There are so many reasons to be a stay-at-home-mom. We could talk about not getting to miss any of your childrens “moments”, training them up in the ways of the Lord, on and on we could list all the benefits of staying home. One area, though, can be looked at as both a benefit or a trial… money.
Especially in this culture, our value is defined by how much money we bring home. I grew up in this kind of household and I still struggle with basing my value on how much money I contribute to my own family. I have tried so many home businesses through out our marriage, but all of them have either completely failed or the income has been minimal for all the time and effort I put in.
When we started homeschooling and I found myself stretched too thin between school and business and home, I finally listened to my husbands’ plea to give up business efforts and concentrate on the home and school. Do you know what I found? I found we were saving more money than ever before! How could this be happening? Our income hadn’t gone up, why was our bank account going up? It was because I was free to pay attention to the valuable details that make up our home and familty.
Our biggest financial drain has been food, both eating out and grocery shopping. By focusing on our home I have been doing considerably better at menu planning. I’ve been able to cook freezer batch meals, use up our leftovers and plan budget friendly meals. This has eliminated the need for eating out, the expensive daily trips to the grocery store and the wasteful throwing out of food that went bad. I really don’t even have a tally of what we were spending on food before, but our eating out bill used to be a few hundred dollars a month, the daily run to the grocery store used to be $20 or more and our Costco shopping trip was $200 at least twice a month with much of that food getting thrown out. Now I can feed our family of 5 on $400 per month total, give or take a little. When we eat out it is a conscious choice in light of the budget and schedule, leftovers get eaten up, produce doesn’t get wasted and we don’t have to run to the grocery store at 5 pm anymore. Such a seemingly small change with such big results!
Another area that has improved is keeping the house more organized. Yes, this also helps with finances. We don’t loose things as often and have to go buy new ones, I’m able to track what we might need soon and budget and watch for sales before we become desperate for that item, I am also finding items we no longer need and selling them.
Because of the way the house is now running my husband has been able to take on overtime at work, one shift earns us way more than any home business I tried ever did! It is a huge stress on our whole family, he is gone for a total of 51 hours straight and 76 hours in a week. Anyone with 3 little ones knows how being completely on your own for over 50 hours straight can be overwhelming; but when I am prepared for it, know what I am cooking, the house is straightened up before, dishes and laundry are clean, it makes the task much less daunting.
Our culture is telling us a lie, it’s telling us that numbers on a piece of paper rank our importance. If that is true, then I hold no value. But I am choosing to see all the other areas I hold value and one of those areas is managing my household well. I may not make any money, but I can utilize and stretch the money my husband brings home, and that is a valuable skill! By focusing on being a stay-at-home-mom, I am free to define my value apart from a paycheck.
