Living within your budget

One of the greatest setbacks of being a SAHM (stay-at-home Mom) is that you have to accept the fact that your family will now live on a single income. Let’s face it, it is hard. You have to count every centavo you spend and track all your expenses.

Assess your financial situation.

Look at your monthly spending such as mortgage/rent, utilities, education, gasoline allowance, food, etc. It’s easy when you know where all your money is going. Try to separate your needs and your wants. Concentrate on the necessities. This is as simple as listing it down using a pen and a paper, any spreadsheet or if you have a financial software such as home budget software on hand, then life would be a lot easier.

After you have plotted your spending, the next step would be to try to assess and look for ways you can save. For instance, instead of having an air conditioning unit in every room may be you can just live with one. Planning your trips can save a lot of gas. Or when doing your grocery, you can buy in bulk it saves you a lot.

Now consider additional earnings. During Christmas, instead of buying expensive gifts, I give away my own home baked goodies. This gives us a lot of savings and it is also an opportunity for me to earn extra bucks.

Try to avoid using your credit card. As much as possible limit your expenditure on cash basis. It is never a good idea to accrue massive debt on credit cards. Use your credit wisely, and make sure to pay the whole amount instead of just the minimum amount. Otherwise, you can end up having a bad credit rating which could hound you for a long time.



Allot a percentage of your income on savings. Although this is always easier said than done, it is good to have some money in the bank not only in cases of emergency but this contingency fund will allow to go on summer trips or to splurge once in a while. At home, I have a coin bank for me and each of my children. For the kids, they open the coin bank during Christmas and they use it to buy the extra stuff they want. You’ll be surprised at how those coins can accumulate.

During hard times such as the economic situation we are facing now, it’s a struggle to try and live within your budget. Admittedly, it is not an easy task, however if you don’t do so, your spending can overcome you and this could spell disaster.