How to Save Your Budget When You Have Kids

You may have figured out your budget and have it working pretty well. You may have paid off your debt and be able to save money each month. But things can happen to completely change your world. Will you be able to survive financially?

When I was 8 months pregnant with my first child, I was working from home and planning on being able to take care of my daughter and still have a full-time income. But one day I received dreadful news – the owners decided to shut down the company. It was a mortgage company and this was in early 2009, right in the midst of the mortgage crisis. So I found myself without a job and about to have a baby.

Fortunately the owners of iMoneyCoach interviewed me (yes, waddling into the office and looking like I was ready to burst) and had a part-time job waiting for me after I spent 2 months at home with the baby. Although it was great to have some income, this was a huge blow to our plans and our income.

Not only did we now make about ⅓ of my original income, but we had the added expense of diapers, baby clothes, and everything else baby (who knew one little person could cost so much!). We struggled for a while, but as I worked at iMoneyCoach I began to learn so much about budgeting and being able to stay on top of our finances. I learned that it wasn’t easy, but that we could make it. After a few months of tracking and adjusting our budget, we were able to pay off all our remaining debt (including the last portion of our 2 car loans and my student loans) and start saving money.

Over the past nearly 3 years our budget has continued to change. As my daughter grows she needs new clothes and different toys, and we want to provide fun and educational experiences for her. While I continue to be a thrifty shopper and watch out for great deals like FREE days at the zoo and museums, I continue to learn new ways to save money and still be able to enjoy life. We have now added a son to our family, so some days it can seem like a real challenge to work on our finances, but we do it not only for ourselves, but to leave a legacy and help our kids learn to handle their money well.

Here are some of those ways to keep up with your budget when you have kids:

• Garage sales are your friend – We have found a number of great toys and clothes at garage sales that we would have paid a fortune for elsewhere. This includes a really nice Radio Flyer purple tricycle for only $2 (savings of roughly $43).
• Neighbors are your friends too – Across the street there is a couple with a daughter about 1 year older than mine. They are done having children, so every time she moves up a clothes size they bring over bags with all her old clothes. This has saved us TONS of money. So talk to people you know. They may be looking to get rid of their old clothes and might be happy to share them with you. Always be sure to be grateful. And it wouldn’t hurt to give them a gift card for a night out or bake cookies for them once in a while to show your appreciation.
• Boxes and strings make great toys – It can be so hard to resist buying all the latest and greatest toys for your child. But remember that it is OK to let them play with the simple things. Building a fort out of boxes inspires imagination and creativity.
• Make meals you can freeze – I was shocked at how much our grocery bill went up when our daughter started eating meals with us. This was because we were trying to eat healthier, meaning more veggies and less pre-packaged food. I found that a good way to control that grocery bill is to cook a lot of a meal at one time so we can have it for dinner right away and freeze some for a later meal. This works especially well with casserole-type meals.
• Head to the library – My husband and I are avid readers. This has rubbed off on our daughter. For a while there we thought we were going to go crazy reading the same books 500 times. We joke that we’ll never forget the words to Each Peach Pear Plum or The Belly Button Book. But we realized quickly that to keep up with her, we needed to start heading to the library. Now we check out roughly 12-15 books a week and read them several times – then we get to take them back and pick out something new. And it’s all FREE! We’ve checked out nearly 550 books in one year of trips to the library alone. Great money saver!

So I’d like to take a second here and encourage you in your parenting and finances. Having children is a huge blessing. It’s also a huge responsibility and can threaten to blow your finances out of the water. But you can make it! And you can find financial success.

If you have some more ideas on saving money when you have kids, please share them!