Budgeting can be tricky no matter what stage of life you are in - but it definitely becomes extremely important when you have a family to look after. Living within your means is something we all have to learn at some point in our lives. When you’re young and carefree, there’s less of an impact when you overspend by a little from month to month, but consequences begin to pile up when you have young ones to feed, and futures to save for. So here are a few budgeting tips and financial advice for your family households!
1) Know Your Goals & Track Your Spending
Saying “I’m going to start saving” is simply not enough, if you don’t take actions to follow this through. You have to take steps towards achieving your goals, which involves knowing what you are saving for! Matt Boxer from GPA Financial Planning Pty Ltd shares more on this:
“If sticking to a budget was as simple as downloading an app or filling in a spreadsheet then saving money (the entire point of budgeting) would be easy. Unfortunately it is not. Our actions are driven by subconscious motivation to achieve pleasure or avoid pain. You need to take advantage of this in your savings strategy. Know exactly the reasons why you are saving. Not a general concept but something specific like a family holiday to Queenstown in 2019 costing $7500, or at age 65 you would like to have $1,000 a week to live a dignified and enjoyable retirement. You then need to prove to yourself if you stick to the budget you will achieve those goals. Your subconscious needs to know that when you sacrifice something you want now, you get something even better in the future.
There you have it- planning is everything! To find out more, check out GPA Financial on Facebook!
2) Save Money On Kids And Babies Products
When you are shopping for products, realise what is essential and what isn’t. For example, prams are absolutely essential for young ones! With other equipment, that is more recreational - make sure you are shopping for good quality products that will last you a good while. Browse outdoor playsets for kids online and you’ll discover a host of awesome products to keep your little ones entertained as they grow up!
3) Try Out New Ways To Save Money
Here are just a couple of tips on how you can save money, contributed by Peter Horsfield, that you should try out if you’re looking to save a substantial amount of money over time:
· Instead of buying books join a library. Libraries today have way more than books; they have DVDs, newspapers, free internet, books of course. Free. Savings estimated $250 pa+
· Make lunch with from previous dinner and bring to work. Savings estimated $2,500 pa+
· If you live close enough to walk/run/ride to work or public transport, only use the car on weekends or alternatively car share. Savings estimated $1,000 pa+
· Ensure bank accounts, credit cards have no annual fees or ATM withdrawal fees, only withdraw from Banks ATM or affiliates so not to attract transaction fees. Savings estimated $250 pa+”
To find out more about being smart when saving - find Peter’s company on Facebook!
4) Be Smart When You Shop
Experts on money and families from Ms Frugal Ears have shared a few tips on shopping with us, and how you can shop smart - to get the most for what you’re paying for!
“Buy online to get the best discounts. Shop around and get the best bargains. An advantage of online shopping for busy parents is that you don’t need to leave the house. It has been minus eight and minus seven here over the last weekend in Canberra, the coldest weekend in twenty years. It is a perfect weekend for staying in and avoiding the cold.
When you do take the kids shopping, involve them. When we go shopping, I show the kids my shopping list, and I ask them to be accountable for getting key things like milk and bread. I talk about what we ‘need’ versus what we ‘want’. I also talk about what is unhealthy versus healthy food. We compare prices, and they have become good at monitoring the unit price of items. They know, for example, that a block of cheddar cheese is cheaper per unit than pre shredded cheese.”
For more great tips - check out the company on Facebook!
Added Bonus: How To Get Covered By Forbes, Huffpost and TechCrunch on a $0 budget.
As an added bonus/tip, we’ve included advice from Rosh Govindaraj (issara.co) for all you aspiring writer and editors out there (a great profession for parents with careers)!
“WHO TO WRITE TO:
1. Create a “media list” based on your target market. Think about where your customers hang out, what they read, what their interests are and pick the blogs, websites, newspapers and magazines accordingly.
2. Identify writers from these publications who are most likely to be interested in your story by browsing said publications. For example we picked out writers whose articles in the past touched on minimal design, ethical fashion, and social enterprises. Find their email address on the contact page, LinkedIn or guess it based on the url structure. It is usually firstnamelastname@ or something along those lines. Use verify-email.org to confirm that the email address exists.
3. Use the Rapportive app (works with gmail to show you a little business card of the person that email address is linked to) to find out more about them so you can tailor your pitch.
4. Sign up to journorequests and sourcebottle: these are daily newsletters listing journalists who want particular stories or bloggers who want to collaborate. I make a point of reading them daily and responding right away to potential story opportunities.
WHAT TO WRITE:
1. Know who you’re writing to - name (duh), past articles, topics they like to cover and work this into your first 2 sentences.
2. Pitch a story idea - not just a product or business. What have you learnt in your journey that their audience can benefit from/would be interested in learning?
3. Write about you as an individual, keep it conversational yet polite. Don’t hard sell or use sales-y language. This is not your press release.
4. Keep the email succinct (2-3 paragraphs are sufficient), add one photo in the body (something to capture their attention!) and don’t send large attachments. You want to be respectful. I include my media kit as a dropbox link.
5. Include all contact details including social media links in your email signature.
6. Get their attention on multiple platforms (especially twitter) so they are more likely to open your email and respond. I follow them on twitter and send a quick tweet or DM as soon as I send an email.
WHEN TO WRITE:
1. Before lunch on Tuesdays -Thursdays. Mondays and Fridays are too hectic.
2. Consider lead times for print (8-12 weeks) versus online (immediate - 4 weeks). Just get in super early if you're targeting print media.”
To find out more, check out the company on Facebook!
So there you have it - employ these piece of advice and you’ll be saving money in no time at all!
