The Stay at Home Dad Blog

Money-saving tips for couples with a stay at home dad

Most couples with a stay at home dad can have a hard time adjusting to a different way of life, especially when it comes to financial matters.  As separate individuals, your spending habits will differ. This is why you both need to make certain adjustments to combine the household budget.

Here are some ways on how you and your partner can make the ‘financial aspect’ of your marriage harmonious and organized:

1. Understand the way that you both look at money.
If you and your spouse have different beliefs when it comes to money matters,  sit down and discuss it. The key here is to be able to compromise. For some people, money is a security measure that needs to be saved. Other people spend it luxuriously and look at spending money as a means to reward themselves for their work. Still, other people are very thrifty that they hardly ever spend a cent of what they have earned.

Understand that the way that you both treat and spend money stems from how you were brought up by your parents. Think of everything that you need to discuss when it comes to your household budget. If possible, set rules on how you will spend your combined income on utility bills, food, mortgage, car maintenance, etc.

2. Set future financial goals.
If you just had your baby, consider this when organizing your finances. Future expenses like clothes and food may require you to spend less on other things like eating out.

3. Share your money-saving skills with your partner.
If you have different family backgrounds, then you would have something to contribute towards organizing your joints assets. Make each other aware of your personal finances then think of ways on how you can further boost your money-handling tactics.

By following these tips, you will surely have your finances organized to lead a more comfortable lifestyle.

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Saving Money is one hard task. There are lots of things to be considered, primarily on how to budget your cash on hand that would somehow, if not manage to have excess left money, be exact of what it should be used for. Budgeting is really a pain in the neck. Allocation of electric bills, water bills, phone bills, etc. is just few of the many things being considered on how to utilize your cash wisely. Food is no exception. Being the most important of all house responsibility, we prioritize on how to budget our money, reducing the money spent without sacrificing the food allocation. We mainly buy necessities in groceries. It would be of help if you list down goods you have to buy together with their prices (if possible) so as to ensure yourself that the budget allotted for food is exact or there is a shortage. If so, you could trim down your list or think of a better replacement. To furthermore avoid shopping shortages, here are some tips.

1. List goods that should always be found in the kitchen. Examples of which are coffee, milk, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, salt, onion, garlic. These goods are necessary, so they are always being bought.
2. Plan your weekly meals ahead of time. This would avoid you overspending on goods invaluable or missing some ingredients that are needed. This would not just clear your worries but it would also save your time.
3. Don’t buy branded goods; instead choose a product that has the same quality of those expensive goods. You’ll get the same benefit without spending more.
4. Buy goods that have dual purpose. A good example of which is mayonnaise. You can use it as a sandwich spread or make macaroni salad instead. In a way, you could enjoy eating both without spending too much.
5. Buy less expensive cuts of meat. List recipes that the cuts won’t matter. At least, you won’t be sacrificing the taste of the food and at the same time you’ll have the chance to buy a larger quantity.
6. Pay in cash. You might be tempted to buy unnecessary goods. This would avoid you from going over your card limit.
7. Try to be inventive and creative at the same time. Leftovers could be precooked in a way that it would look appealing again to your appetite.
8. Bring some snacks whenever you travel. This could be a good reliever for your hunger along the way and chances of being tempted to stop in a mini store; if not be impossible, at least be lessen.
9. Keep a list of prices of goods you always buy. At least, with those products you’re sure of how much you’ll be spending and you could do just a small amount on goods you wish to buy.
10. Shop only once or twice a month. In that way, less time will be spent on going to a grocery store and at the same time, chances of overspending will be minimized.

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For some, the idea of a budget is often a blur. It is frustrating to see how hard it is to do a budget and realizing that with one wrong purchase, you can actually ruin the entire thing. And this has been a perennial headache for most stay at home dads.

It is about time to overhaul the way people look at budgeting. It can actually be a great way to keep track of your family’s expenditures and help you evaluate the things that you spend the lion’s share of the family’s earnings on.

What is a budget? A budget is a tool for handling your finances by controlling the family’s expenditures in a way that money is enough for paying up bills, and still ensuring that savings are set aside for future expenses - vacations, or children’s education, or even for retirement.

Try these simple steps in preparing a no fret family budget, and see the benefits of intelligent spending.

1. Gather three months of pay stubs and get your average monthly earnings.
2. Get out three months of your monthly bills. Do this for the fixed expenses like the rent, phone bill, car payments and other loans that come monthly. Add them up and get the average. Do the same for other expenses like groceries, and credit card bills.
3. Evaluate the results of your computations. Looking at your average monthly earnings against your monthly fixed expenses and other monthly expenses, think of some ways to economize. Cut back on some items that are somehow unnecessary.
4. Knowing the facts of your income and expenses, develop a family budget and try to stick to this monthly budget.
5. Now that you have a monthly budget, set up a savings account. Save up by making regular deposits to this account.
6. Keep track of this monthly family budget just to see if it is working for you. Try to fine-tune the “rough edges” of this budget as you go along.
7. If you can get hold of a personal budgeting software or spreadsheet application to keep record of your budget, the better. This will make organizing your expenses very easy.

These are the basic steps in developing and implementing a no fret, easy to stick to monthly family budget. Of course each family has diverse needs and wants. You have the freedom to develop your own monthly family budget, depending on your family’s financial background and needs. No matter how you do it, just focus on the end result, which is building a savings that leads to a bright and financially stable future for your family.

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