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What Would We Do if My Husband Lost His Job?
We’ve been talking about recession-proofing your family lately, and it’s mainly because we have so many readers asking this question: What will I do if my husband loses his job? (or wife, if she’s the main breadwinner). If you haven’t been following our series on How To Recession-Proof Your Family, catch up with it now by reading how one SAHM recession-proofed her family. Although not all subjects we talk about at Home Ever After apply to all people’s situations all of the time, sometimes they really hit home. In this case, this topic may be hitting my household and my family. Let me explain. Layoff News While Shopping A week…
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How one SAHM Recession-Proofed Her Family
Editor’s note: With the current state of the economy, many one-income families are especially worried about the security of their employment. We’ve been talking to moms and dads a lot lately about the measures they are taking to make sure their families are recession-proofed. In other words, what can you do now to ensure that a possible layoff would have the smallest possible impact on your family’s lifestyle and well-being? This week, Phoebe Hendricks was kind enough to share her tips and strategies with us. The following is a guest post by Phoebe Hendricks. She is married to the most amazing and supportive husband and is a stay at home…
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How I Saved $228 with These Grocery Tips
Home Ever After has partnered with Oscar Mayer and Ellie Kay to bring you grocery tips that can revolutionize the way you spend your family's grocery money!
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Get Frugal with $5 a Week
Financial situations can change dramatically without warning, and have enormous effects on your household’s spending money. Whether your main breadwinner has lost their job, had work hours reduced, or you’ve lost the second income in your family, there are ways to make ends meet even when the going gets rough. Get Frugal with $5 a Week A while back, a reader shared this problem with me. She described how, after many years of two incomes, they now have only $5 a week leftover after paying for necessities. She had gone back to school, leaving their family of 5 to get by on only her husband’s income. We may forget how…
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Learn the Difference Between Needs and Wants
Learn the Difference Between Needs and Wants It can be difficult to learn the difference between needs and wants when you’re used to having a little flexibility in your shopping budget. When that flexibility disappears suddenly and you have to cut back your spending, identifying needs and wants becomes crucial. This is a great exercise for children and teens to do with you. It’s true that frugal living can cut your shopping expenses dramatically, but the decision always lies with you, the frugal homemaker, to say what’s really needed. These easy questions can help get your mind discriminating as you distinguish needs vs. wants. Take this list with you to…
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Sometimes Expensive Can Be Frugal After All
My husband and I gave up our gym membership when we started tightening the household budget several years ago. It was the first thing to go, as a matter of fact, because it was the most expensive item of spending that we had control over. It’s not as though we couldn’t work out still because we do have some exercise equipment at home that was given to us for Christmas. The home equipment is limiting, however, and without weights our home gym is pretty inadequate. We missed the gym membership a lot, and although it made us sad to let it go, it certainly helped toward paying off some debts.…
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Frugal Friday: What I’m Willing to Give Up
Peer pressure can work for you in some cases. I’m using the positive influence of my frugal peers to trim the fat in these lean economic times, and I’ll tell you why. The recession is hitting many of us hard, some of us medium, and some of us not at all. My family falls between the hard and medium categories, and the only reason we’re not in the “hard-hit” category is because we’re so frugal already! I realized just how many people are in the “hard-hit” category as I scrolled through my RSS feeds a few days ago. I saw headline after headline about giving things up: one blogger said…
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5 Frugal Things I Did Today
5 Frugal Things I Did Today When you live a frugal life and you’ve been doing it for a while, you don’t seem to notice all the frugal things you do anymore! If you start to get down about your budget, your bills, or the economy in general, try this exercise: Grab a pen and paper. Write down the title, “5 Frugal Things I Did Today.” Walk slowly through your house. Every time you see something frugal or remember something frugal you have done, write it down. (Some examples include a great sale stock up in the pantry, recycling an old container into a new use, staying organized so you…
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11 DIY Projects Using Recycled Food Containers
I love reusing things, and food containers are no exception! Some of the great uses I invented for plastic peanut butter jars in my bathroom are holders for dental flossers and cotton swabs. Peanut butter jars (the small, 17 oz. jar) are the perfect size to hold these small items. The jars are washable and cheap to replace. They’re also lidded, which is great for keeping your hygienic items clean. Lidded containers protect from germs and airborne particulates, such as dust, deodorant, hairspray, and perfume. But what other uses can we come up with food containers, glass bottles, plastic jars, and more? Here are some fun DIY projects and crafts…
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Bulk Storage for Your Frugal Pantry
In my never-ending quest to drive down our grocery costs, my husband and I delved into buying dry staples in bulk. Many staples (rice, beans, barley, flour, and other grains) can be purchased in large quantities for prices that are fractional compared to grocery store prices. Use the Top 8 Frugal Cooking Ingredients to identify some frugal staples you can add to your diet. Overlapping these ingredients in many of your meals will allow you to purchase a few ingredients in large quantities that can be frequently used in your menu. The fewer ingredients you have to purchase, maintain, and store, the better for your bottom line. Rice was our…
