When I was growing up, the elders around me often forgot I was there and talked freely about "adult matters".  No need to worry, back then adults did not discuss things that were R or X rated even with each other, but they were often brutally honest and blunt about what they saw as the reasons why certain folks were "never going to amount to much".  As I've gotten older, I can see that they often had more than one excellent point and I want to share with everyone some of those points that are now "policitically incorrect" but still true....

 You would often hear the saying "a bad wife (homemaker) can throw it out the window with a spoon faster than he can haul it in the front door with full wheelbarrows".  What they meant was that the tiny little automatic habits you have can either keep you going or sink your ship.  A little waste in almost everything you do adds up to huge costs as the bad habits keep being repeated without thought over and over.  A wasteful household consumes more of everything, and that everything costs money!  And making that money costs you time which is your LIFE.  Why squander it on stuff, every human is worth more than that. 

 One example no one likes to have pointed out is that your time at home is NOT worth what you are paid at the office!  If it was, no one could afford to sleep 8 hours - they would be trying to get by with no more than 4 and paying horrid prices healthwise later.  When you are at home you need to switch your focus from quantity done poorly to some done well and try to plan out as much wasted work as possible. 

If by mowing your own yard you can save $250 every month at 2 mows a month then study what is stopping you.  Is there too much yard?  Is there a problem with the equipment hindering instead of helping?  Should you look at replacing high care items with stuff that can safely be ignored in terms of constant care?  Why are you stuck with the hassle and is it REALLY worth it - could you dump some of it?

Many folks have found that replacing lawn in hard to mow or tend areas with ground covers is a win/win deal after the 2nd or 3rd year.  Yes, it may cost you $100+ to convert an area you took 45 minutes to mow to a never mow or mow 1 or 2 times a year set up but you get back 45 minutes of your LIFE every time you don't have to do that chore.  And the life/time savings keep repeating forever or until you move away.  Your time is better spent with those you love (2 legged or 4 legged) than in keeping up high maintainance stuff that will never love you back and just stresses you out.

Taking care of your "stuff" is another win/win idea.  Example - Look at your furniture in the kitchen.  Lets say you have a table, 5 chairs and a baker's rack that are not permanently attached in place.  Every day you have to move it all so you can sweep and clean.  And the fabric seats get really nasty and are hard to clean.  What if you put wheels under the table and chairs?  How much repeated work every day would that save you? - 10 minutes every day X 365 days X 10 years starts to be some meaningful time.  How about changing to a no care fabric that wipes clean?

Would you keep the area cleaner if it was easier?  Could another person give you meaningful help if it were suddenly possible for a 7 year old to sweep and do it right since they don't have to pick up and move the chairs?  If you keep dirt more picked up in the kitchen, the rooms that are next on the path through the house will stay cleaner too, since there will be less to get tracked everywhere.  And it's the DIRT that damages the flooring, damages furniture and rugs, stains the painted areas, causes 90% of the work and just looks bad and makes you feel like it is hopeless and you can't win.  Damage eventually will cost money to repair - why not avoid as much of that type of expense as possible?

Look at your clothes - how often have you looked down AFTER you spilled something that cannot be washed out and were mad at yourself for ruining a good item of clothing?  Maybe even - GASP! a brand new item.  Make it a habit to change out of clothes suitable for church/work etc as soon as you come home.  Put on those clothes you SAID you were "saving for cleaning/yardwork".  You are a lot more likely to actually DO some of that dirty work and chores if you can dive right in without worrying about messing up your clothes.  And your clothes will last longer.  And one $30 item per person per month not needing to be replaced means money left in your pocket.  And do treat stains, sew back loose buttons, catch up drooping hems etc.  A stitch in time saves a lot more than nine.

Model this behavior for your kids and you'll spend less on their clothes and stuff too.  When I was a child, my grandparents set the example in this type of stuff and the whole family followed along 99% of the time.  And by simply explaining that when I forgot and ruined something that this meant that due to the need to pay to replace it there was no money for X made the lesson stick.