Life is expensive. And it seems to get more expensive every year, especially when you have a family.
If you are searching for some tips on how to keep your spending low and your savings high as a family, look no further than this handy blog.
What is your favourite tip of them all? Leave us a comment below and tell us what you think.
Track Your Income and Expenses
When we want to work on our finances, we need to know exactly what is coming in and what is going out.
We can’t budget correctly if we don’t know how much money we actually have.
Take a day to make a simple spreadsheet of your incoming and outgoing money.
This will include income for each adult in the house, and then tax, housing, cars, bills, subscriptions, grocery shopping, and leisure spending.
Putting everything out there in one visual space will really help you figure out where all your money is going.
It is a great way to be accountable for how much you are spending, and it is really helpful in knowing where to start if you need to cut down.
Do Free Activities as Much as Possible
When we have kids we can end up spending quite a lot on activities and entertainment for them.
Especially after the Pandemic, these things have gotten more expensive than ever.
If you want to regularly save money and have fun on a budget, try and pick free or heavily discounted entertainment choices whenever you can.
Go back to basics and go for walks, hikes, and swims in the sea.
Try local museums and libraries.
Have movie nights and game nights at home.
Create a DIY obstacle course for your kids at home.
Be creative and mix things up, and you will be able to have just as much fun for free as you would at pay-to-play locations.
Have a Savings Account
Have a good savings account. Shop around for the ones offering the best interest, and make your decision wisely.
You can have a savings account with a different bank to the one you usually use, and you don’t have to pick the first one you see.
Make sure that your savings are in a good place and that they are earning more money over time.
It’s easy to be complacent about things like this, but making the best decision really stands the test of time.
Cull Unnecessary Spendings
When you are reviewing all of your spending, make sure to cull any unnecessary spending habits.
Subscriptions are a great place to start with this. Many of us have subscriptions coming out of our accounts that we have completely forgotten about, or that we don’t get nearly enough use of to be worth it.
Go through and unsubscribe from everything you don’t use, and you can save yourself $30+ a month, easily.
Your money is very often swooshing off to useless places right under your nose.
Catch them all early.
Be Realistic
Whenever we are in budgetting mode we can think that the more money saved the better.
Which is true, but we also need to build a sustainable saving model that will work well in the longterm.
Having things like “no spend days” isn’t very realistic, and can cause you to be more disappointed with yourself when you don’t meet these targets.
Focus on limiting your spending and maximising your savings, but remember to still enjoy your money and buy treats every now and again.
Budgetting isn’t meant to be miserable.