FREEDOM TO SUBSTITUTE: Stretching your income (1)

Women cannot on the most part end the current depression sweeping the country. As family income is reduced and sometimes jobs are lost, or the markets are not performing as they used to, it becomes necessary for women and mothers to start to think outside the box, to keep the family afloat at this times.

As with most economic situations, women and children suffer the most since they are mostly dependent on the men who are either in the field working, or out of work. Women play a significant role on the future outcome of the effects of the depression on the family especially the children,therefore certain measures must be taken to wait it out and do so well.

Kindly allow me in the next few post not just to encourage but try to enlighten you on some few steps that may help curb the effects of the depression on the immediate family.

Firstly you want to make a list of all the expenses your family incurs in a month. Afterwards proceed to look for suitable alternatives for these expenses.

This post is mainly directed to mothers, both working and stay at home mothers (and the rare fathers...)

Common Expenses

Stay at home maid

As a kid my mom had a store in front of the house, this was where the young lady working for her at that time spent most of her mornings and free times.

We sold drinks, small snacks (made by my mom with assistance from the help), biscuits, toiletries and some small sized provisions. Over the years the store grew so big, because my mother tied the lady's salary to the success of the store, which also included bonuses and promotions.

This motivated the lady to work harder and put in a lot of efforts into the success of the store. It's been almost 30 years and that little garage is now a small department store in one of the suburbs in Lagos.

While having a help is a must for most working mothers, for the stay at home, or working from home mom, we could make some slight adjustments to the roles and duties of the housemaid.

For the most part of the day when kids are in school, parents are at work, if your maid doesn't go to traditional school you could make this time a rewarding period for both the family and the maid, by enrolling her in a skills development program.

The skills she enrolls in should be in close relations with her abilities and interest, it would also have an advantage if it's  something you also like. That way you could mentor her and watch her progress. This skills could later serve as an added service she can provide for the home eg sewing torn clothes, dyeing faded table cloths, baking snacks for kids birthday etc.

In reality some of these maids may have little or no interest in these type of developments. In such a situation, you may have to consider whether she could work part time at a friends place to earn a portion of her salary while staying and working at your end. This option is a little tricky and needs a lot of thoughts and input from you the help and the friend.

Grocery Shopping

This one can easily be the number one money guzzler if not adequately checked. The way to go about this is to first write down what is bought everyday of the week for a month. 

After you make a scale of preference putting the most important items on top and progress downwards to the least important.Taking note of the items that cost the most, and also who or what that item is meant for. 

There are certain items that cost a lot, but can be easily substituted with a healthier less expensive option that may provide the same nutrients or benefits (look out for my blog posts on foods and substitute).

Certain other items like cleaning liquids, disinfectant and toiletries could be substituted for, with locally made items. 

For the toiletries this would have to be a really creative substitute, I personally love dove soap, wash and cream and this costs me a huge chunk monthly. What I did was to look for a way to make the wash stretch longer by using only in the mornings, and take my evening bath using liquid black soap concoction I designed myself(would make a post on this). A little tweak here and there and you could save thousands of Naira from your weekly grocery shopping.

Look out for part two of this post.