Adventures in Budgeting
Whether it's cut backs at work, becoming a one income family, or you have hit a spot where you just have a ton of debt (medical or otherwise) and want to unload it quickly, it's always an adventure navigating those changes in our budgets. One of the first places we look for room in the budget is our grocery money, but if you are like me and have a larger than average family, then that's not always the easiest thing to do while feeding growing children nutritious meals.
Presently, my husband and I are dealing with cut backs at work. We relied heavily on overtime pay for a long time to get us from one paycheck to the next. We decided we have had enough of that stress. I am a homeschooling mama so we are already a one income family. We sat down, went through all the bills and what was an absolute need and what could go. I hope this helps give you ideas of areas you can save. It doesn't have to be permanent, but just during your season of need. Here's what we decided:
1. Dropping my husband's commuter vehicle saving us $250/mth in payments and insurance.
We expect more will be saved simply by staying home.
2. Dropping organized sports/ church clubs/ Trail life, and all evening activities (my husband works second shift so this was necessary) This will save us $300 a year in activity fees. It also saves us on fundraisers (we usually only sold to one grandparent and ourselves), money spent eating out when time is crunched because of scheduling issues, extra activities that we did with those groups, sports equipment, and lots and lots of gas. I promise there was a time people survived and even thrived without all this busyness. In fact, many studies are now showing that kids are overbooked and have too much pressure on them with not enough opportunity to just be a kid and develop their own imaginations.
3. Dropping our Mother's Day Out program for my little four year old. He loves it and it has been good for him, but it costs us $140/mth. As a homeschooling mama, I can be home with him and teach him all the prek things he needs to know, and in fact, I already do when he is home the other three days of the week. It has been nice, but our budget is demanding some changes so this is one we have decided to live without.
4. Dropping the art classes. I have two little boys that love, love, love art, but it's expensive as a homeschooler to be involved in art classes. Music lessons are $80/mth a kid, and art classes run $20/mth per kid. We found a great curriculum for art that will be using next year for my art lovers. We are also going to have the boys learn to use their natural instruments through the church youth choir (their voices) for FREE. That's right. Most churches have no fee for a child to participate in the youth choir and it's an excellent way for them to learn basic music concepts. I have also bought the Alfred's for beginners piano booklets so that I can teach my interested boys piano.
5. We are adding library free days and story times. We just saw the movie Small Foot for free with complimentary popcorn at the library this past Saturday. My boys had a great time and it was no cost to us. We also enjoyed the free admission day at the local Discovery Center this week. Many historical sites and science centers will have days they offer free or reduced price during the year. Follow their social media pages to get updates on when these days come up. We are also adding family hikes on the weekends, two camping trips this year, fishing trips, etc on Saturdays when my husband will not be working. It's free to hike many state parks, and camping reservations are really inexpensive. We have some beautiful state parks near us. Don't underestimate the free things you can do as a family. Pack a picnic lunch and head out to enjoy God's natural wonders.
They were sweaty from playing at the park before the Movies Under The Stars free event at our local park.
Free Day at the State Museum
Free Polar Express event at a church near us. They had so much fun.
This was a free Heritage Days event at our local Civil War historical site. The boys learned a lot, and really enjoyed seeing the reenactments.
So my point here is, that we don't have to spend a lot of money on our kids and family to have a good time. I have found that when we slow down, cut back on all the extra activities on the regular basis, we enjoy even more the things we get to do when the time comes around to do them. We also are much calmer and closer as a family. My boys make great playmates, but when we run around, place to place all the time, the whole family gets a little irritated. So, if you need to cut back expenses and you have done everything you can with your food budget and the normal things people tell you to cut back on, then maybe consider some of the things I listed above.
Presently, my husband and I are dealing with cut backs at work. We relied heavily on overtime pay for a long time to get us from one paycheck to the next. We decided we have had enough of that stress. I am a homeschooling mama so we are already a one income family. We sat down, went through all the bills and what was an absolute need and what could go. I hope this helps give you ideas of areas you can save. It doesn't have to be permanent, but just during your season of need. Here's what we decided:
1. Dropping my husband's commuter vehicle saving us $250/mth in payments and insurance.
We expect more will be saved simply by staying home.
2. Dropping organized sports/ church clubs/ Trail life, and all evening activities (my husband works second shift so this was necessary) This will save us $300 a year in activity fees. It also saves us on fundraisers (we usually only sold to one grandparent and ourselves), money spent eating out when time is crunched because of scheduling issues, extra activities that we did with those groups, sports equipment, and lots and lots of gas. I promise there was a time people survived and even thrived without all this busyness. In fact, many studies are now showing that kids are overbooked and have too much pressure on them with not enough opportunity to just be a kid and develop their own imaginations.
4. Dropping the art classes. I have two little boys that love, love, love art, but it's expensive as a homeschooler to be involved in art classes. Music lessons are $80/mth a kid, and art classes run $20/mth per kid. We found a great curriculum for art that will be using next year for my art lovers. We are also going to have the boys learn to use their natural instruments through the church youth choir (their voices) for FREE. That's right. Most churches have no fee for a child to participate in the youth choir and it's an excellent way for them to learn basic music concepts. I have also bought the Alfred's for beginners piano booklets so that I can teach my interested boys piano.
5. We are adding library free days and story times. We just saw the movie Small Foot for free with complimentary popcorn at the library this past Saturday. My boys had a great time and it was no cost to us. We also enjoyed the free admission day at the local Discovery Center this week. Many historical sites and science centers will have days they offer free or reduced price during the year. Follow their social media pages to get updates on when these days come up. We are also adding family hikes on the weekends, two camping trips this year, fishing trips, etc on Saturdays when my husband will not be working. It's free to hike many state parks, and camping reservations are really inexpensive. We have some beautiful state parks near us. Don't underestimate the free things you can do as a family. Pack a picnic lunch and head out to enjoy God's natural wonders.
So my point here is, that we don't have to spend a lot of money on our kids and family to have a good time. I have found that when we slow down, cut back on all the extra activities on the regular basis, we enjoy even more the things we get to do when the time comes around to do them. We also are much calmer and closer as a family. My boys make great playmates, but when we run around, place to place all the time, the whole family gets a little irritated. So, if you need to cut back expenses and you have done everything you can with your food budget and the normal things people tell you to cut back on, then maybe consider some of the things I listed above.
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