Raising children can be an incredibly fulfilling, life-changing experience, but it can also be an expensive one. One report finds that in the UK, the act of raising a child can cost over £150,000 for a couple and £200,000 for a single parent. These are potentially unnerving figures for any parent or potential parent to read.

There are so many costs associated with raising kids, from food to shelter to childcare to education. The list is endless. However financially secure you are, raising a child can severely cut into your monthly budget and leave you reeling at how much you are required to spend. Luckily there are several ways of cutting that monthly budget so that you are able to raise a child in a more comfortable, and financially secure manner.

But can you save money, even though raising a family is such a huge expense?

Financial planning is the answer to all parents’ prayers because that’s how children learn to appreciate money more.

That’s why we decided to share the best household tips for saving money, especially while your children are too young to earn themselves. All these tips are very simple and effective, and maybe you have practiced something of it already.

Create a Budget

First things first, creating a family budget (check here). Tracking your ingoings and outgoings through a monthly budget is a surefire way to better understand your financial situation. Not only this but laying out exactly what and how you spend will help you find creative ways of trimming and cutting back on spending.

A common method for standardizing your monthly budget is the 50-30-20 rule. 50% on necessities, 30% on wants, and 20% on savings. While this can be a really advantageous rule of thumb, remember to keep your budget flexible enough to account for any unexpected bills or expenses.

If your child or children are old enough, consider including them in budget planning meetings. This will allow them to learn a degree of financial literacy, as well as understand why they can’t just grab the latest toy off the shelf and demand that it is bought.

But why?

As you suppose, budgeting is such an essential skill for everyone to learn. No matter how high your income is, you need to know how to budget properly. As you do that, your children learn how to appreciate every dollar spent and get the most out of the value.

This way, they’ll learn that a bottle of fizzy drink is fine, but the same money can buy enough food for one meal. Put that thing into perspective, your children understand, and they will get financially aware pretty early.

Check on your Service Providers

This is an often overlooked element of household spending. Many households just assume that the money they are spending on energy, internet, and heating cannot be adjusted. This is a mistake.

Consider, then, calling your service providers to see if you can get a better deal. If you tell them that you are considering leaving, they may even be able to sort you a better deal on your service. If that is not possible, shop around. See if any of their competitors offer similar services for less money per month.

No success with this? Check exactly what the money you are spending is going towards. For example, you might find you are paying for a premium wifi service that your family simply doesn’t need. You may find that you are paying for extra TV channels that no one in the family even watches.

Finally, when it comes to your energy usage, find creative ways of cutting back. For example, switch all electrical appliances off when you’re not using them, rather than leaving them on standby. Or, if you can, illuminate your home with natural light rather than reaching for the light switch.

Food Shopping

Expenditure on food and groceries is one of the most flexible aspects of any family budget. So it is essential that you find money-saving tips when it comes to doing the weekly shopping run.

There are an endless amount of tips when it comes to saving on food. These can include

• Creating a strict shopping list so you are not tempted to purchase impulse items
• Finding coupons and sourcing deals so you are always getting the best price
• Saving by buying in bulk and meal prepping for the week
• Buying generic items rather than brand name
• Finding budget recipes
• Finding recipes that make the most of your leftovers

Food is, of course, essential. But finding ways of making your food go further can leave you saving much more than you’d think.

So, how to do it? Can you be even smarter than you’re already?

We mentioned some interesting tips on saving money on food, but you can take the whole game a step further. There are many online resources on how to reuse food waste or even make compost of leftover organic food.

Also, you can join a recycling program and show them how the food packages may have a second life, as well as water bottles or other things we use to protect the food.

And finally, cooking at home and cooking the exact amount of food you need for the meal to avoid food waste. Food waste awareness is a great way to teach your children how to optimize their expenses and save money in the future.

Do you think this is possible?

Do you like tactics allowing your child to learn that saving money is important in life? Financial literacy starts in childhood. If you don’t teach your child the value of money at a young age, he won’t know how to appreciate it in the future either.

Explain that someone invests time and effort in order for that money to enter the family budget and then distributes it according to where it is most needed. As you can see, it is enough for you to be financially literate and aware and know how to manage money.

In this way, you can very easily transfer the habits to the younger generations and be an example of how these things are done correctly.

Conclusion

Here ends our article that helped you make children financially literate and teach them how to appreciate the money they earn. We hope that you have found useful information and that you will finally be able to deal with all your money-related challenges.

In fact, try to apply all these tips that we have for you first. That way, you could pass on experience yourself, not just advice you learned from an article on the internet.

Only in this way would you set an example that the child will follow and be able to copy in the best possible way.