Frugal Friday: Top 5 ways that I save money for my family

When my maternity leave ended and I decided not to return to work, I knew that my new job (in addition to taking care of my children of course!) would be to save my family as much money as possible so that we could begin living off of just one income.

Here are the top five things I do to save my family over $800 a month:

1. Clean my own house (Boo!).
When I was working full time before we had children, we decided to hire a housekeeper so that we could enjoy our weekends and focus on larger projects like home renovations and yard work. Around the time P and D turned one, she told me she was pregnant and would not be able to clean for us once her daughter was born.  This was good timing for us, as it has saved us $220-$330 monthly, and now that the twins are older, I find it easier to find the time to do it myself.

2.Get Organized
The largest part of our monthly spending that I could actually exert some control over was our grocery bill.  At $1200-$1500 a month, I knew I could do better.  I began planning out our meals two weeks in advance and making very specific grocery lists.  This was helpful for two reasons.  Firstly, we are rarely tempted to order take-out or go out for supper, because there is never a moment of "I don't know what to make for dinner and there's nothing in the fridge!".  I always know what I'm making, and the ingredients are always in the fridge well in advance.  Secondly, I never buy ingredients I don't need or won't use up, and I can take the best advantage of sales and coupons.   Now, our grocery bill is in the range of $700-$1000.  This saves us a whopping $500 a month!  In addition, instead of eating out once a week, we eat out only once a month, as a treat.  This saves us at least $100 a month.  Check out my post about getting organized

3. Make my own bread

I had been unsatisfied with the quality of bread at the supermarket, and the bread I was willing to buy was almost $4 a loaf, but the flavour did not compare to the homemade bread of my childhood.  My family eats about 2 loaves of bread a week, plus specialty items such as buns, baguette, bagels or cinnamon rolls (and these will run at about $5 at the grocery store).  I can make all of these things for under $1 a loaf (or batch of buns, bagels etc.)  This contributes to the decrease in our grocery bill, and it saves us about $40 a month.
Check out my bread recipe

4. Make my own yogurt

When P and D started eating solid foods, yogurt was one of their instant favourites.  By the time they were one, they could go through three 500 mL containers of yogurt a week!  Plain Greek yogurt was what I liked to feed them, sweetened with maple syrup or honey, and topped with a spoon full of hemp seeds.  At $9 for a 3 pack of yogurt at Costco, this was costing us $40 a month! Not only that, but I knew I could pack it with even more nutritional value if I made it at home.  I started doing that(using my in-laws' recipe with a few tweaks), and it saves us about $25 a month. Check out my yogurt recipe.

5.  Eat less meat
One of the most expensive items on our grocery bill is always meat.  In order to save money, I knew we needed to eat less of it.  I also knew that eating less meat is better for the environment and better for our health.  What it means for our family is that we skip meat two nights a week.  On one of those nights, I prepare an egg based meal, and on the other night, it is strictly vegetarian.   This has contributed to the decrease in our grocery bill, so I wont count it twice, but i suspect it makes a difference of $50-$70 a month.
Check out my favourite egg recipes

I hope you've found this helpful and that it has inspired you to save money for your family too!  Stay posted for more specifics on how Saskatchemom can save so much money, including more details on what I've discussed today, and tons of recipes too!

Introducing Saskatchemom Can!

My life has seen a lot of changes in the past 3 years.  When my husband and I discovered I was pregnant in 2011, we knew our lives would never be the same.  When we found out we were having twins a few months later, we began to realize just what a turnaround our lifestyle would have to undergo! After 7 years of marriage and nearly 10 years together, we would have to leave behind our carefree DINKS(double income, no kids) lifestyle. Travel, frivolous spending, and lazy weekends in PJs with nothing but the television were things of the past, luxuries we no longer even had time to daydream about. Suneils instinctual reaction to the ultrasound technicians announcement that our fertility treatments may have worked better than we expected was dead on: "I guess we need to buy two cribs ... And we need to get a minivan!"  As I nervously giggled through happy tears, I knew that was only the tip of the iceberg.

The 2 years that followed went like this: 6 months of pretty much constant eating and sleeping, with more than a few doctors appointments, prenatal classes, shopping, preparing our home for two new babies and of course a full time job as a kindergarten teacher thrown in.  Next was a few weeks in hospital on bedrest, followed by ten frightening, heart wrenching, and totally life changing weeks in hospital NICU watching my preemies finish growing into strong healthy babies I could actually take home with me.  Read Suneil's blog Wizardad.blogspot.com for more on that.

The first few months with our babies can best be described as a kind of walking-dead-esqe dance between Suneil and I, and our two sets of parents who provided is with a great deal of help and support.  Though we were all exhausted, somewhat brain dead, emotional, and totally inexperienced in the realm of caring for newborn twins (especially two who had just spent months in hospital with numerous health concerns); we were happy, in love, and confident that we really could get good at this new job: parenthood.  As we knew would happen, things got easier after a few months, and then easier again a few months after that, and before we knew it we had established a new routine, a new family rhythm, a new way of living happily and in love.  

Our boy-girl twins, Pritam and Darshan turned two on January 30th, and after two years with them I feel I am finally getting my bearings, rediscovering my life as more than just their mommy, and looking for something to occupy my "free" time.  Hence this blog, a sort of journal of my successes and struggles as a modern, multitasking woman. I think I have become pretty good at juggling my home-work-family-self balance, and I want to start writing about how I make it all work (sometimes more successfully than others).

I'll be writing about how I feed my family delicious, healthy meals on a budget.  I'll be sharing things I do to keep my kids happy, entertained and growing up healthy. I'll tell you about things I love or hate, like beauty products, fashion, books, TV and other media. Also, how I stay organized, sane and happy even on rough days. And maybe if I'm feeling brave, I'll share some of the mistakes I make along the way and what I learn from them.

Who can do all that? Saskatchemom can! And I'm her so stay posted for more...