff on those monthly trips).
4. Install Honey on your web browser to help find deals. Honey is a browser extension that will search for coupon codes for websites that you’re shopping on. So even if there isn’t a sale that you know about, you might be able to score a nice discount simply by installing and using this free extension on your computer’s browser. You can try to search for discount codes on your own, but with a service like Honey available, why would you ever want to do that?!
5. Write to baby brands! You don’t have to be an influencer in order to get free products from brands! Some brands have PR packages that they want to send out to new moms, so it’s worth writing to them and simply asking if they have any samples! The worst case is they say no, and best case is they can hook you up!
   

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Those are a few of the ways that I like to SAVE money as a stay-at-home-mom. Want to hear my favorite ways to MAKE money as a stay-at-home-mom? Let me know in the comments and I’ll try to share that soon! 🙂

Thanks for reading!

Read next: Is Lovevery Worth It?

xo

Mother of Fawn