Top 20 Ways to Save Money as a Frazzled Working Mom

Photo by Ana GG on Unsplash

Money isn’t everything, but having enough of it to save for the future seems like a good goal to have. Why give it away if I can find ways to put it back into our pockets for the future braces funds, 529’s, retirement funds, and any home updates or trips we want to take. I’ve compiled a list of some easy ways to put a few pennies back in the pig.

1. Grocery Outlet in favor of Big Box Groceries. We have recently Switched from Walmart to Aldi and cut our grocery bill in half. There are still occasional specialty items we have to get from the old Grocery options but, on the whole have greatly reduced one of the biggest monthly expenses.
2. Meal Prep: I meal prep on Sundays with a skosh of help from Husband (who shall henceforth be known as Art). Rice or potatoes are a great meal base, add protein and some veggies, top with cheese, sour cream, or yum yum/hot sauce and you’re good to go. When others are eating out, I happily whip out my homemade container of deliciousness which tastes delicious and is (hopefully) healthier for me. And easier to track nutrition, if that’s your thing.
3. Cook once, eat twice (or thrice): I am lazy. I am in awe every time I go home to visit my Mom and see her making homemade Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner for her guests. She pours her heart into her food. I like to think I also cook lovingly, but very much lazily as well. I double recipes and pretty much always cook out of a one container for easier cleanup. God bless the sheet pan, Dutch oven, and instant pot meals.
4. Mind your ever-loving business. Do my neighbors have a driveway full of beautiful new cars and that RV that I’ve been dreaming my rambunctious family of 4 could cruise cross country in (as IF!)? Yes. Do I sometimes wish I could trade my couple year old car in for something newer, shinier, “safer” and greener? Also yes. But if I keep my head down and remember my goals (help the babies with college, braces for babies, paying off the house, early retirement to pursue passions), I can bring myself back to reality. The reality is, I do not deserve the latest greatest. Alright, maybe I do. But more so, I deserve to do the things I love. Like traveling the world, without having to ask for permission and risk being turned down because I don’t have the PTO to cover a month of slow travel. I deserve to be available to help my kiddos move to wherever they go for college and visit as often as I can to soak up the time we get to share. I deserve to take that cross country trip to experience life as a rambler without having to think about how I will pitch it at work and request remote work. Or be denied time off! So, no. I do not need that car. Or those clothes. Or that RV. I don’t need that phone upgrade or the latest tech. I need to mind my business.
5. Monthly Cell Phone Plan: I use Boost Mobile and have since I was paying for my own phone. For $25 a month, I get unlimited text, talk, and data. I buy my phones and don’t participate in the monthly phone lease.
6. Speaking of cell phones- pick one and keep it till it falls apart: I paid $150 for my Motorola Edge plus 2022 in 2023 through Boost Mobile and plan to keep it till it falls apart. The more you get, the more you want. Pick your phone and plan to use it till it no longer serves you. This will save you a ton.
7. TV Streaming: We thought we were geniuses, cutting cable in 2013 and going to Netflix. Then we added Prime, then Hulu, then Disney plus. And just like that, we are paying the same as you would pay for cable service, with an overabundance of viewing options. I don’t have enough time to possible come close to adequately utilizing each of these services, nor do I want to spend my time watching TV. So we have 2 paid streaming platforms at a time and rotate which one we use. Less time spent scrolling for the perfect show or movie. More intentional viewing. And less temptation to justify the purchases by rotting away on the couch. And joke’s on me because half of what my kids watch is on Pluto TV for Free-ninety nine.
8. Call your internet provider: Every year or two, we are due for a significant hike in internet pricing, typically by almost double. The simple act of calling your provider and letting them know you cannot afford to pay double for exactly the same service will save you tons. I can’t promise the pricing will stay the same. But I can say that our pricing typically goes up by around $5 with either faster speed, a “free” streaming service, or another added value bonus. It’s definitely better than just paying more for the same product. In our area, there aren’t many options for internet, so this hinders the pricing edge that comes with competition. Maybe in the future, we will have the option of multiple providers.
9. Call your car/home insurance provider: Similar to internet, my car insurance creeps up year after year. The last few years, I have received my payment due notification only days before the due date. Not enough time to really check things out but this year, I finally remembered ahead of schedule that my premiums are insane. I called the insurance agent I work with, and was able to save $1100 on car insurance for the year! I checked out all the big name insurance companies for home and car insurance but our local insurance agent beat all the quotes I received. Moral of the story: shop around and switch as needed.
10. Get rid of those Amazon notifications: Do you get multiple notifications a day about how those socks you were looking at are finally back in stock? Or that Amazon has a new deal picked out just for you? Nothing against them, but I don’t need a reminder to buy things. I do that way too well on my own. Wen I first signed up for Prime, I was getting packages maybe once or twice a month. Then the free 2 day shipping started and it was every 7-10 days. Then it was once a week. Then it was (seriously) almost every day. Particularly around the holidays. Besides the fact that the shipping materials used probably have an atrocious impact on the environment, the money spent on impulse or needless purchases has increased for me and my family. Ever since I gave myself an allowance, I have looked forward to looking for ways to spend it each month. Half the time, I would purchase something from Amazon that looked great in photos but fit like a trash bag or fall apart after 2 washes. The little dopamine hit that I got from the purchase seemed to come less frequently and, eventually, I decided that I could make better use of my money. I have turned off notifications and only go to the app if I need something specific. I don’t look at recommendations for me. I don’t’ spend time scrolling for ideas. My allowance money is in the bank and when I have a good reason to use it, I will have much more available than if I impulse bought crappy ill-fitting clothes.
11. Get off of Facebook, Instagram, etc: I have also fallen victim to the ads that plagued my feed and purchased a stupid amount of items I didn’t even know i needed! Turns out, even after I purchased them I didn’t need them.
12. Get out of Target (or Walmart, or Kohls..etc): The amount of sale comforters, sheets, and new clothing I’ve bought from Target is astounding. I had a closet full of linens that I had just in case we had guests, or if we needed a 3rd, 4th and 5th set of sheets. Yes, those Threshold $15 cotton or bamboo mix sheets are a great deal and look great. They wear well. But there is no reason to buy more of them because they are on sale. They are a great deal, but not a great deal for you. I recently stumbled onto the Marie Kondo train. I know, I’m about a decade late to the party but I really love her philosophy on keeping a home and decluttering. Anyways, long story short, I emptied about 2 trash bags full of linens in perfectly good condition. Not because there is anything wrong with them, but because I couldn’t help but to buy the next set of sheets, in case my dog ripped a hole in one of the first 3 sets of sheets, or we had guests and they somehow soiled the first set of sheets and we needed another 1 or 2 to get us through the night. My life is full of chaos. When I open my linen closet door and a sherpa comforter comes tumbling into my torso, knocking down the neatly folded pile of towels I have, it makes my blood pressure rise. I know, it’s small potatoes. But if I stay out of Target, I get the double benefit of saving money and keeping clutter to a minimum. Same argument for the weird flare plaid “work pants” I buy that make me look like a clown and would immediately discredit me with any of my patients. I love Target. I will go with a list. But I will not go to check out the deals.
13. Pay yourself First: I could just kick myself in the pants for the first decade of opportunity I had to contribute to my 401k (or equivalent) and put in the bare minimum. Yes, I paid off debt, which was excellent. But what would my portfolio be worth today if I had put even 10% more towards retirement while paying down debts. I’d love to know how long it would have postponed me paying down the house if we’d put 20% of gross earnings towards retirement. I am not a math whiz and the numbers would probably make me sad. To be fair, paying down debt is always the right move. It doesn’t make sense to borrow money to invest, so it stands to reason that paying down debts should take priority. But my house loan isa round 3%. And my investments have been doing really wonderfully for the last few years. Minimum of 9%. So the right move there may have been to invest some and pay down debt with another portion. Either way, it always pays to put some towards retirement.
14. Date nights at home: I know, this isn’t glamorous. But we can gaze into each others’ eyes just as deeply in the house as we can at a restaurant. And I have the added benefit of lounging in my sweat pants. Take a little time with your Amor and figure out what you love getting out of dates. Then figure out how to attain the goal at a park, in the house, watching a movie, cooking a romantic meal together, laying down outside and watching fireflies (and hoping to God the skeeters don’t pick you up and carry you away). You get the idea. We can easily spend $150-200 on a date night between childcare for 2, the activity, and food. There is a time and place for this, it shouldn’t be eliminated. But I don’t think every date has to be a big to-do. Sometimes, it’s putting the kids to bed, going to the basement and playing pool while you laugh about your toddler covering your mouth and telling you ‘shush’ because you said ‘ no more cookies’. The nerve of that kid.
15. Thrifting: For your own clothes, your kids’ clothes, shoes, etc. I have a tweenager in my house who will go to bed one size and wake up 2 sizes bigger in her shoes. Or her height. We were dumb enough this year to buy some Nikes because “she’s old enough, the peer pressure is probably a lot and she can take care of her things a bit better”. First of all, who told me that? Thoes shoes were dirty THE VERY NEXT DAY when she went outside to look for frogs in the rain. We didn’t even make it 24 hours on the first pair of $65 shoes. And they lasted exactly 3 months before she outgrew them, and not by a little. I’m not saying don’t buy your kids the shoes they want or the name brand jeans everybody at school has. But I am saying b e prepared to watch as they outgrow those things in a period of weeks to months and then you’re back to square one, only now, they are accustomed to a certain level of living. Check those FB marketplace ads. Look at the local thrift store. Then, if you can’t find anything good, check out the Ross or TJ Maxx. I love my girl and want her to have nice things. But I’m not paying $65 every 3 months for one pair of shoes.
16. Hand Me Downs: Every now and then, a friend or family member will come with a box full of discarded treasures that might be helpful for one kid or the other. I can tell you right now, no matter where life takes me, nothing beats the excitement of looking at a diaper box or trash bag bursting to the brim with Cat and Jack clothes that have yet to be perused. The joy I get from hand me downs is inexplicable. I also love to pass things along to unsuspecting victims, er, family members. Whether they feel the same remains to be seen. All I’m saying is don’t turn your nose up at a box of treasures. Worst case, you take them to the local nonprofit and someone else can use them.
17. Try trimming your own hair: My husband has been cutting his own hair for over a decade and other than the odd mishap, he looks fresh to death. Me, however, that is a very different story. I took it upon myself to save $50 and cut my own hair. The bangs turned out excellent, actually better than when the hairstylist cut them initially. I was riding that high when I decided to put my cotton ball, brillo pad hair into the beard that the influencers speak of on the youtubes. Fast forward 45 minutes and I have beautiful bangs and MANY different, slightly varied layers of trimmed hair. Not the pretty, well blended layer. The kind of layer you would imagine a thirty-something year old nurse would cut into her very thick and unruly hair in a moment of what I can only describe as insanity. When straightened, it looks about like a nurse cut my hair. But if I curl it, you can’t tell the difference and at least all the split ends are gone. So I don’t know if I’d recommend this one but I am going to try again when I am due for a trim because I think the concept of a hair stylist is relatively new. And I dern sure don’t need to highlight or lowlight my hair. I’d love to actually know what my hair color is. So I’m taking this opportunity to find out.
18. Go to a park. Take a hike. Get outside: There is so much joy to be found from unplugging and going back to the basics. Get some Vitamin D and fresh air. Save some money in the process.
19. Diamonds are NOT a girls’ best friend. I have been married over a decade. I know Art loves me because he listens to me when I am in the midst of a mentie-b and helps me bring my cockamamie house projects to life. And every now and then, he even tells me how he feels. So I know this man loves me. But aside from my engagement ring and wedding band, we have never done the exchange of the year of wood, year of paper, year of diamonds gift exchange. There is no heart shaped diamond pendant to let me know how he feels. He has picked out some stunning jewelry for me, which I cherish. And it is very modestly priced because it’s not made of diamonds. What makes a diamond any more special than any other semiprecious or precious stone? Why do those infamous Jeweler companies place Valentine’s Day ads on how the only way to know your person loves you is if they dropped several thousand dollars on a very special necklace or bracelet that thousands of other people also have because that’s what love is! Diamonds are neutral, they aren’t good or bad. But our obsession with them is tied to very successful marketing, there are plenty of equally beautiful alternatives and as a middle aged woman, I can honestly say, it would be equally if not more meaningful to receive a heartfelt letter that expresses how Art feels about me.
20. Communication: This is probably the biggest money saver. My oldest kiddo is old enough to feel the pressures of society and enjoys using her holiday or birthday funds to purchase the on trend item. Nothing wrong with that at all. But it’s important to let our kiddoes know that that water bottle with a flavored cartridge isn’t going to solve all your problems, just like those specific branded jeans didn’t bring you eternal happiness. Budgeting for and buying a specific item is perfect, so long as the desire for the next great thing isn’t hijacking our emotions, plans, and future. Communicate with your partner, create a monthly budget. I have heard that you should set a percentage savings rate each month. I have also heard the philosophy that every dollar is for savings until it needs to be spent. That is a little tough to sell to my family but I can improve on what we’ve had going on lately. Just by calculating monthly expenditures on takeout, groceries, streaming, and shopping, we were able to scoff at the wasted income and make a plan, pick a target, and aim for that. Things haven’t been perfect but we are back on the wagon and in a much better place than we were in November 2024.

Photo by Everton Vila on Unsplash

Disclaimer: I am not a professional finance coach or personal advisor. The advice included in this post should not be taken as legal, medical, or financial advice but as my opinion on what has worked for me. I am happy to share my successes and strategies with the community.