Full-time homemakers don't earn a paycheck. Although we can stay busy all day long and into the night, seven days a week, we don't get monetary bonuses or a salary. So how much is our work worth?

The total value of a homemaker providing healthy meals, structure, organization, driving services, hugs and kisses, grocery shopping, gardening and yard work, cleaning services, decorating, activity planning, teaching and training, reading aloud, and fun times is intangible. It's impossible to truly measure the enrichment a homemaker can provide. This article focuses on one stay-at-home homemaker (me) and ways that I can add to my family's financial health.

When my family needs extra money, I feel bad about the fact that I don't add money to the salary my husband brings home. But wait! Maybe I do add something that is tangible as well. Here is a list of things I can do around our home to save money. To come up with the numbers, I used conservative estimates of: 1) the monthly cost of the "usual", convenient way of doing things, and 2) the monthly cost of doing it the way I try to do it. Here I'll list the ways I save money and the monthly and yearly savings for our family.

*I used this list for estimating costs of running the clothes dryer.

If you are a full-time homemaker concerned about your financial contribution to the family, you could make a list of the things you do to save money over the course of a week, month, or year and add it all up. Consider it your addition to the household salary! We know you're worth much, much more than the final number, but it's good to remember you can make a financial impact on top of everything else you do.