The Reason I Became a Stay-at-Home Mom

** update **
Due to some big life changes recently I’m no longer a stay-at-home mom. I treasure the time I spent over the past year and my blogging journey has been a fabulous learning experience. But I’ve come to the realization that working outside the home is where I’m needed. — Cathy

I grew up in a household where both my parents worked out of the home. This is all I knew, but as a child, I didn’t like it. My mom would come home and had to hurry to get dinner on the table and there was no time for her to check my homework or even play with me.

It’s sad when I think about it. I love my mom and I know both my parents had to work to support me and my sister. So, when I was pregnant, I figured I had to go back to work when my maternity ended. It’s just what you do.

But, my husband said, you only live once!

He knew how much I hated my parents working long hours and coming home barely talking to me. He didn’t want that for his family. He knew years before we became a family that he wanted a different life for us.

He said let’s find a way for you to stay home if you want. Now, don’t get me wrong. I know for a lot of people, this isn’t something that everyone can do.

I honestly thought there was no way we could live on one household income.

But, with our savings and cutting back on a lot of extra things like – Starbucks coffee every morning, going to the movies once a week, eating out, shopping for new clothes – was the only way to be on one income.

We saved more, found ways to stretch our dollar and now I’m able to stay home. And I started a blog too!

I’m hoping Smart Mom Ideas is a place for new moms that need help with parenting, blogging, organizing and more. I have some great tips to share with all of you moms!

I’m so grateful that my husband encouraged me to stay home. I know this is the best life for my family. Every day I can set my day to cook, keep the house clean and focus on my family.

And with this blog, I’m hoping to earn a bit of money. I’m learning about a lot of different ways to make money and I’m pretty sure I’ll focus on affiliate marketing at first. It seems to be the easiest way to earn an income fast! I also want to learn more about blogging and maybe take some courses.

I don’t know much about social media. I like Pinterest and that’s about it 🙂

If you’re reading this and you want to stay home with your little one, the biggest thing that we were spending was on FOOD.

We could easily spend $300 or more a WEEK! on food.

It’s insane isn’t it?

But, once we sat down and planned our meals, our grocery bill drastically cut in half.

That was the one thing that totally helped us. We spent some time planning what we would eat in the week and not change it. We also set some days like Wednesday was Spaghetti night and Sunday was chicken night. We would just change up the side dishes.

If you don’t think you’re spending much, try writing down everything you spend on food. If you are like us you go to the grocery sotre a couple times a week, getting milk, eggs, bread, bananas, more meat, cereal, yogurt…

Those little trips add up. Then you might eat out for lunch two times that week. There goes another $50.

Just making a budget for your food will help you realize that you can cut your expenses easily! And that’s how I can stay home!

Let me know if you stay home and tell me your #1 money-saving tip that allows you to stay home!