Becoming a parent is one of the most significant responsibilities you will ever take on in your life and is something extraordinary that will fill you will pride and joy down the years. However, becoming a parent isn’t a financially intelligent decision since kids always cost money. We’ve come up with this piece on money-saving tips for busy parents with a lot on their plate to provide you with some helpful guidance.
Money-Saving Tips For Busy Parents
An accurate monthly budget can be tricky and more complicated if you have many children. Try and come up with calculations for your family budget by yourself. There’s no need to waste your money paying for the services of an accountant. SoFi learn has a resource page on the basics of budgeting; the page links to a handful of articles on personal finance. From learning about alternative types of banking to gaining knowledge on the financial planning process, reading through these pieces is a spectacular way to increase one’s financial literacy.
Being capable of adequate financial planning will make your life much easier in the long term as a busy parent, and it’s incredible how quickly time flies and your kids seem to become grown-up adults in no time.
Carry on reading to learn more about what you can do to save the pennies and the pounds as a committed parent.
Sit Down And Draw Up A Realistic Budget
Planning is everything about saving money and successfully managing your family’s finances. Therefore, it’s good to plan and draw up a realistic budget for your family’s expenses at the beginning of every month. You will need a pen, a notepad, and a remarkable memory of all your expenses for activities relating to the kids. This may include fuel costs, food, household bills, school uniform, public transport fared from school, and plenty more.
An accurate monthly budget can be tricky and more complicated if you have many children. Try and come up with calculations for your family budget by yourself. There’s no need to waste your money paying for the services of an accountant. Being capable of adequate financial planning will make your life much easier in the long term as a busy parent, and it’s incredible how quickly time flies and your kids seem to become grown-up adults in no time.
Remember To Spend Within Your Means
Overspending is extremely easy, and many parents spend money unnecessarily on things their children may not need. Spending too much money, supposed to be there to support your family, is a traditional way many people get entangled in a never-ending spiral of debt they can’t pay back.
Do you overspend and plunge into debt when you purchase a new car? If so, you may want to consider leasing a car, particularly an electric one. Alongside being better for the planet, electric cars are also considerably cheaper to charge than putting petrol or diesel in your car.
Look For Deals On Family Holidays
Family holidays are a fantastic opportunity to enjoy precious quality time with the family and create some memorable moments that you can look back on fondly in years to come. However, exciting family holidays can be expensive, so you need to scroll through the internet and look for deals. Booking a package holiday can r an all-inclusive one that may help you save a lot of money.
Staycations have drastically risen due to the pandemic preventing us from traveling abroad for our holly-bobs. One advantage of going on a staycation adventure in the UK is that it can save you money on travel costs. Although you may have to find things for your kids to do as you sit stationary in traffic in the car on the motorway as a family, or there could be some long games of I spy. It would help if you were careful you don’t get yourself burnt by the prices, as holiday accommodation in the UK has shot up in price following the first lockdowns in 2020.
Re-Use And Recycle As Much As Possible
Get inventive and creative with how you re-use things. Why not turn old curtains or clothes into new clothes or cushion covers? Re-using your bags from the supermarket will also save you money since in October 2015, the government introduced in a law that large retailers in England must charge a minimum of 5p for single-use carrier bags, which went up to 10p in 2021.
Reducing the amount of single-use plastics you use will help protect the planet’s welfare. They break down into microparticles that are harmful to the environment instead of biodegrading. This causes pollution in our waters, endangering wildlife and coastal areas. Re-using containers such as jars, plastic trays, and cardboard boxes is also a fun way to save money and help the planet. You’d be amazed at how cool re-used containers can look in your kitchen space.
Earn Extra Money By Selling Unwanted Clothes
It’s remarkable how quickly your kids shoot up and grow before you know it. Have your kids gotten through many of clothes down the years, and you don’t know what to do with them now that they’ve grown bigger and don’t fit them? To help you earn a bit of extra money and save up for the things you need as a family, have a conversation with your kids about if you could sell their unwanted clothes.
Friends, second-hand shops, and online retailers could be ideas for selling your kids’ unwanted clothes. Of course, donating your kids’ unwanted clothes to a charity is always available. It’s undoubtedly not only your kid with unused clothes lying around the house. Perhaps you also have many unwanted clothes you could sell for a few extra pounds.s?
Prioritize What You Buy For Birthdays And Christmas
Every parent loves to give their kids many exciting gifts at particular times of the year, such as birthdays and Christmas, and watch them explode with glee when they open them and realize what they’ve got. However, getting mountains of expensive birthday and Christmas gifts for each of your children can break your bank balance in no time.
Therefore, you need to be sensible and prioritize the gifts you get to avoid overspending. Ask yourself, what present do they want above all else? Get your kids to write a list of what presents they’d like in order according to the ones they most dearly want, and maybe you can focus on trying to buy those higher up on the list.
If your kids’ gift requests are unrealistic and you won’t be able to fulfill them, try having a quiet word to let them know you are a bit short of money at the moment and it’s better to ask for slightly less expensive gifts that you will be able to provide.
Lift Share With Others To Save On Fuel Costs
Fuel costs have been rising across the UK at record rates recently, and the price of petrol and diesel is showing no signs that it will start going down soon. ‘Carpooling’ or lift-sharing with friends or colleagues is a great way to save considerable money on fuel costs. Why waste large chunks of your money on fuel for your vehicle when you can easily split the costs with other people? If one of your colleagues lives near your house, and you know you take a similar route to work as them every day, it makes sense to try car sharing with them.
Money-Saving Tips For Busy Parents
Lifwasis expensive in 2022, and saving your family money can sometimes seem like a real uphill struggle. However, these are a few tips to help all busy parents save as much money as possible.
