Recession Homemaking: 27 Ways to Make These the Good Years

Being present and available for your home and your family is the ultimate luxury.   Here’s how to make the best of it, no matter what is happening in the outside world.

1. Bake the birthday cake from scratch

Sometimes frugal and homemade feels like a sacrifice, and sometimes it feels like a luxury. A birthday cake is a perfect example of the second. Your children will always remember having a homemade birthday cake or cupcakes every year.

It will save you money, and yes, it takes time, but people remember it fondly, and that feels so much more special.

2. Make Friday night an event

Just because you aren’t going anywhere this weekend, can’t go shopping, and aren’t planning on a few nights out to dinner doesn’t mean that the weekend isn’t fun and welcome. When everyone comes home from work or school on Friday, put on some music, make some popcorn, and start a new movie that evening. Make time at home something fun and exciting, and something everyone looks forward to. As the homemaker, you can totally change the feel of your weekends.

3. Keep money worries away from the dinner table

Whether the stock market is down, your business is doing poorly, or sales aren’t happening the way you expect, don’t make your children carry the burden. It doesn’t have to be a secret. You can talk about your fears from time to time as a family, but don’t make it the focus of all your conversation, for heaven’s sake, not at dinnertime.  Ask about their friends, their activities, something their teacher said, or anything else.

4. Volunteer at school in place of writing checks

There are many ways to give your children an advantage in life, and being a generous donor is always one of them. But you can also donate when you don’t have money, and the best of all is time. Volunteering at your children’s school, at higher education places, or anywhere you can has lots of subtle benefits your children will feel. Don’t be worried that you can’t write checks. You can contribute and help them in other ways.  

5. Keep the house tidy, so it feels calm and in control

Part of what makes the recession difficult is feeling out of control. It’s not just that you got laid off and now you can’t find something new, or not just that money is tight for you in this one short period. It feels like the whole world is experiencing it, and you can’t do anything about it. But there’s something you can control: how neat and clean your home is. If you don’t believe me, just try it.

Keeping it absolutely, absolutely tidy and lovely makes you feel so much better about everything, and that spills over into other parts of your life. Start with setting a ten-minute timer in the afternoons, resetting the house back to being pretty, and see how it changes everyone’s mood.

6. Cook the comfort foods your family loves most

When money is tight, I always go back to our absolute family favorite dinners that even the pickiest eaters will like. I don’t have to worry about trying something new, no one liking it, and then it going to waste. I can make them by heart. Everyone likes them. They feel comfortable and familiar, and sometimes that’s what you need.

7. Set the emotional temperature of your home

This is not just about hiding how stressed you might be about money. It’s also about your mood in general. You can say nothing about money but still let the stress and fear bleed into your everyday interactions with your family. Don’t let it. Keep your faith. Keep your patience. Be hopeful and don’t let all of your anxiety poison the good that’s left in your home.  

8. Give your kids real jobs so they feel needed

This helps you, too. Everybody needs help around the house, and everybody likes to feel useful. You don’t have to make a big speech about hard times and everyone needing to pull their weight, but your kids can absolutely pull their weight and be much more useful than you think. Things like washing your car, caring for pets, helping with siblings, cooking, and cleaning- they are all more than capable of. Beyond that, people appreciate being put to good use, even if they don’t act like it right away.

9. Protect your family traditions, even if you simplify them

If you can’t afford lots of Christmas gifts or a week-long beach vacation, try simplifying them rather than eliminating them. Christmas is still important, and even if everyone has one single thing to open under the tree, plus a stocking filled with necessities like shampoo and toothbrushes, it’s worth the effort.  

10. Model contentment instead of lecturing about it

Easy to preach about gratitude, harder to be grateful. When you’re feeling a bit deprived, tired, and worn down, complaining tends to be my default, at least, but it’s extra important now to have an attitude of thankfulness. Even if you’re missing little luxuries, be grateful for all that you DO have.

11. Be home when the kids get home

Whether your kids admit it or not, no one likes coming home to an empty house. If you can, try to be there when they get home from school.  Any stress they are feeling from that day or from life in general tends to come out at this time of day, and being there is invaluable.

12. Lean into small comforts: fresh sheets, candles, flowers from the yard

So often we pay for small luxuries we could create for free when we have more time than money. Can’t afford a housekeeper, a weekend at a bed and breakfast, or a coffee run?  That’s okay.  There are always wildflowers from the backyard, a turned-down bed, and a tidied-up reading nook.  Just takes a second and makes all the difference.

13. Take the pictures and write the memories down

When times feel difficult, we tend to wish them away and “get through” them.  But don’t!  This is your life and your children’s childhood.  Document it all as if your days are full of ease and joy.  Looking back, you might remember them as if they were.

14. Make “staying home” sound like the plan, not the consolation prize

What are we doing this weekend? Oh, staying home; everything is too expensive.  Let’s try that again.  We’re making caramel popcorn and watching Beauty and the Beast on Friday, then on Saturday we’re making paper snowflakes and going for a walk after dinner.

Even if you’re doing the SAME things, it’s all about how you frame it.

15. Show up for the neighbors and friends who are struggling too

There’s something about helping others that makes you feel like things aren’t so bad for you.  If you have extra bread, eggs, jam, time, books, jackets, WHATEVER, try to give it to someone who needs a hand subtly.  You can do this tactfully, without making a big production about helping someone who’s struggling.  You might find that it always comes to you.

16. Build a steady daily rhythm your kids can count on

When you stay home, you have a lot of power in the day-to-day running of things.  Use it for good to build a daily routine that makes everyone’s life comforting. Simple routines, like wake up, clean your room, walk to school, come home, have a snack, play outside, bath, reading time, make everyone feel cared for and comfortable and cost you nothing at all.

17. Bring back Sunday dinner

This is one of those things that everyone misses, but no one has the energy to fix.  The good news is, starting a Sunday dinner routine is easier than you think.  Never again will your weekends pass in a haze of “doing nothing.”  

You’ll see friends, eat well, and have your spirits lifted, all for very little to no money.

18. Make your home the place teenagers want to bring their friends

It is expensive to drive your kids everywhere, drop them off at public places with spending money, take them to the movies, etc.  Your own home, especially when you stay home, can become their destination/. Being there doesn’t mean hovering or asking them questions.  Be busy with your own thing, give them space, and see if they don’t gravitate to your house more and more.

19. Plant a garden

Not because you’re trying to save three dollars on tomatoes, but because making your home a happy and busy place is always worth it.  It’s something for you to feel good about, helps you add free luxury to your life (fresh herbs, cut flowers, heirloom tomatoes), and keeps you busy and grateful, not bored and wanting.

20. Read aloud in the evenings

This one probably sounds pretty weird to you, especially if you don’t have little kids, but you would be shocked (SHOCKED!) by how enjoyable it is.  We started this with an anthology of 20th-century poetry from my parents, and we started to enjoy it and actually look forward to it; if this is just a bridge too far, put on an audiobook—all the busyness and companionship of the TV without the obnoxiousness and distraction.

21. Plan backyard picnics and campouts

Sometimes you THINK you need to get out of the house for a change of scenery and forget that you can get a change of scenery without leaving home.  You can enjoy little treats like a picnic lunch for someone’s birthday, a night by a bonfire, and more, right in your backyard.

22. Make gifts by hand

Gifts can blow anyone’s budget. Between birthdays and holidays, they’re unexpected, unavoidable, and not doing it makes you feel cheap and selfish instead of frugal. Well, there’s a workaround. When you stay at home, you might have the time and the energy to do things like this by hand. The secret is not to do it all in a hurried rush the last few weeks of school.

Plan, make things bit by bit, and do things in batches: a batch of jam here, a set of soap there. You’ll accumulate enough things to put together in a little bag or basket that, with a handwritten card, will make anyone’s day.

23. Make the holidays magical with less

A magical holiday is not about the presents. (Really.) It’s that perfect combination of time together, spent at home, special traditions, decorations, food, and everyone having time off from the everyday.  Even with a $0 budget, you can gather greenery from outside, set pinecones in bowls, put Christmas carols on the radio, and keep your house cozy and clean.

24. Keep your marriage from becoming a budget meeting

When you feel like you’re under money stress, you tend to talk it to death. And of course communication is well and good, but making it the focus of every single get-together and discussion is so crushing. Leave room for fun and lightness. Talking and worrying won’t help your bank account.

25. Turn on the lamps and light the candles before anyone gets home

Coming home to a bright house is one of those things that puts you in a good mood even if you can’t explain why. Or maybe it’s just coming home to a dark house that puts you in a bad mood. Whenever you can, light candles, light a fire if you have one, and turn on the lights so people feel comforted in a dark world.

26. Send the card, make the call, drop off the casserole

A spirit of giving and generosity helps you in two ways: it makes you feel better about yourself, and it blesses the person who receives it. There’s a secret third way: you tend to get paid back in multiple ways when you give a gift freely. When you check in on someone, lend them a hand, or help them on a busy day, they will be there for you too, and we can all use it more than ever.

27. Stock the pantry so it feels like security

I love a pantry full of jams and pickles as much as the next girl, but there’s another layer to it that involves a little more planning so that you feel like you have real food to eat in your pantry.

Start with pasta and sauces, then work your way up to flour, sugar, and other baking ingredients. Make sure that, if you had to, you could feed yourself (not ideally, but enough to survive) out of your pantry when times get really hard.

Keep your chin up

When times feel hard, society tends to make you feel less than when you don’t work. You can’t know everyone else’s struggles, and your time is better spent making a little more money for your family. But always remember your role at home and how valuable you are in ways that don’t show up on a bank account