I am a stay-at-home mom. That means, there’s only one bread-winner in the house – my husband. Although what he’s earning is enough for the family, we need to carefully manage our finances. You know, finances could make or break relationships. Probably it’s not because of lack of finances, but a misuse or mismanage of it. And you know, I have noticed that conflict of finances are often the primary cause of broken relationships. Here are a couple of tips on how to manage family finances that I have learned over 5 years of being married:

• there must be open communication regarding family needs, priorities, and even extras. if one spouse is left in the dark, it could endanger relationships.
• from this comes budgeting. we have to do a monthly budget to see whether what we buy that month is included in the budget. this way, if ever we have extra, we would know and could spend on some things a little bit more. Budgeting is quite a challenge. Sometimes, when you have a lot of needs, you don’t know which comes first.
• don’t use credit card for unnecessary buys. Too much usage could lead to bad credit and it does require a credit repair.  Make sure to repair credit the earliest, if at all you realize that your finances is already in bad shape. You can find a lot of companies online that offer credit repair services.  They even do a bad credit repair!
• save, save and save. this is a good alternative to using credit cards. If you know that you’re going to need some cash ahead of time, save some. Could save a lot of trouble looking for some place else to find money.

• don’t forget to tithe. our income is a gift from God, a blessing from Him. In tithing, you put money in it’s proper prespective. I realize that when you establish giving as a priority, even when you’re in debt, you tend to keep your other priorities in better order.

by: janet

if your main baby-changing are is upstairs, keep a small basket stocked with extra diapers, lotion, and baby basics downstairs. this will save a few trips up and down the stairs.

that’s what i do with my kids now. i have a bathroom downstairs too. so i keep some stocks downstairs. i find it not only save time, it saves energy as well.

by: janet

i believe in co-sleeping with my kids. it creates a special bond between parents and kids. of course, when both my kids were newborn, i put them to sleep in the cot. to avoid crushing on them when we sleep. you know when you just gave birth, you just to to rest and sleep. and when you sleep deeply, you won’t know what’s happening. there’s a tendency that we crush our babies in our sleep. so when both my kids were newborn, they were on the crib.

i started co-sleeping with my first baby when he got sick at 9 months of age. after that, he never went back in the cot to sleep. my second child started co-sleeping with me when she was 10 months old. we were in my parents’ house for 6 weeks and they couldn’t get a cot. so i put her to sleep next to me. when we came back from my parents place in the philippines, i asked my husband to take away our bed’s legs, so that the bed frame touches the floor. this time, because my girl moves a lot in her sleep, i was scared to put her to sleep with our bed that high. it’s nice as it is as it looks like a Modern Bedroom Furniture or a platform bed. our bed is a king-sized bed. so everybody could fit nicely in it. speaking of Bedroom Furniture, i want to make a visit to Ikea furniture mall again at Damansara. it has been a while since i haven’t gone there. they might have Contemporary Bedroom Furniture. actually, you can find all these in eroomservice.com. it is an online store for furnitures.

anyway, i and my husband keep our intimacy by putting the kids to sleep early. then we can have a time for ourselves. this way, co-sleeping with kids won’t be detrimental to our marriage.

by: janet