How can you save money? Stay home. You save on gas, you save on activities, you save on buying food while you’re out…….and you ENJOY the home you pay a mortgage on already!
I’m a homebody. I love being home, because I love my house, my yard and spending time with my kids in the house we waited forever to be able to purchase. Yes, I live on a lake. Yes, I have a park that I can walk to every day. HOWEVER, we live on Long Island and it snows, rains and is sometimes too cold to even think, let alone go outside. So, we stay home quite often.
What the heck do we do all day? Recently, we started baking with the kids. They love to help measure out ingredients and put it in the mixer. We buy a lot of boxes of mixes when they’re on sale, we always have the staples in the house like sugar, flour and eggs. We even have vanilla extract, baking powder, yeast and baking soda. I know, we’re a regular pioneer family, right?
We have fashion shows. Our kids get dressed up and show off their style, we take pictures, play music and then put the photos on the digital frame until the next fashion show. Now this serves TWO purposes for me. One, it’s fun to do at home. Two, it helps me find out what fits and doesn’t fit anymore, without having the tears that come along with those dreaded words all kids hate hearing “just try this on to see if it still fits”. I do this at the very start of a new “season”, meaning when winter is winding down, we try on all the goodies from last year that I purchased at season ending clearance sales on line. We make sure they all fit, see if I have to buy a couple of more items and sell something that may not fit (or put it aside to give as a gift).
Coloring, drawing and of course, painting are always fun for kids. The messier it is, the more fun they have. We invested in some smocks (plastic of course), a cheap shower curtain that goes on the floor to catch all the spills and the kids can color, draw, paint, cut stuff out and craft up a storm without me getting NUTTY about a huge mess. They have fun, I get to hang out and relax with a cup of coffee, help out when needed and let the kids just go nuts and have fun.
There’s so many things to do in your own home, there’s not a need to head out the door where you’re spending money on activities, gas and food. Just hang out, let the kids relax and wear their PJs all day……no harm in that, right?
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Great post, and I completely agree. Especially after you buy your own place, you take more pride in it. I think if everyone experience things that they have bought for more than just the first month they buy it (TV, DVD player, video game system, computers, etc – to include their home), that they would be in much better financial situations. Keep the awesome articles coming!