I've been a stay at home mom for 1 year 6 months. I looovvvve being totally involved in my 3 boys (ages 3-8) educational lives. Prior to this I worked 9-5 was always tired, rushed, too busy, too snappy and plain burned out.

I'm becoming an ineffective stay home mom since 've begun worrying about the one income issue in my household. Each month is a new financial struggle. How do I find new ways for the children to experience new or free activities and where do I draw the line between spending valuable time with my children and not being able to afford and expose them to much? How do I determine if we can really afford for me to stay home?

Well...the first thing I always did was to look at how much it would cost if I went back to work. Since I had two in daycare at the same time, the cost of going back to work (once you figured in daycare, gas/car expense, professional clothing expense) was more than what I would make. I couldn't afford to go back to work at that time.

I used to take the kids to lots of museums, parks, had a zoo membership, even an occasional matinee movie wasn't too expensive (skip the popcorn). They helped me outside with gardening, & played a lot outside. They are grown now, the internet and video games weren't "big" at the time they were younger kids, so outside was the place to be.

I'm a stay at home mama whom does sewing on the side as a hobby/income. This isn't something we depend on so we are considered 1 income family.

We go to church with our children each Sunday. That gets them out and about, interact with other kids and they enjoy it. The drive is 15min from our home. So we manage the gas bill ok.

I signed my dd's up for daisy scouts. They are in the same troop so I only have to go to one area for both girls. This was a bit of money up front..ok it was alot of money up front for us BUT considering this is ALL they do besides home and church it was worth it.

Also found out because our family qualifies for WIC that we are able to get a science adventure center membership for our family for a year for $20. Considering an original membership costs a little over $146 for a family.

We don't go to the park often as I find it something of a yuck zone esp. after school hours. But we do let the kids play outside and we get creative inside. Our children don't ask to go to parks and such as it's just not something we've done on a regular basis.

We go to the Library every other Saturday and we all enjoy this very much! And it's FREE!

On occasion we will go to grab something at McD's such as a FF or something simple just to enjoy the indoor playcenter. Yes it's germy and yes we use sani wipes before and after BUT it's indoors and I can see who is near my children. Parks for me are DANGER zones for freaks. McD's can be too but I'm right there and SMALL enough to get up in the tubes if I need to!

So staying home shouldn't COST your family money. IMO. I've been a stay at home mom for 7 years. Staying home for me is what Christ has set for me as a wife and mother. My kids know that we do baking, cleaning..ect as a FAMILY! So I don't ever feel as though my kids trash the house and I'm left to clean up. Because frankly what is that teaching them! So this takes up a good part of our day.

They find the daily things in life enjoyable and seldom bored. The only times they complain of boredom is when I'm being selfish during time they need me and doing what I want. So we are a FAMILY through the day and through out the night. Sometimes we all get our ME time and this consists of 15 min of alone time.

Our children have a set routine and when it's moved around a bit, this house can be very rough! So I like to keep routines set. Our children wake each morning to breakfast, brush teeth, wash face, get dressed, make bed and we begin our school work. Once they get their first lesson done they get a 15min break to do as they please. We do this until their school work is done. During the 15min breaks I pick up and do my house chores and check emails..ect. The rest of the day once school is over is play time and continue house chores. Dinner they help and baking the kids help.

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Happily married to my geek
Proud homeschooling, cloth diaperin, attached parenting, slinging, simplier, breastfeedin, sewing mama mades, christian and funky mama to my precious daughters and a little BOY

Being a Stay at Home Mom is wonderful. It is all about the freebies though. We have a Zoo membership and do the park, mall and about anything else that does not cost much. I have joined several survey sites and other sites that give me gift cards and such, to kinda give me some extra money here and there. I actually do fairly well. Below is the list from the board. I love My Points, but I do about 6-7 now.



Paid Survey sites LIST

I don't mean to be nosey, but a lot depends on your income/expenses.