Miserly Moms: Living on One Income in a Two-Income Economy [Paperback]

I loved this book!! It's become my sah bible and I recommend it to all of my friends.

The fact that the book is called "Miserly" Moms may be slightly misleading (it initially put my husband off, which is why I mention this). "Miserly" indicates stinginess, penuriousness, lack of generosity. By no means is this the message contained in this book. Rather, it shows many ways families can cut expenses in order to meet a particular goal: that of having one parent stay home with the child(ren).

In fact, the author's approach is to find those areas where she can make the biggest dent in expenses in the least amount of time. Approximately half of the book is dedicated to saving money on food, since for most families with two parents working outside the home, cutting back on food expenses offers the biggest opportunity to save a lot of money quickly.

Her first principle is not to confuse frugality with depriving oneself. The reason: if you think you're depriving yourself, you cripple your ability to make long-term changes. Rather, she presents frugality as a choice, made every day in many different ways, both large and small. (Example: Would I rather have this Starbucks coffee and muffin now or would I rather do without them, if that is what it takes to be home with my children?) This principle is reflected throughout.

There's also a great chapter in this book on raising frugal children.

I would recommend this book in conjunction with another book called You Can Afford To Stay Home With Your Kids. I felt the latter book was stronger in helping the reader to break down his/her particular monthly expenses and make a budget ahead of time. Also, I felt that book included more discussion on what would-be-stay-at-home-parents can expect once home...while it's true that there are huge emotional payoffs to feeling that you're making the greatest possible contribution to bringing up your child(ren) by being home with them, nothing but nothing is all sunshine and roses. Two funny examples these authors cite are that your children will have more opportunities to drive you bonkers once you're home with them and that if you never liked housework, you will not magically find yourself liking to scrub the toilets and you may find yourself doing it more often.

In my own case, I felt that these two books taken together made a GREAT partnership. You Can Afford To Stay Home With Your Kids has more to offer families prior to making the transition from two incomes to one (in my opinion). Miserly Moms shines in showing many, many specific ways families can reduce expenses without sacrificing quality...which of course is valuable both before and after making the transition.

Oh, yeah... I bought both books about a year and a half ago. It took about a year to lay all the groundwork, but I'm home with my two children now. The suggestions in these books helped me to lay that foundation and now that I'm home, to be able to stay there by practicing a frugal lifestyle.