Today – How to save money when starting a family
How to save money when starting a family
Do you wonder how to save money when starting a family?
Starting a family is an incredible experience, it’s so exciting and rewarding, but it can also be financially stressful. In this blog post, I will give you some of the tips that have helped me raise my family over the years on a budget.
Following some of these tips will allow you to be more financially secure and you will only have to worry about those wet nappies and feeding your newborn.
Saving money on food
When my first child was born, my partner and I would eat out often, time would fly by so fast we wouldn’t get the chance to eat. As you can imagine this is expensive and took a massive hit on our finances. We would mostly eat fast food as we needed something quick. Other than the cost of fast food, it’s also not very filling and caused us both to put on weight.
Cooking with a newborn in the home can seem like a daunting task, what I learned to do is have my partner watch the baby for a few hours while I would batch cook a few simple recipes (or vice versa). I would then store the food in plastic containers and put them in the freezer. All I would have to do is pull the food out the night before we were going to eat it and warm it up in the microwave.
Food cooked this way isn’t the tastiest, it’s not exciting but it is quick, and as a new parent that is what you will care most about. Cooking and eating your food this way will save you a fortune too. The meals I was batch cooking was much cheaper than the fast food, often I would save £10 per meal between my partner and me.
How to save money when starting a family? Secondhand items
If you can afford brand new items and you want them for your baby I’m not going to tell you not to buy them because that would be hypocritical of me. With our first child, I bought all brand new and spent a lot of money on everything that they needed. However when it came time to get rid of this equipment we either gave them to charity or sold them for a small fee on the auction websites.
Items that cost us £200+ were given to charity shops, and I’m sure we are not the only parents that have done so. These items were in great condition and some of them were only used a few times. By shopping in a charity shop for second-hand items we could have saved a bunch of money.
My tip to you would be to go and visit the second-hand shops to see what items they have for sale and if you don’t like the condition of them you can then go and buy new items.
You don’t have to move home.
One of the biggest expenses of a growing family is the home you live in. Whether you choose to rent or buy a new home is expensive.
Make no mistake about it you will need to make room for your new baby as the number of items they need during their first few months is staggering. However smart choices can be made to improve the space in your home. When I was looking to upgrade to a new home it was looking like I would have to find another £30,000 for a bigger home.
Spending £30,000 with a new baby on the way wasn’t something I was willing to do. In the end, I choose to hire a self-storage unit for 6 months and it saved my furniture from having to be thrown out and it also saved me £30,000 on a new home.
Don’t buy designer if you are trying to save money when starting a family
You always see the parents on Facebook or Instagram showing off their babies latest designer clothing, and honestly, there’s nothing wrong with that, if that’s your thing then go for it. But if you’re trying to save money don’t feel the pressure of buying designer brands. Instead, you should try checking out the nursery section of RoomsToGo.com
Your newborn is going to grow so quickly that any clothing you buy them won’t last them long, buying designer clothing for a baby, in my opinion, is a massive waste of money.
Conclusion.
By making smart choices as a new family you are going to take a lot of unneeded pressure of yourself and your family. The tips above are a great way to make your money go further.
If you have any money-saving ideas that a new family could benefit from please leave them in the comment section below.
How to save money when starting a family is a feature post
You might also like my post on food storage tips to avoid waste
I think we spent 40% of our income on food and related items. Food is the major expense and you can’t afford market food everyday. We need to Make food in home its more safe and healthy than market food.