Homemaking tips | Frugal ways to save money as a homemaker

Here are the simple money-saving hacks to use to support a frugal mindset to save money as a homemaker, which you can easily do, too! Saving money is so much easier than earning more. Damming the flood of expenses is a mind game, so the best way is to get started with simple swaps and tiny habits.

I have gathered these money-saving tips to encourage you to find the little streams of money that are flooding out from your home. The idea is to take a look at your life and home at the moment and notice the tiny, simple ways you can save money by living frugally, resourcefully, and creatively. 

These are all hacks that I have used at some point in my life, some are that I am using all the time, some only certain moments when it was needed. Take these tips as your inspiration to find the ways that suit you and your family members to take that easy step to tweak your family finances. 

One of the big things about a natural lifestyle is intentionally using the resources and materials you have without overconsumption. I am not going through how to create a side hustle or two, but how to decrease household expenses with small tweaks and using the habits you have already established. You can easily make an impact on your household finances with some adjustments.

| RELATED: Natural lifestyle habits you should start

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Taking control of your household

As a stay-at-home mom, housewife, part-time worker, or people with full-time jobs, we have all the best possibilities to take control of our household expenses. If you have only a single income, it might feel tricky, but with intentional planning, you might find plenty of options and discover creative ways to ameliorate your financial stability that you have not just seen before.

Financial planning might sound a daunting task and a little bit scary, but often things get less scary when you get familiar with the numbers by doing this frequently. Download my free Homemaking Schedule and worksheet, do make space in your weekly schedule for the « admin tasks » to plan your financial goals and to focus on effective money management weekly.

| RELATED: How to make a Homemaking Schedule using routines and habits

Quick thoughts about the monthly budget

To make some changes in your household finances, start with evaluating the situation, and then move forward towards any financial goals you have made.

Tracking spending

First track your spending habits for a month or at least one week straight. When tracking your expenses, if you see, for example, that your biggest expenses are groceries, start with grocery planning, to get the habit of tracking your money flow. Make a simple household budget for the next month to see the impact that you have made right away. Tracking your expenses and making a budget is a great way to see the effect you have made over the long period, to motivate your next steps.

Three bank accounts hack

One hack that I have found super useful is to have a separate bank account for recurring payments. Another bank account for income, and a third one for extra money to create a buffer. An emergency fund, for any unexpected expenses, so as not to touch any savings.

Say no to the credit cards

Avoid credit cards to avoid using money that you do not own. If you have a credit card, do whatever you can to pay off any expenses you have and close them. Living frugally, using only the money that we own, has made us the most significant savings. When you use the money you have now, you spend more intentionally.

Small things compound in the long run

The best way to begin to tweak the household finances is to find small and easy reusable swaps to buy things less frequently, and take a look at your spending habits, and tweak them into better habits gradually. Making small changes, you can grow into the new habits to create a sustainable lifestyle, and it will pay off in the long run.

So let’s go through some of my best frugal tips on how to save money as a homemaker:

1. Reuse instead of single-use

Reusing saves you both money and time. Anything that lasts longer than one use is a win. You wouldn’t buy a new toaster after every use, right? It sounds silly. It would cost a lot. But think about things at your own home that are not very expensive but are used often. It is maybe one cent (or penny!) now, but think about using and discarding a coffee filter 365 times a year… You do the math and use common sense. 

Frugal tips on how to start with the easy swaps to save money

• Coffee filter: Find a washable coffee filter or use a French Press. 
• Dishcloth: Look for a reusable dishcloth made from bamboo or hemp. Both materials are very absorbent and tend to smell less when wet for a longer duration. I use the Bamboo Dishcloth by Finnish Kierti. I have two: one in use and the other I toss in with the laundry to wash and rotate. Simple. 
• Clingfilm. Use beeswax wrap or boxes instead of cling film. You can find beeswax wraps in different sizes, or DIY ones with the instructions of Farmhouse on Boone. 
• Diapers. Try cloth diapers instead of disposable ones. I have found that even only sometimes used, it saves a lot of money. Check the thrift store or Facebook Marketplace for second-hand ones, or find your local cloth diaper Facebook groups.
• Paper wipes we haven’t actually used for years, instead we use cloth wipes with our toddler (wiping those little fingers and mouth in the kitchen) and I wash those with laundry now and then.

2. Borrowing instead of owning

There’s no shame in frugal living, it is a smart way to live. When you are at the point of buying something stop for a moment to think the ways that you could get it for free. Borrowing and exchanging are both good options.

Frugal tips on how to start to save money with borrowing

I shared on Instagram some of my best free resources on how to read hundreds of books in a year for free, and here is a recap plus some other things than books to borrow and to lend:

• Instead of magazine subscriptions, check what your local library has. Download the FREE Libby App, and get free access to millions of ebooks and audiobooks too! You just need to connect with your local library card. 
• Borrow as well the children’s books from the public library. The selection is more comprehensive and you can change the books to new ones when they lose interest. No need to buy new all the time.
• Change your audiobook subscriptions to free channels like LibriVox, free public-domain audiobooks, that are read by volunteers from around the world. And if you have a good voice and some time, well, you can read there too! 
• Does your mom have a sewing machine? Ask to borrow it. Do you have a vegetable spiralizer that you barely use? Give it or loan it to someone who is just starting and is interested. The exchange economy makes good friends and the threshold to ask for favors and help decreases over time.

3. Repair & maintain instead of throwing away or letting dust

Take a look at the things you own at the moment. Make a mental note if something needs to be repaired immediately and do so. The other ones take one at a time to get in the habit of maintaining your belongings to keep them in good condition. 

Value the things that you own. 

If someday you want to sell your old bike, you can ask for a higher price than when you have just left it to dust. If you don’t use something, sell it. It is amazing how much money I got with only quick cleanup and listing some regular items on an online second-hand store (it took half an hour btw)! You get more money and more space. Win-win!

Support your frugal lifestyle with these repairing tips to spend less money on new items

• Repair the clothes you own when they are torn up. If you wait too long they will be irreparable. Trust me. The smaller hole in your pants is easier to fix and the result is neater than trying to fix a bigger tear.
• Take care of your shoes. When you buy, buy quality – they last longer and can be fixed. I have been walking only with Ecco’s shoes for maybe twenty years, and they do last long and are easy and inexpensive to repair by shoemakers.
• Do at least yearly a checkup on your car, bike, baby trolley, or whatever you drive, and take time to clean well, add oils, and check the gear. It is cheaper to maintain than let one problem cause another bigger problem.

4. Be intentional instead of unplanned

When you plan ahead, you have fewer options to step out of your food budget. With planning, you have less food waste, which means less money directly in the trash. 

Keep your eyes open in your kitchen to what you could do differently or use later to do something else. Follow your spending habits in grocery shopping, and what goes into the compost. Buy or make less the next time. Freeze the extra meal if you know that you won’t be eating it the next day. Do not make a too tight monthly budget, that will just make the mind game harder when you overstep. Make it realistic and find ways to save simple ways to get financial security.

Fugal tips on food planning and decreasing the grocery bill

• Buy bulk food that you use often. For example, spices, rice, or other dry storage items are way cheaper in bulk when you get the lowest prices per kilo. Check the prices from your local framers to see if you can save money by shortening the food miles.
• Visit the grocery store less frequently to avoid any unexpected expenses due to impulses (and yep, don’t shop hungry…) to step over your grocery budget.
• Buy whole foods instead of ready-made. Takes more time, but you get more food with less money when cooking from scratch.
• Reduce food waste. Start with the little things. If you brew too much coffee or infuse too much tea (or Glogg!), instead of throwing it just pour it into a glass bottle and store it in the fridge to enjoy an iced version later like an iced coffee. If you have only the small inconvenient bits of cheese left, grate them. Then roll in a bit of potato flour to avoid them sticking together, and freeze. Now you have grated cheese ready for you in the freezer.
• Bake your own bread, even once in a while, it makes the difference. If your bread has gone dry, don’t throw it away, tear it into smaller pieces, let it dry completely, and buzz with a food processor some bread crumbs for cooking.
• If you have a hard time staying on the food budget consider meal planning for some time to get on track of your monthly expenses.

| RELATED: How to source locally grown produce

More money-saving tips for meal plans and on frugal cooking

• Preserving the Garden Harvest: Simple Approaches to Long-Term Food Storage | Melissa K. Norris in Simple Farmhouse Life Podcast
• One Month Meal Plan: How to Make Your Own – Contentment with Simplicity 
• How to Make a Sourdough Starter (Easy and Simple) – Stretch and Folds 
• Frugal homemaking tips | Ideas for saving money every day – The Everyday Farmhouse 

5. Do it yourself or thrift instead of buying new

Sometimes it makes more sense to make it yourself than buying a new one. You are the best expert in your own household. Think about what ingredients or materials you have already and whether you could use them in a new way. Paint old furniture, change the covers, dye the fabric, or just move to another place to freshen up the room. Use things like wine boxes and make new furniture with almost no cost to you. Utilise thrift stores, and your creativity, and in the long run, you will see the big impact at the end of the month.

Get more inspiration from my fellow bloggers to save money as a homemaker

• DIY Leave-In Conditioner – Our Oily House
• DIY Laundry Soap – Mollys Suds Style Recipe – Unhurried Homemaker 
• How to DIY this simple citrus-scented vinegar! – City Folk Homestead
• How to make a beautiful home on a budget! – The Homey Lif3
• Ikea Hacks blog posts How to make the mass products into slow-craft – Hemmafix med Monica Karlstein (in Swedish)

6.  Sustainable choices instead of quick fixes

We tend to be in a hurry to fix things. When doing things quickly, we miss some inexpensive opportunities. Invest in time and sustainability to get those cents saved. I have said it before and I now repeat it. Keep your eyes open. Think about what you buy the most often. How could you reduce the cost by making it or a part of it by yourself, or by choosing a more sustainable or low-cost option to make it last longer so that you can buy it less frequently?

Tips on how to start to save money as a homemaker choosing sustainability

• Instead of rubber bands use yarn or mini cloth pins to keep the bags closed.
• Liquid dish soap. You basically pay extra for the package and the water. Choose a cube of dish soap or make it yourself even (link below)
• Switch a liquid shampoo to a shampoo bar.

DIY tutorials to take the next step

• Homemade Bar Dish Soap – Heart’s Content Farmhouse 
• Simple Shampoo Bar Whiteout Lye – Parks Elevated Design 

More homemaking inspiration

• 

  Realistic Cleaning Schedule for a Naturally Tidy Home

• 

  Kitchen Essentials Checklist: Minimalist & Well-stocked

• 

  Weekly cleaning schedule template (FREE)

• 

  Simple Spring Cleaning Checklist (PDF) for easier cleaning

• 

  How to make a Homemaking schedule using routines and habits

• 

  3 Tips for a Tidy and Organized Home | Feel Calm and Relaxed