[USER]

Now, for the very first time I have to be frugal out of necessity.

Hubby and I are expecting our first child in 2 weeks! I’m on maternity leave and will not be working for at least a year.

While we will have hubbys salary, that will cover our mortgage and some utilities and that’s it.

We will need to stretch my EI earnings to cover the rest, and our goal is to still try to put some money into savings each month.

While I am nervous about the change in lifestyle that is to come, I feel much more prepared that I think I would have been had I not been previously trying to live a more frugal life already.

We have set a new budget for ourselves and our smaller income, and we tried sticking to it last month.

We came in $34 under budget! We didn’t exactly do the best job because we wanted to save about $400 by the end of the month, but it proved to us that even if we have some mistakes we won’t “lose the farm”.

[Kelly]

Ditch subscriptions, cable, dish…use free TV. Ditch internet- use phone Hotspot. I stayed home with my kids & treasured that time.

[Shelby]

Enjoy your time home with your baby. Time spent is something money can’t buy.

[Coral]

My biggest savings were
1) Toilet paper is the only disposable I buy.

2) I use half the recommended amount of household/ personal products.

3)Check recommended serving sizes for good nutritional health, you might find you are doubling expensive protein portions.

4)I don’t buy single serve anything, and no canned/ bottled drinks

5) Borrow/ thrift shop\ share where possible. Not everyone needs a ladder or a drill!

6) I always wash stained or dirty clothes, other clothes are aired and reworn( undies excluded!) reduced electricity bills, clothes stay good longer.

Disposable nappies were for the financially comfortable when I was a young mum, If I was a mum now I would be using disposables at night, more comfortable, helps baby sleep through.Once you go back to work you may find the trade off of time and energy for money works for you, but if you are home and have a washing machine, cloth nappies are easy, and much cheaper.

I did all of these, because I wanted to prolong my time as an SAHM for as long as possible, but I had a job, not a career!

If you have a well paid career I imagine it would be a very different scenario.

No one size fits all solutions with money!

[Patty]

It’s hard until inflation is curbed. In the meantime, cloth diapers, thrift store clothing, breast feed, make your own laundry soap (recipes online).

Plant a garden, no matter how simple, try a cold box, never eat out, make extra when cooking and freeze for a future meal, make your own yogurt (instant pot is easy), make biscuits with saved chicken fat instead of butter.

Sautee in the same chicken fat. Make your own chicken broth and freeze for soup. have soup at least once a week.

Make beans or other legumes for at least one meal a week.

Make a homemade cornbread and rice to go with both beans and soup.

Before any veg goes bad in the fridge, trim it up, chop to size, parboiled a few seconds and freeze for soup later.

When fruit like strawberries are in season, freeze for later, lay on a cookie sheet until frozen separately then put into a dedicated, Frozen Fruit, bag. Reuse those plastic produce bags.

Find neighbors with fruit trees and make friends. Offer to make them a couple jars of jam in exchange.

Jam is easy. Use grated green spple instead of purchased pectin. Blessings on you and your family.

[Tesse]

If you’re in the USA sign up for WIC for you and your baby. It’s an amazing program

[Becky]

We installed a bidet and we no longer buy toilet paper. Each person has their own towel for drying off.

[Jody]

Good for you, your baby will benefit from having you home. We did exactly the same thing with our first.

We practiced by not using my income the last month or so which set us up with an automatic emergency fund.

Best of luck to you all.

[Ling]

Declutter old Linnie’s tshirts towels and cut into squares for drying hands etc

[Mindy]

I’ve learned over the years, when there was a big lifestyle change, my views on life also changed. I also ended up doing things I would or would have never done without that change.

So, you never know.

You may end up with a new type of job or opening up a business.

Kudos to you for hunkering down financially.

Congratulations on your new baby.

[Patricia]

Use thrift stores and consignment stores for baby stuff. They don’t care – till they become teens.

[Author]

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