The following is a guest post by Heather P. Johnson. She is a freelance writer, as well as a contributor for Credit Card Lowdown, a site for finding credit card reviews. Heather invites your comments and freelancing job opportunities at her email address: heatherjohnson2323@gmail.com.

Women have a lot of expectations these days. They are expected to be mothers, sisters, daughters, successful in their careers, and leaders of their families. For the modern day career woman, finances can be on of the biggest worries. That being said, I’ve come up with 8 nice tips for women to save their family money every month. More take-home pay usually equals less stress and more money available to save and have fun with.

1. Home cooked meals - One of the best ways one can save money is by simply taking the time to cook meals at home. With women’s busy schedules today, it often becomes much easier to simply go out, or order deliver than take the time to cook a nice meal.

However, even easy little meals can save you tremendous amounts of cash. One example is pasta. Cooking pasta is quick, nutritious, easy, and very cheap. So if you want more cash in your wallet, just say no to going out to eat in the evenings. Shop smart, and you’ll find that you have a lot more cash at the end of the day.

2. Carpool – Carpools are great for saving money. If all the kids in the neighborhood have to get to school, and the bus isn’t an option, why not share the responsibility amongst parents? Coming up with a nice way to carpool can save a significant amount of money. If you only have to drive to school once a week, instead of five times, the amount of gas you’ll save will more than make up for the extra time taken to pick up a few of your children’s friends.

3. Be Fuel Efficient – Being fuel-efficient can be accomplished in a variety of ways. Passively, you can save loads of money on gas by avoiding excessive acceleration from red lights (remember, life isn’t the Indy 500), or going the speed limit (going 75 mph burns significantly more gas than going 55 mph). Actively, however, you can save a lot by getting your errands done while you’re out anyway. If you’re driving home from work, stop off at the store when you pass it. Don’t wait until the weekend to go shopping, because you’re just wasting time and gas. Being fuel-efficient isn’t terribly difficult, and the rewards can really add up.

4. Go Thrifting – You might think that it’s impossible to find something nice to wear while thrifting, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. Sometimes very nice brand-name merchandise will make it into the racks of thrift stores. If you buy a brand new outfit for a fourth of the cost it might be from the original retailer, then you’ve just saved yourself, and your family a ridiculous amount of money. Your children can also benefit from thrifting. The bottom line is, it never hurts to look, and the amount of money you can potentially save makes it well worth the effort.

5. Avoid Credit Card Balances – Different families have different ways to manage finances. It’s my opinion that women should always be willing to take charge. One of the best ways to save money is to avoid carrying credit card balances. It’s no secret that credit card companies want people to not pay their cards of in full. This is because they make money by charging a significant amount of interest. This can all be avoided by staying on top of the credit card bills and paying them off in full. You may not see the results immediately, but the amount of money you will save in the long run can be quite significant.

6. Pay Those Bills Too – Along with not carrying credit card balances, you should stay on top of every bill you receive as well. When I was growing up, my mother always took care of the bills, and my family very rarely had to deal with an overdue bill or charge. Watching the mail like a hawk is a great way to ensure that pesky overdue fees will be avoided. As a result, you’ll be able to save some serious cash.

7. Turn Off The Lights – The stereotype goes that men are always the one’s complaining about people leaving the lights on. Of course, we know that women certainly realize that electricity isn’t free. The amounts of money that can be saved by turning off lights, televisions, and computers when they are not in use really ads up! Simply making the effort to remember to turn things off, as well as reminding anyone else in your family can drastically lower those pesky electric bills.

8. Watch The Heat and Air Conditioning – There’s another stereotype that men are always the one’s who complain about making it too hot or too cold. However, women are just as capable of keeping an eye on the thermostat in order to save some extra money. Generally, keeping the thermostat in the high 60s, or low 70s is the way to go. Keeping doors and windows closed also helps significantly. It is also important to remember, that if it is a warm summer day, but there is a nice gentle breeze, then turning the air conditioner off and opening all the windows in the house can do wonders to save money. Of course you want to remain comfortable at all times in your home or apartment, but that doesn’t mean you have to waste money with excessive thermostat temperatures.

Today women are expected to be leaders in the workplace, and in their families. Taking charge of finances may seem like a daunting task at times, but following these few simple tips can end up saving significant amounts in the long run. I personally love the old saying, “a penny saved is a penny earned.” If you’re bringing home the paycheck, you should certainly think about ways to keep more money so you can use some of it on yourself (it will be well deserved).

This featured post is presented by beingfrugal.net

Last week I told you about my biggest financial success: becoming a stay-at-home mom. Today I’d like to expand upon the things I’ve learned along the way.

When I quit my job a month before our first child was born, nearly half our income went away. We were left with $19,000 a year to live on. Yes, $19,000. Right now you might be saying that me quitting my job was possibly the stupidest thing I could possibly have done. But I think it was a smart decision.

Continue reading Things I’ve Learned About Money by Not Having a Lot of It at beingfrugal.net.

Clawing our way to financial health asked me to post this announcement about the Meal Planning Month Challenge:

Join us in November in our quest to cook at home more, eat out less, create healthy meals and best of all… save some money! A group of us have decided to take on this challenge and are declaring November as Meal Planning Month. Once a week we will each post our meal plans, and our grocery budget for the week. At the end of the week we will track our progress and $$ spent. Also, I suggest you post about how much you hope to save this month and keep track to let us know how you are doing. I hope we all get inspiration for new healthy meal ideas too, since I am always looking for new alternatives to my regular meal planning.

As incentive, Nancy Zimmerman is giving away a $25 gift certificate to one participant who sticks to their plan all of November and posts about it at least once a week.

Our closing date was midnight tonight, but I am extending the deadline until the end of the week, since this post is going up today. Deadline is Saturday (Nov. 3) at midnight to join. If you want to join in please email me at westcoastwoolies@yahoo.ca.

This featured post is presented by I’ve Paid For This Twice Already…

In a few weeks, my daughter will turn one. She is the only granddaughter for both my parents and my inlaws (as my son is the only grandson) and consequently very blessed with love but also with… stuff. There will be no lack of gifts and clothes and things showered upon her for her birthday from both sets of very doting grandparents who by virtue of living a considerable distance away from us, only see her once or twice a year.

The grandparents have been demanding lists of presents we would like for her.

Continue reading Stuff and My Daughter’s First Birthday at I’ve Paid For This Twice Already…