Leading a frugal lifestyle can be difficult at the best of times, but having a family can make it seem like an impossible feat. After all, everyone knows that kids are expensive and while denying them certain luxuries may help your account balance, it can also make you feel like a bad parent even though in reality that is far from true.
However, it is possible to keep the whole family satisfied and save money if you follow some basic guidelines. It’s really not that difficult, but you have to learn to be creative and start thinking outside the box. This is why we are bringing you the top five tips on boosting your budget and how to become both a happy and frugal family.
Earn money online
In the modern world, there are countless ways to make additional money that don’t include getting a second full job or selling off your valuables. Thanks to the internet, these opportunities are just a mouse click away. If you are wondering how to get paid online, it can be as easy as sitting back in your chair and doing surveys while sipping a cup of coffee on your break or early in the morning when you are making breakfast for the kids. Alternatively, you can become a freelance proofreader, product reviewer, website/application tester or choose any of the other numerous online jobs that you can easily do even with a busy family schedule.
Jo and Leisa (and a million others), choose to make money online as bloggers. Check out how you can become one too.
Remove unwanted charges
A lot of people tend to glance over their credit and debit card statements and only notice suspicious charges if they involve large sums of money while ignoring small amounts such as membership fees or magazine subscriptions that are automatically renewed every year and continue to be charged even though you may not realize it. A few dollars here and there doesn’t sound much, but they add up and over the course of a year can end up costing you several hundreds of dollars, which is why it’s important to review your statements in detail and get rid of these charges as soon as possible.
Get rid of spam mail
We are bombarded daily with countless emails that contain various offers, catalogues and notifications on flash sales we never really asked for in the first place. And while most of the time we simply ignore or delete them, sometimes temptation gets the better of us and we end up spending our hard earned money on something we don’t really need. It’s best to remove temptation from the equation and unsubscribe from any mailing lists you don’t need. However, some email accounts get flooded with so much spam that it’s easier to set up a second account that you will only use for personal and professional correspondence and take steps to avoid receiving spam in the future.
Shop at second-hand stores
Second-hand stores may have a bit of a stigma attached to them, but in reality, they are excellent money savers when it comes to buying clothes, particularly for children. Think about it, kids either wear out or grow out of their clothes quite quickly, so there’s no need to buy them clothes at overpriced stores if they will end up getting them dirty and/or torn while playing anyway. You can even find nicer clothes that they can wear for special occasions for a fraction of the price of what you would pay in a regular shop.
I have been known to get quite a few really good items of clothing, furniture, and other household items from second-hand stores.
Stay motivated
A good way to stay motivated when you feel you are wavering is to set up a reward for sticking to your budget as an incentive. For example, once or twice a month you can take your family to a restaurant and treat yourselves to a nice meal, but only if you’ve met your budget goals. You can find a lot of family-friendly restaurants that won’t charge you an arm and a leg which means your reward won’t become counterproductive. This gives you something to look forward to each month and serves as quality family time.
You are free to choose as a family, what type of rewards you will use. You can even save up rewards for bigger and better thing like holidays away, even.
This is a guest post that has been kindly contributed by Claire Adams.
Love your suggestions! I’m really good about ignoring mostof my junk emails but sometimes once will catch my attention and i am out $100 just like that. I just need to unsubscribe from them!
Thank you for your great post to help me increase my income.
Just love these tips! I already all of the above 🙂 But especially love staying motivated by sticking to my budget. This has been so helpful in boosting my budget. Thanks so much for sharing xx
These are really great tips that I would follow through on.
These are great tip, will introduce some of them in my business management and I will hopefully get results.
Good luck with the business management and do feel free to stop by again.
A good reminder post. Your last, is actually not the least suggestion – staying motivated. Personally we feel, once this is there, everything else would also somehow fall in place too.. sooner or later.
So true. Thanks for checking out this post and do come back again.
The spam mail trick is so key – great advice! I can totally vouch for it because I am such a sucker for offers so when I cleaned out my subscriptions, I saved a lot from not online shopping.
You got this. Exactly what I mean in this post! Well done you.
Nice! The article is really helpful. Thank you so much for sharing this. I’ll follow it and will get back to you to tell you how much I’ve saved.
Nice! this tips could help a lot and also have a motivation can make you success. thanks for sharing!
The best way to boost your income is to work hard! Hard work is always rewarded.
Wise tips you got here…… Saving at the tge same time earning….. A mark of a true frugal…..
Great thoughtful tips for frugal living. Thanks.
So many awesome tips! I saved so much money once I unsubscribed from all the junk emails. It seems I’m incapable of clicking away from half price shoes.
I’m glad you won the battle
To others, saving may be so easy, to some not. No matter how big or how small one’s income can be, I hope they learn the value of saving. Thanks for such a wonderful read.
You’re so welcome. Thanks for stopping by
Thanks for sharing these great tips. These are really great ideas. I need to work on spam emais.
some great tips, definitely needed this to remind me there is more I could be doing to help myself x
Great tips, I recently did an audit of all of charges, and it was amazing all of the unncessary charges we were able to eliminate!
It’s a good idea to keep doing those audits, and also to get rid of the unnecessary charges
Very great tips. The stay motivated gets me. Thank you for sharing!
These are really good idea! Thanks for your trips
Hhhhmmmmmm….this is nnniiicceeeeee, Joleisa! I love them. I tried them out, last year and did save quite a lot. At the end of the year, I went away on a trip, to Tanzania and can never forget this.