WAYS FOR A STAY AT HOME MOM TO CONTRIBUTE FINANCIALLY

Being a stay at home mom, doesn't mean you can't contribute financially to the household. The way I see it, every dime you save, is a dime you earn. If you can drop your grocery bill down just $20 or $30 less a week, then you are contributing. If you already have a budget set to let's say (for instance) $75 a week for your family, then I am sure that every time your spouse gets paid you must go ahead and set aside the grocery money. Ok, if you can drop that down to $50 a week, then that is an extra $25 a week, an extra $100 a month!! You could use this "extra" money to pay another bill that would normally not get paid until the last minute, so you can get ahead, or you could simply put it into savings. Either way it was money that YOU put the time and effort into saving. Your family didn't have to go with out anything for you to put that money back.

Another thing that you can do is have a garage/yard sale. Everyone knows that kids grow out of stuff QUICK. Shoes, toys, and clothes, all of these things can be resold, if kept in good condition. I am constantly running across things when cleaning the kid's rooms that I know they don't play with anymore. I just simply set it aside in a box in the basement. I do the same when I am going through their closets. I usually toss any shoes that are not even worthy to send to the thrift store. Any play clothes with stains, I cut up and use as dust rags and the rest go in the box. Once enough stuff has piled up, which usually takes about 6 months or so. Just stick a sign in the front yard on a pretty Saturday, and set all your stuff out. To make things easier I do not put a price tag on anything, just put things in sections with a sign in front of each section. Clothes are usually $1-$2 each, shoes (in good condition) are around $2-$3, and action figures, small toys $1. Then you can take that opportunity to get rid of a little clutter in your house. What is it that they say? One family's junk, is another family's treasure :) After a few hours, when you are ready to give it up just load everything up that is left and take it to your local donation box for the thrift store. Don't get discouraged if you don't make much money, you didn't put any type of investment into it other than your time on a Saturday. The first yard sale I ever had, I made over $200!!

Another thing you can do is take surveys online. There are a lot of websites that are a scam and you should definitely do your research and find out about one before you sign up, but there are legitimate ones out there too. I found one a while back that pays $3.00 per survey. They just send you an email about once a week or so to let you know that they have a survey available for you to take. They usually only take about 15 minutes or so to fill out and then about 3-4 days later I get a check in my mail box. I know $3.00 doesn't seem like much, but they do add up. The checks are valid for 120 days so I like to wait until a have a few saved up and go deposit them all at once.

Doing all of these things may not seem like a whole lot, but believe it or not, it does help.