Trim Costs

As we mentioned with our earliest point, look at categories that are made up of more ‘wants’ than ‘needs’. You don’t have to give up on certain spending habits, you can just switch things up to make them more budget-friendly.

Are you used to dining out with friends and family? Organize lunches or dinners at your house instead. You’ll spend less money if you cook at home and shop for sales and discounts. At the end of the day, even if you’re not out in the city you’re still spending time with your loved ones.

We mention this because dining out is a drain on many, many budgets. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to save money while shopping, so you’ll save double the money. Buying in bulk and using e-mail coupons are just two ways of making this work.

Do you have Netflix, Hulu, or other subscription services? Then you could either cancel those or cancel your cable. What’s the use of spending money on both?

But remember that such adjustments shouldn’t always fall on the parents. Large families need everyone to work together in order to make this work. We’ve met families that saved money by cutting down on the kids’ pocket money by making them work part-time jobs when they were old enough. They didn’t ask their kids to contribute to their savings, but not having to give them any extra money (save for school supplies and necessities) certainly helped!

Just remember, tired parents, are least likely to hold on to a budget. You might feel like you need to throw money at a problem in order to fix it. This also falls into the ‘trim expenses’ category. Look for affordable ways to fix your problems, even if it means talking to everyone at home, kids included, about the responsibility of being conscious about money. You’d be surprised by how much money you could save if everyone was just a little more responsible.