Saving Money By Learning to Stay Home More!

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I will be the first to admit that I definitely need to practice what I preach on this Make a Change Monday. I am not a homebody by nature. By becoming more of one, though, you can help reduce your carbon footprint AND save money!

When my husband lost his job two years ago, we needed to learn to stay home more in order to make ends meet. We didn’t want our kids to really feel the pinch of us staying home, so we had to get creative! We found neat ways to stay home and still have fun. With three kids under the age of 12, we had to figure out something or there may have been a mutiny on our hands.

Learning to Stay Home More

So here are some tips to enjoy life while you stay home more:

1. Gaze at the stars: We would lay out in the middle of our backyard and star gaze on nights during the summer. It was a great way to spend time as a family, and we were teaching our kids astronomy too. For our star gazing nights, we would print out free sheets so the kids could try and find the constellations

Print a free star map at KidsAstronomy.com: You can change the date and time and it will update your map to print

2. Have a family movie night: We did this all the time, we would either watch movies ON Demand for  free or watch one of our own movie collections. The local library is another great way to rent movies for free :).

3. Find a hobby that you can do at home that is inexpensive and something you enjoy. I enjoy gardening! This does cost a little bit to get started, but once you have an established garden you can spend your time weeding and pruning your heart out! Here are some of my babies 🙂

If gardening isn’t your thing, you could do puzzles, take up walking, reading, whatever might interest you. Become the expert on something you are passionate about and enjoy 🙂

4. Become a game connoisseur: This can be playing cards, board games, Wii Games, PlayStation, you name it. We have a family game night once a week. Each week we rotate who gets to pick what we are doing. It’s amazing how many hours of fun something as simple as a .99 cent deck of cards can bring for the whole family, plus the together time builds a great family relationship!

5. Walk around your neighborhood: Get to know your neighbors! This isn’t just great for you to meet them, but it is also great for safety reasons.

It is also really neat to talk a stroll through your town to and see all of the neat local shops, cafes, and maybe even some historical landmarks. Don’t be afraid to be a tourist, it’s great exercise and a great way to know your town 🙂

These are just some of the great things we learned while going through a rough time, and even though we are no longer in a rough patch these changes have made a permanent impact on our lives. We still practice all of these today! So Make a Change! Enjoy staying home more and see how much money you can save!

Disclosure: I didn’t get paid to write this post, just some great tips about how to save money by learning to stay home more!