I received this question from a reader. I thought we could all join in and help her out!
“Ugh…well, my husband was laid off from work a few weeks ago. He was given severance that will get is through for the next month or so, but he is on the job hunt. *sigh*
Anyway, my point is…what are your favorite and most effective money saving tips. We eat a pretty clean diet, very little processed food, so we’ll try to come up with some healthy meals that are also inexpensive.
I’ve decided to try Easy Peasy for English and Science in order to save that money.
Printer Ink…what is the least expensive way to buy it?
Okay…like I said…all tips are welcomed as I prepare for the possibility of being in limbo for a while. Not home educating is not an option! We are adamant about that!”
With the new homeschool year underway this can be a hard time to add in the stress of a lay off.
Homeschool families are extremely resilient! I’m sure you all will chime in and give this reader your best tips!
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What advice would you give this homeschool family?
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Easy Peasy is a God send! My kids love it and it covers most everything. There is also Ambleside Online and An Old Fashioned Education for free curriculum. As for ink there are ink stores in some areas that refill cartridges or you can buy refilled cartridges. It does save some money 🙂 Our family went through 5 layoffs in 4 years. He was out a total of 2 years on and off. He was eventually called back but this summer he broke his finger and disconnected his tendon in his left hand. He has been off work since July and can’t go back till October. When he was called back we made a commentment to pay down as many bills as we could just in case the layoffs happened again. Then he hurt his finger. We have the temporary disability but it’s not much. I’m so glad we were more prepared this time though 🙂 Good luck and hope everything works out for you and your family!
My best is cut everything you can….cell phones, home phones to minimal, internet, cable, anything…start eating frugally too. Peanut butter and jelly are great meals for lunch as well as beans with rice are great dinners when you are in a pinch…cheap too. Home make things..it takes a LOT of work to be frugal but if you have to you can. Since he just lost his job, live cheap now. Once he gets another one, you can start getting the luxury’s. Plus, turn ac or heat off, spend more time outside in the shade. Keep your house dark as you can with windows open if its hot or make more homemade things with your stove if its cold(muffins for breakfast warms the house right up). Wear extra clothes once it gets cold out and put your termastate as low as you can to keep a little warm and pipes from freezing. My mom keeps hers on 45-50 and has a space heater where ever she is and trys to keep to one room. A friend of mine would literately hang blankets knocking off a part of her house so they didnt have to heat that part and would use a space heater for the other half of her house. Her child would sleep in her room and his room was part of the block off. It is hard to do but you can do it. In the summer if its blazing hot, have a water day outside. This is why I am a big fanatic of paying off debt, it scares me to think my husband loosing his job…Also, if you MUST get clothes or shoes, check out the thrift shops or yard sales. I just got a TON of almost new shoes for my 5 kids and myself for .50 at a sale one of the consignment shops had…Good luck mama…praying for you
We buy ink at http://www.doubleinks.com. Here is a post I wrote on it. http://wholesomewomanhood.com/how-we-save-money-on-ink/
Immediately (temporarily) cut down on the amount of clothing everyone is wearing. Having less outfits piling up in the laundry room will save you time doing laundry (just doing fewer loads more often), save you time, stress (as the laundry piles up dirty and clean), and a tiny amount on washing/drying. Use a clothes line this time of year.
Eat lots of beans and ground beef. Ground beef is the cheapest type of meat, and beans are very healthy (soaked first) and inexpensive.
If you can handle it, offer to babysit/homeschool someone else’s child at pay. Or offer your kids for pet-sitting.
I think the biggest thing is not to overwhelm yourself, which could be very easy as you wonder where God’s providence in money will come from next. Take time to sit and rest with your husband and discuss life. It doesn’t have to be hours and hours, but definitely make the time daily to rest with your husband/family and weekly as an outing. I don’t know your lifestyle or where you live, but if your husband owns or can borrow a chain saw and splitting maul (and pick up truck), sometimes people can purchase loads of wood or get free permits to cut wood on timberland owned by the local sawmill/timber company. Then you could sell firewood for the winter. That may be totally out of touch with your reality, but like I said I don’t know your situation, and that is something that is accessible for my family (my husband cuts wood all of the time).
I hope some of that helps. My husband is doing well so far at his job, but we do have debt and not much savings, so I am also always looking at ways to cut back, stay healthy, and/or earn more. I’ll send a prayer or two for you.
Sorry, one more idea my husband and I had personally that I thought I’d share. If your husband has a pick-up truck or can borrow one, (it’s not very glamorous, but…) hiring himself out to haul other people’s garbage and/or recycling. My husband determined that in our area he could probably make $50 a load and each load would take him about half an hour (all garbage would have to be in cans). Ok I’m probably totally off-track, sorry! Just trying to help.
As for schoolwork, I save money on ink and paper by making the initial investment in page protectors and dry-erase pens. That way I only print each page one time and the children use dry-erase pens to write in their answers, then just wipe clean for the next time. I organize their work in binders.
You have our compassionate sympathy. We’ve been there. Twice. While both times were painful from a financial standpoint, they were also a blessing from a family standpoint. The children were able to spend more time with Dad.
Obviously, you need to cut every expense you can. Scrutinize every single bill for possible savings. Put the credit cards away unless you are extremely responsible with them. Read up on how families feed their 10 children on $50 a week. (Exaggeration, I know). There might be ideas you can glean for your own family. Never waste any food.
Since every penny counts, search out free entertainment ideas. A free visit to the park/playground instead the expensive movie night. Testing samples at the grocery store on Saturday afternoon instead of eating out. Visit the library and check out their free programs.
If someone has a birthday coming up, consider requesting a family membership to the zoo/museum that your family can visit over and over for free. Some also have homeschool friendly programs.
While we don’t know what your husband does for a living, remember, if he looks like a poor, hopeless, down-on-his-luck guy, getting a new job will be more difficult. Buy a new interview suit (if needed), invest in a good haircut, make sure his cell phone is always on and available. The rest of the family may have to sacrifice for this (haircuts at home for kids and 6 months between visits for mom, no new clothes for mom & kids, cut other cell phones to bare-bones, cut cable), but it is worth it.
No suggestions on ink…but do ask yourself each time you go to hit the print button if it is truly needed.
You could do unit studies for your homeschooling and wouldn’t really need to print anything. There are lots of unit studies online. You can do unit studies based on countries, digging into their histories, and don’t forget art, music, and food all based on the country of choice. The fun thing is that you can then end your study with a fun dinner complete with decorations made by your kids in studying the art and food of the country. Don’t forget to make it special by decorating the master bedroom and making the evening special for your sweetie.
In the cold months, it is fun to have baked potatoes for lunch. (When my kids were young, we used Five In A Row. The first time I served baked potatoes for lunch was when we used Three Names; it was inspired because the teacher in the book would sometimes put potatoes in the wood stove/furnace at the beginning of school and serve them for lunch in the one room schoolhouse.)
Well I read everyone of the comments – really good-for now you could apply for food stamps
Clean house do a fall special-Fall clean Out -3 hours of Cleaning for $
I would suggest having play clothes for kids that are young…they are dirty and going to get dirtier-my kids wore clothes 3 times before putting in laundry…had to go to laundry mat for many years
If beans are on the menu-add different spices to keep it interesting-soaking beans cuts on cooking time
Maybe good time to make solar oven-school project
Use the library for school, or cool off
Picnic in parks-find out what u can walk to
Netflix is $9 per month and have many educational vdeos
When u do cook double batch-freeze one
Make circles when u run errands
I sold goodies before-$40 a week
Remember your children are always learning-reading, grocery list, spelling outloud, watching a show and discussion, cooking, we can use anything to teach.
And don’t b afraid to ask for help-
1. Get rid of everything that costs you money that is non-essential. It is ok to cut out kids lessons, sports, and other activities that can be a drain on your budget. Choose the least expensive cell phone plan you can find and turn off the home phone. Turn off the cable/satellite service – you’ll be better off without it. Keep the internet, but shop around for the best price for a reasonable download speed as you will need this for homeschooling. Haircuts, hair color, manicures, etc. really are non-essential 🙂
2. Have a garage sale and raise some cash.
3. Do you have a vehicle that you are making payments on? If so sell it and find a cheap used vehicle that is in good mechanical condition and drive that instead. It may not be the prettiest car, but if it is mechanically sound it will serve its purpose.
4. Cut up credit cards! You will be tempted to use them to pay for things and end up in worse financial shape for doing it.
5. Limit purchases to only what is necessary for survival and buy used to save money.
6. Don’t eat out; it costs too much.
7. While your husband is job searching can he also do something to earn money? Yard work, handyman work, computer repair, etc. Think about what his abilities are and start asking around. Often people will be willing to pay someone to do something they can’t/don’t want to do, especially if they know the person is without employment and is willing to work to support his family.
8. Limit driving to only what is necessary. Choose one day per week to take care of shopping and errands and be strategic about it. Make a list of all the things you need to do and map it out so that your route involves as little driving as possible to save on gas.
9. Bump up the thermostat a couple of degrees to save on air conditioning costs. Depending on what part of the country you live you may be able to turn it off and open the windows since Autumn is upon us.
10. Reuse and recycle. Find new uses for things you already have rather than buying something else. If you have a local scrap yard you may be able take items to be recycled and earn a little money for it.
11. Barter – you may be able to provide a service or goods to someone in exchange for something you need, which means you are not spending money for that needed item/service.
Try to use reusable items for almost everything disposable: towels vs. paper towels, cloth napkins vs. papers, cloth diapers vs. disposable.
Look at thrift stores for anything you may need before buying new.
Eat simple and limit trips to the grocery store. Saves money on gas and if you don’t go, you won’t buy!
Plan a menu so you’ll know exactly what groceries you need and won’t be tempted to buy what you don’t need.
Ink cartridges: We have a place in Va called Cartridge world where you can buy refilled ink cartridges. Saves a little bit!
Best wishes!
We just ended up in the same boat with my husband having a job loss. This is our first year homeschooling and we have 4 kids. I feel for you. Use coupons on any groceries you can and only buy meat that’s on sale (you can find out what day your local grocery store reduces it’s meats also) still good just use right away or freeze the same day. Use a coupon site to plan shopping trips. I don’t know where you are, but here in NC we have one called southernsavers.com it really helps me match up the sales with coupons and to determine which store to shop at that week. Planning a weekly meal plan really helps me to save money. We buy turkeys when they are cheap and you can be surprised how far a turkey or ham can go and what all you can make with them. We have made a turkey last a week for a family of 6 before. Also, things like pancakes for dinner save. I know not the healthiest, but the kids love it. Although I just read you can make pancakes out of 2 banana’s and an egg. Would be super cheap, but I haven’t tried it yet. 🙂 Track phones are supposed to be way cheaper cell phone plans. We are about to try those. Someone told me about http://www.aaamath.com for math I haven’t really dug into it much, but it’s totally free and looks to be a good resource. I just ordered ink for the first time from an online company that was half the price. It’s inkfarm.com the shipping was super fast and I am on my first set of cartridges. I have been printing a ton and so far haven’t run out and the ink quality is good. They have discounts sometimes. One really cheap meal we make also is a pound of hamburger cooked mixed with a box of kraft macaroni and cheese. Stretches it and everyone likes it. Even the baby can eat it. Ebay or Craigslist sell all that stuff you don’t really need. You would be surprised how quick that adds up. We definitely use the sheet protectors like someone else said with the dry erase markers and reuse materials. Absolutely everything you need for schooling can be found online free if you just search hard enough and pinterest is a good place for free things also. You tube has tons of educational stuff also. I feel for you I really do. I had just agreed to help start a new home school co-op. I have been searching online for teaching things I can get free tonight. As I am searching one of the ladies pipes in and says so what are you bringing for food for the back to school bash. I’m thinking yikes I couldn’t even take my kids to Mickey D’s (McDonald’s today if I wanted, so I have no idea). Just cut back as much as you can and everything will work out. It won’t be tight forever. Things always have a way of getting better. Hope things start looking up for you guys soon! Take Care, Kimberly 🙂
We are also in the same boat. My husband lost his job 3 months ago and I fear it is going to be several more months before he is able to find work. I wish all of these ideas were new to me but I am so frugal as it is that I just can not figure out what else to cut (that my husband is willing to cut). My biggest savings was to not order any school books this year and just make what we have work. I feel very blessed to have had a nice stockpile of groceries and we have 1/2 a cow in the freezer so we don’t have to buy meat. We live about 15 miles from most everything so we run errands before church or appointments. We also have a basement in our home that stays very comfortable so we have had a few “campouts” there to save money on AC. I hope we can see our hubbies find work quickly. One of the hardest things is to see them so discouraged and feeling rejected. I am just praying that whatever lesson God is trying to teach us, we can learn it quickly.
I am a single mom who is living my dream of being able to homeschool my son for the first time this year. I got into this opportunity a few months ago and I feel like it was a God send. The company helps moms stay at home, and Ive met women who have retired their husbands in a year! Many families in the network are Christian which is a plus because you can feel it in their support and encouragement. My website is singlewrappers.com. Contact me on the page and I will personally call you or anyone reading this that is interested in getting out of debt, paying some extra bills, or working to retire your husband. The star product that generates cash (what we eat off of) is the crazy wrap. There are 3 ways to generate your income and I did not have any sales experience. God bless and you will get through this. This storm too shall pass. Everyone had great tips on here. Rice and beans will get you a long way. beans can be used in many meals. noodles are very filling and cheap. clothes worn a few times. and off brand products help!