As a stay-at-home mom, it can be challenging for you to feel like you’re contributing to the household finances. Your husband works hard during the day and yet you’re still having trouble making ends meet. Sure, the job of raising your kids is priceless, but when times get tough, you may very well feel like there’s more that you could be doing. Of course, being a mom is exhausting! By the time you got one kid happy, the other one starts crying. By the end of the day, when both of the kids are finally in bed (hallelujah!), you’re both physically and mentally exhausted. Nonetheless, in the back of your mind, you feel like there’s something you can be doing. Well, guess what? There really is! Here are five little secrets that you may find helpful:

1. Set a budget and stick to it. Often times, Mom will be in charge of the budget while Dad is at work. If this is the case for you, take the reigns of the budget and use your best judgement. Figure out how much each aspect of your life costs (e.g. groceries, gas, etc.), and use the remaining budget for the rest of the month. Sure, you’ll have used the entire grocery budget before month’s end on more than one occasion, but it forces you to get creative with the food that has been in the pantry and freezer for a while.
2. Take advantage of the library. This little trick was found via Humbled Homemaker and it seems to make lots of moms happy. Libraries works wonders for saving money while still allowing my kids to get all the entertainment they need. While the library is loaded with books (naturally), many libraries also have lots of DVDs we can check out free of charge.
3. Don’t forget about payday loans. While you’d love to brag to your friends that you’re never short of money and  do a perfect job budgeting out every month, that’s not always the case. Sometimes the car suddenly needs new tires or you have to fly to visit family on short notice for a variety of reasons. In these instances, you can take out a payday loan. They help bridge the gap until the next payday and can relieve quite a bit of stress.
4. Explore your talents. Even though it can be hard to remember what life was like before you had your kids, chances are that you were pretty talented back in the day. Whether you have a college degree or you simply love to get creative, put these talents to good use. Companies are constantly looking for freelance writers, so you make some extra money doing freelance writing work when you put the kids down for naptime. If you’re a gifted seamstress, perhaps you could make some unique items and sell them on places like Etsy or eBay. Just be careful; while there are plenty of great work-at-home options out there, if you have to pay money to get started, it’s probably a scam.
5. Don’t underestimate coupons. Depending on the age of your kids, you can even get them involved in helping save your household some money. Go through the Sunday paper and cut out any coupons for grocery items your family will actually eat. Some of the moms at Circle of Moms report that they save $100 per week by couponing. You may not get to that level of savings yet, but you never know.

Now that you’re armed with these little tidbits to helping out with the family budgety, you can finally feel like you are contributing to the finances in the way you always wished for.

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Felicia Baratz-Savage

Felicia is a lover of the good things in life: cats, wall decor, scented candles and gadgets. She loves writing and enjoys blogging on behalf of Sears in her spare time.

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