Creativity and experience are good bed-follows in sleeping soundly. You know that at the end of the 6-day work, you've managed your spending, paying bills, food on the table and a little money for luxury set aside. I'm talking about sleeping sweetly after a day's work providing for a family of ten human beings. That's a whole lot of mouths to feed and bodies to clothed. And hearts and souls to provide love and security for. How do you do it? There are a other families I know with 11 children. And they are happy and healthy. Okay here we go. 7 doable tips to save money with a large family: 1. Allot fortnightly allowance money for each child and yourself. Younger ones do not 'need' allowance money. Thankfully. Older children can spend their own money for items they want to buy for gifts to whoever they wish to give on special occasions. Sometimes, they want to get some little collections special for their keepsakes. But, through time, they've learned to wait and realize when the money is there in their hands, they wouldn't want to spend it. But instead, save. Allowance day is always a celebration day to fill those piggy banks every two weeks. 2. Limit eating out. Instead, plan a home-cooked dish using a slow-cooker. It's always tempting to eat out, especially when Mom is tired from a day of outing with children, and she doesn't feel like cooking anymore. 3. Turn off your TV. If you don't have one, the better. Commercials do make their campaign ads very convincing. You get the picture how companies spend millions of dollars for commercials? 4. Keep a cash budget on food and groceries. And not spend extras with your credit card. If you use credit cards for groceries, do it if that works better for you to control your spending. 4. Convert all your light features to LED lighting bulbs. We changed our light bulbs to fluorescent. But LED bulbs use lesser power WATTS. 5. All lights off by 10 pm. 6. Budget weekly expenses including petrol/gas and car maintenance. You know your financial status. You've done well with living within your means and looking after your car, as well, when necessary. 7. Think twice or more reviewing your hobby collection. If your at-the-moment eyeing for that latest camera, even from a second-hand-in-very-good-condition, think again. Review your budget. If there's no way you could fit the bid-money for a good camera-- don't buy it. At least for now, until every bill, every credit has been paid off. I hope that went well. I'm sure you have more suggestions. For now, these simple tips have work as we go along with our life as a large family.
That's nice work. Unfortunately, I don't see all of those as do-able. I'm mostly referring to number 5. There is no way that all the lights and power are going off here by 10 p.m. My family is too busy. More than one of our family members doesn't even return from work by then and I am often up and working online at that hour as well. Thanks for your tips though. There are many good ones, and I'm sure they will prove helpful to many people.
You are right about #5. At least, lights off for children. And Mom's "burning lamp" stays until late at night. Online freelance work is another way to help make money, to add to the savings. Thanks for that!
Some nice tips there. However, some of them depend on each individual's lifestyles, needs and priorities. For me, changing over to LED is a good one and not overusing credit cards is good as well. But I can't avoid my car and I keep working after 10 pm. But, yes! I agree in principle to keep practising austerity in our daily life and savings have become a must in an unsure world.
I'm not sure whether I support the giving of "fortnightly allowance" because this method would ultimately depend on the children's ability to save (peer pressure may end up draining their bi-monthly allowance in a matter of days). My parents used to give us our allowance on a daily basis and because of that we're forced to save every ounce of penny in our pockets everyday and avoid spending beyond our means. On another note, switching to LED technology - including lights, TV, computer and laptop - will definitely boost your household savings.
One tip I always think gets missed is to NOT drive everywhere! When I was going to school, I always had to walk or ride my bike. It's crazy these days all these kids get driven to school by their parents! That's just making kids fat, lazy and adding a big drain on your finances. If you live close enough not to get bus service, then please don't drive them too school. Do not listen to the media, it is NOT a more dangerous world out there. In fact society is actually at its safest point in history.
