Do you constantly find that you don’t have the amount of money you want to spend on your kids? If so, then it might be worth looking at some simple budgeting ideas for families like these so you can start saving a little more.
This is a collaborative post.
Here are the 5 ideas that we have had for you that are worth exploring:
Insurance: Do an audit
First, let’s think about insurance. You probably have a few different insurance plans including life insurance, home insurance and car insurance. But are you paying the right amount for these policies? It’s possible that there are better deals available to you on the market which you should explore. In doing so, you can guarantee that your monthly bills are a little less. You should check that your insurance policies aren’t set to auto renew each year so that you are provided with the opportunity to switch to a better deal when your policy term ends.
Energy: Think green
Next, let’s consider how to save a little extra money on energy around your home. This is important, particularly when you explore reports which suggest that energy costs are rising throughout the year. The best way to handle this is by investing in greener solutions for your home. This could include upgrading your tech or perhaps exploring renewable solutions such as solar panels. While these will come with a significant upfront cost, they’ll pay for themselves in just a couple of years.
Car fuel: Change your driving habits
You might also want to try saving a little more money on car fuel. There are a few ways that you can do this which work quite well. For instance, you might want to think about changing your driving habits. Certain driving habits use more fuel than others and they also lead to more dangers on the road. For instance, harsh or firm braking will cause your car to bleed fuel. It also means that you are not looking far enough ahead while driving. You may also wish to consider emptying the trunk of your car of all the junk that you have collected over the last few months. More weight will mean you are using a lot more fuel in general.
Subscriptions: Have a clear out!
It’s fair to say that the world today is filled with subscriptions. We subscribe to shopping services, to streaming solutions and various other possibilities that take money out of our account each month. The problem is that little by little these subscriptions are draining bank accounts and you may have active subscriptions that no longer fit your life at all. Indeed, you could be paying for things that you have forgotten about completely. Companies are relying on this type of behavior. However, if you cancel these unused and unwanted subscriptions you can save a little more money every month. There are apps you can use which make it easy to track and manage your active subscriptions.
Meal planning: get ahead budgeting ideas for families
First and foremost, don’t go food shopping hungry – this won’t help with those impulse buys. The best ideas is to know what you are going to cook for the week, and then you can play exactly what you need to get, and think about low cost alternatives as you are going around the supermarket. Is there an own brand alternative? Can you buy a slightly bigger version of whatever you are interested in, and plan to use the remainder either in something else that week, or make a note to use it for the next weekly meal plan! If you need to take a look at meal planning ideas, we have some to help you get started, including a six weekly meal plan for families.
We hope this helps you understand some of the key steps that you can take to ensure that you do have a little more money available to spend on the kids each year. How you spend this extra cash is up to you. You could put it towards trips away, little treats or gifts during the festive season.
Do take a look at some of the other budgeting ideas for families we have on the site too if you have time:
Budgeting content on KiddyCharts
Here are some other ideas about budgeting on our site - why not go and take a look?
Simple tips for budgeting when you are starting a family
Ideas for budgeting when you are looking to start a family.
4 rules to live by for feeding a family on a budget
Great rules to live by when you are feeding a family to a tight budget.
Six week family meal plan
An amazing six week meal plan to help you with your budgeting - we KNOW this will make a massive difference to you all.
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Take care and thanks so much for stopping by as well.
Helen
Helen
Helen is a mum to two, social media consultant, and website editor; and this site is (we think) the only Social Enterprise parenting magazine! Since giving up being a business analyst when juggling travel, work and kids proved too complicated, she founded KiddyCharts so she could be with her kids, and use those grey cells at the same time. KiddyCharts has reach of over 1.1million across social and the site. The blog works with big family brands (including travel) to help promote their services, as well as offering free resources to parents of kids under 10. It gives 51%+ profits to Reverence for Life, who fund a number of important initiatives in Africa, including bringing running water and basic equipment to a school in Tanzania. Helen has worked as a digital marketing consultant (IDM qualified) with various organisations, including Channel Mum, Truprint, Talk to Mums, and Micro Scooters. She loves to be creative in the brand campaigns she works on. Get in touch TODAY!