Nowadays cost of living is constantly going up.
Rising cost of living puts pressure on families and parents look for clever ways to save money.
We can not talk about children’s full potential,
when families struggle to maintain living standards and cover children’s basic needs.
Real families have shared their best money saving tips.
This post is all about money saving tips.
Find below the tips that you haven’t tried yet!
Educate yourself
- Read books, such as ‘The barefoot investor’. It can be a game changer.
- Learn more about minimalistic life style and the benefits of it.
- Join groups such as ‘Mums on a budget – Australia’, ‘budget and investing groups on FB such as ‘Frugal ways to FIRE in Australia – a Budget and Investing group for all’.
Get organised
- Categorise expenses as want, need and renegotiate.
- Track all spendings (e.g. on Excel) and tweak it regularly.
- Meal preparation on the weekends, especially if you work full-time.
- Build a bigger food pantry.
- Clean up your storage/food pantry regularly.
Groceries
- Buy in bulk (e.g. Costco).
- Do groceries online: you can see the balance of what you are spending and take advantage of online only sales. Do ‘click and collect’ to avoid delivery fees.
- Write a meal plan and include easy dinners for the nights after work you can’t be bothered, so you will avoid eating out or ordering food.
- Save part of the grocery budget for incidentals during the week, like bread and milk.
- Buy the expensive items, like meat, first.
- Get fruit and vegetables from a separate shop (not the supermarket) or swap to canned or frozen veggies.
- Use farmers markets, they have cheaper and fresher products. So it will be less waste at the end for you!
- Freeze mince in 300g lots instead of 500g. You’ll barely notice the difference!
- Buy in season produce!
- Switch to block cheese instead of grated cheese bags.
Cooking
- Cook bulk meals and freeze leftovers.
- Cut back on some treats or alternate how often.
- Don’t buy snacks. Prepare your own snacks at home!
- Bake your own desserts.
- Make your own bread.
- Make lots of soups, stews, easy pies.
- Find fun ways to jazz up steamed rice e.g. Mexican rice, Turkish rice, fried rice.
- Use a slow cooker.
- Find substitutes (e.g. egg substitutes).
General tips
- Research and shop for specials – buy 2 of things half price. It might be time consuming, however you can save lots of money.
- Walk or ride a bike if you can, rather than driving everywhere.
- Turn off unnecessary lights and unplug appliances. It is estimated that you could save 10% every month, when you unplug appliances not in use.
- Don’t buy things if you are unsure that you need them.
- Get second hand items (such as toys, clothes, gadgets) when possible.
- Sell off what you don’t need.
- Get home brand of most things.
- Get a coffee machine, such as Virtuosa Plus.
- Buy laundry powder and liquids from companies. You can get a year’s worth of laundry powder and liquids much cheaper than supermarkets. The same goes with toilet paper, nappies and other products.
- Shop around on utilities, insurance, phone and internet plans.
- Swap paid outings for free or cheaper activities. You might be able to find free activities in your area online.
- Look at your subscriptions, e.g. Amazon, Netflix.
- Pay bills weekly or fortnightly automatically, so you can avoid unpaid bills at the end of month.
- Have chickens for eggs.
- Install solar systems on your roof.
- Rug up, when it’s cold. Have the air con set at 21 degrees in winter on eco mode.
- Check if your electricity company offers off-peak hours fees. If it does, you can use dishwasher, washing machine, dryer during off-peak hours to save money.
- Working from home (no commuting, preparation of meals and snacks etc).
How to include your child in a saving-money activity?
Create your own vegetable garden
This is a great experience for children. You can start small with vegetables in egg cartoons and then plant them in the garden or pots. Some vegetables that are easy to grow are: carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, capsicum, pumkin, zucchini, beetroot, corn, strawberries. Also, you can look for local seed library, where seed packets are shared for free! Start looking for information on your local community pages. For more details, check our post about baby safe plants and planting for kids.
In another post we were discussing how we can help children reach their full potential.
One of the first thing that parents need to do is to cover basic needs, such as food, water, shelter, warmth, rest and health.
A good family budget is important for parents to be able to focus on
fostering crucial skills in your children and enjoying more quality time with them.
This post was all about clever ways to save money for your family!
Real families shared with us their tested and approved ways to save money.
Write below which tips you haven’t heard before and you are going to try!
