I love being able to be at home with my family. It’s tough having one person earning the bulk of the income but it can be done. Here are some tips I’ve found that really help.

1. Remember what you’re saving.

Two incomes are not always significantly better than one. Depending on the number of children who would need to be in childcare, the cost of commuting, meals out, wardrobe, taxes and so forth, the second income may be more easily replaced than you expect. Some families even discover that having both parents work means they have less money. It doesn’t always happen that way, but it is quite worthwhile to figure out what the actual amount being brought in is.

2. Think about which parent stays at home.

It’s not always the mother who is most suited, either in personality or in earning potential. Both should be considerations. The person who will do best as a stay at home parent will generally do better with all the things that need to be done to keep a single income household running. Just make sure that the emotional support is there for both parents.

3. Check your housing expenses.

Housing is by far most families’ largest monthly expense. If it’s going to be tight going to a single income, look at ways to cut that expense. If you’re renting, consider a smaller place or one that is in a more affordable place… so long as you’re comfortable living in the area. You should not sacrifice your peace of mind.

If you own, look at what it’s costing you. If your current home is stretching your budget too hard, think about if it would be worthwhile to move. Sometimes the expenses of selling and moving are worth it, other times definitely not!

4. Look at your other monthly bills.

Telephone, electricity, gas, water, cable, internet… they all add up. Often times they can be controlled.

You can decide to simplify the plans you have on your phones. Cell phones are extremely common now, and some people choose to drop their land line telephone in favor of just using cell phones. Others simply drop features from the land line, such as caller ID, call waiting and any excessive long distance calling plans.

And of course you should be working on cutting down your water use, turning off excess lights, resetting the thermostat so you use less power, things like that. You can adapt and be comfortable with these.

You will have to decide for yourself what level, if any, of cable and internet services you need. These days the internet is used quite a bit by students, of course, and for quite a bit of regular communication through email for many people. But you can consider which speed of service you really need to pay for.

5. Pay down your debts.

Most especially pay down credit card debts. If you’re going to be earning less money as a family, you need fewer worries about your finances. Any debts you can get rid of or pay way down first will save you a lot of worry later on and provide you with greater financial flexibility.

6. Pay your bills on time.

Paying a late fee is a sign of not paying enough attention to when bills are due. They’re utterly unnecessary, especially since these days you can have many bills paid automatically. Just be sure any accounts you use for automatic payments always have enough money in them.

7. Make a budget - and stick to it.

Living on a budget isn’t fun. However it’s one of the most practical ways to be sure that you can afford to have one parent stay at home. Stick to it as best you can.

8. Have an emergency fund.

Stuff happens. A car breaks down. Someone gets sick. Have some money set aside so these problems aren’t added to with a financial crisis.

9. Use coupons and follow sales.

The more attention you pay to the many ways you can get lower prices, the less you’re going to pay in all your shopping. You can often get coupons for your favorite products by contacting the manufacturer. Plan your meals around what’s on sale and know which stores it makes sense to go to.

10. Learn about local free entertainment for your family.

There are a lot of things you can do for free in most areas. Museums may have free days. There are parks to play in. Play games at home.

11. Plan for holiday and birthday expenses.

You know when these are coming. If you plan ahead they won’t be a big drain on your budget.

12. See if the parent working outside the home can use public transportation or carpool.

As gas prices rise, either of these becomes a better and better idea. The practicality depends on your area, but when it works you can save a significant amount each month. There’s some loss of convenience, of course, but if the car is needed on a particular day that can be arranged.

You may be able to cut down to one vehicle for your family, a huge savings! My family has done this, and while it’s hard at times it is quite doable.

13. Get books and movies from the library.

Sure it’s not the same selection as if you’re buying them, and you may have to wait a while. But you can’t beat the price.

14. Get to know the other parents in your area.

Perhaps especially the other stay at home parents with kids around the ages of your own. They’re great for support, for the children’s playtime, for trading babysitting.

15. Consider whether working at home is an option.

It is very possible for the at home parent to earn anywhere from a very little to a lot of money from home. Do some research on the possibilities and decide if this will work for your family. It can make the difference when things get rough.

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Kids are expensive, there’s no doubt. Food, clothing, entertainment, education… it all adds up.

If you take some time to talk with them, they can also help you save money. That’s helpful at any point.

In my experience, children are very sweet about things when you talk to them about why you want to save money. My daughter at age 5 offered to start a lemonade stand when we explained about money being tight. She just really wanted to help.

The first thing you want to give your children is a reason to help you save money. You may choose to share with them a portion of what is saved. You could set a savings goal for a family vacation. You just need to figure out what will motivate them and you.

Have a family meeting to start discussing options. You want to get everyone on board with the general concepts. You probably won’t come up with every possible idea for saving money right away, but you can get the thought processes moving.

One of the great things about talking things out with kids is that sometimes they are very willing to make sacrifices. They can really surprise you, even at a young age.

Some things they should help you with will be obvious. If keeping extra lights turned off is an issue, come up with a reward system for that. It doesn’t have to be significant, perhaps just a mark on a chart that will eventually lead to something.

You may be able to compete with each other a bit too. You can each pick a habit that’s wasting a bit of money, and see who does the best at beating it. You should be sure the competition stays lighthearted, and keep encouraging your children so that there’s a good chance that they could win. Your purpose here, after all, is two fold. You want to save money but you also want your children to get a good lesson.

Another good area to explore with your children is snacking. Could they go from a more expensive snack to a cheaper and possibly healthier one? It can be done. Things like fruit snacks really aren’t that cheap.

This should lead to your kids helping you shop for bargains in the grocery store. Have them help you with the ads, figuring out which stores to visit and what to buy. Maybe even have them help with some menu planning.

Another big expense for many families comes from video games. You may want to consider renting video games rather than buying them, or talking with other families in your area about trades. Your children will probably know which of their friends have the same system and might be open for trades. Setting up workable rules can be a challenge but also a good lesson. But if things are tight enough, new games may simply have to be given up on.

Your family can probably come up with a lot more ideas to save some money. You can figure out what kind of rewards for saving money makes sense for your family, and really get everyone motivated. It’s really wonderful to be able to get some control over some of the expenses associated with raising a family.

While many stay at home moms do already work at home, others don’t. The reason is pretty simple: It’s hard to commit yourself fully to your family if you have to work all the time. And if your family doesn’t need the money, why use up all that time?

But things can change, and working from home may be a more pleasant option than giving up on the stay at home dream altogether. Good thing it may be manageable if you plan ahead and be realistic about your own capabilities.

So when should you start trying to work at home?

If Your Family is Carrying a Heavy Debt Load

For this, I generally mean beyond a mortgage. Most people carry a mortgage on their home for quite a number of years, and that’s not a bad thing so long as it is manageable. But credit card debt, student loan debts and so forth are more of a problem.

Working at home is a way to get some of that debt paid down a little more quickly.

If Your Family is Living Month to Month

Just look at all the reports of how the economy is going right now. We can argue about recession versus stagflation going on, but things are pretty rough out there for a lot of families. And in many cases that’s because they didn’t have any sort of cushion for their family in case of a lost job.

Jobs can be lost for so many reasons. Layoffs and medical issues come immediately to mind.

If you don’t have several months’ worth of income saved up for such a crisis, your family can be in deep trouble if the only wage earner suddenly isn’t bringing in much money, or is bringing in significantly less.

If you start working at home you can bring that cushion up. It can be protection for your family in case of difficulties. Much better than living month to month.

Just Because You WANT to

Sometimes you just want more from your life than taking care of home and family. Especially as children get older there’s only so much you can do, after all. Working at home gives you the chance to still be there while pursuing one of your own interests.

We have a huge advantage over mothers who worked at home in the past. There are a lot more options. We can go beyond the traditional options of daycare and network marketing, and follow still more of our own interests.

For that matter, network marketing has expanded beyond the most established companies. You have many more options available to you, and so can enjoy working in this industry with more options for what you’re selling.

You can start a website. You can be a remote worker for all kinds of companies, doing customer service, data entry, transcription or many other jobs. You can hire yourself out as a freelance writer, programmer, designer, whatever suits your skills.

So What’s the Catch?

The catch, of course, is that not everyone will succeed in working at home. It does take from your day. It takes effort. It’s flat out difficult for many people to find opportunities that aren’t scams. And yes, if you start a home business you may even lose money. It’s not risk free.

If you decide you want to work at home, don’t be in a rush about it. Don’t allow hype to catch your attention, or worse yet, your wallet. Take your time and do your research. Ask other people about it. The work at home community is generally very willing to help new members figure out what is legitimate. While you can’t trust everyone you meet online, getting more eyes on what you think will be good can help you to spot potential problems before you’re paying for them.

We parents all know how draining a child’s birthday party can be. So many kids running around. But I was really surprised at how well my daughter’s 6th birthday party went yesterday.

We did things a little different this time. We didn’t have the party on a weekend day. We held it instead on Friday afternoon, after school. I think this is a part of why things went so well. The kids were already a little tired from their school day.

We got permission to take 3 of the kids home with us, since their parents weren’t available to do so. Our house is a short walk from the school, so herding that menagerie along wasn’t too bad. After all, they all wanted to get to that party, fast!

My daughter was told to think about who she wanted to invite, because we didn’t want to be doing that with half the class, of course. Only so many kids I’m willing to take that kind of responsibility for at one time. So that helped to keep the numbers down. We invited 7, and 6 were able to come. Not bad, considering that the only decline was because she had a brother with the same birthday.

The kindergarten has a short day on Fridays, so we told parents that it was right after class, or noon, whichever was easiest on them. Gave us some time to get a bit organized before the rest of the kids showed.

We served the kids a light lunch with taquitos, carrots and apple slices. They went off to play. No characters, nothing rented for them to jump on, just kids having fun.

We started opening presents at 1. Then cake, followed by snow cones. The snow cones were a bigger hit than the cake. Makes sense to me. Seems like I always see the kids eating the frosting and very little of the cake. Snow cones are rarely served, so they’re a bigger treat in some ways.

By 2 the kids were outside playing with water balloons. Some finished quickly and came inside to color. By the time parents were coming to pick up their kids, that’s pretty much what they saw. Very calm children mostly coloring and talking.

All in all, I think the kids had a blast. Got a few more interested in coming over to play.

The one catch was needing to keep a couple kids beyond the party hours, as their parents had to work. This was something we planned for, and told the parents flat out that we would do if it meant their kids could come to the party.

This was not a lot of extra work. After the party we allowed them to watch a movie, and they were tired enough that mostly they just did that, with a bit more playing.

It was fun figuring out how to handle all this, from allowing parents to drop presents off early to keeping the kids’ backpacks organized. But it went sufficiently well for us to want to do it again in the future. Despite some of the extra challenges, we like how things went better.