Parenting On a Budget

Lifestyle

by Lamar Tyler | on February 3rd, 2010 | 9 comments

It’s been a while since we revisited this subject but times are still tough for a lot of folks. Whether you are just mildly cutting back or ready to join a family budget boot camp we’d like to know what you are doing. Tell us what you’re doing in the areas listed below so we can share and compare. Something you’re doing may be practical, easy and never thought of by another parent here on the blog. Ready, set, share!

Groceries

How are you cutting down on the grocery bill? More coupons than normal? Are you getting them from the web? Buying OBC and other similar products?

Allowances

If you have kids old enough for an allowance have you cut it back? Are they feeling the recession too?

Entertainment

Have you cut back on trips to the movies and other outside activities? Have you started more old school fun like board games or have you found some great free things to do outside of the house like museums etc… let us know.

BMWK family, now is the time to share your great tips that can help someone else. Drop us a comment.

About the author

Lamar and Ronnie Tyler are the creators of the award-winning blog BlackandMarriedWithKids.com . They also are behind the Amazon.com bestselling DVDs Happily Ever After: A Positive Image of Black Marriage, You Saved Me and Men Ain’t Boys that explores manhood in the African American community. The Tylers are also the proud parents of four children.

Tracey Y. Chandler

I am clipping coupons & combining them with grocery store sales. Also we have had to cut back on my daughters after school activities. We are hoping to be able to resume her after school activities soon. My husband has been looking for an addtional part time or full time job.
http://www.blackandmarriedwithkids.com Lamar

Those activities can sure add up. I remember the first year our daughter cheered. I went up to the registration and almost passed out when they gave me the price. Good grief.
Cheryl

I menu plan from the store circular, only buying what is on sale, and I clip coupons. One other way to save at the supermarket is online shopping. NO IMPULSE BUYING!! A major problem for me, but nonexistent when I shop online. We have also got rid of one car and cut back on eating out. Can’t give up the name brand cereal though…
http://blackandmarriedwithkids.com Ronnie

We cut back on eating out and I want to be more economically when it comes to purchasing at the grocery store. I need to be more organized and to plan out my menus. One thing that I tried that instantly caused a revolt in my family was purchasing off brand cereal.. That did not go over well with the kids or my husband!!! I purchased this huge band of off brand cereal and they all tasted it and turned their noses up at it. But I refused to buy more cereal until that bag was gone. So eventually they started to eat the off brand cereal again and it actually grew on them and they ate the entire bag.
.-= Ronnie´s last blog ..Parenting On a Budget =-.
Anna

Young kids will adjust better to change than older ones. It’s trial and error. I still try to buy off band items and some work and some don’t. My kids like off brand Poptarts vs. brand named ones. My kids say that the brand name ones may have more filling but they taste like they have more sugar. I have bought bulks of cereal with different generic names at one store and my kids rebelled. Why I put my reputation on the line to have these poor kids (not poor in the financial sense) but poor them that my bulk cearal was a parting gift when they walked out my door, after a sleep over or a quick visit at my house. I was just trying to get rid of the cereal. Doesn’t everyoney have a “hey Mikey he likes it”, in their family or circle of friends? LOL.
http://theyoungmommylife.com Tara

I’ve found that meal planning works. Typically, the first weekend of the month, we stock up at Sam’s Club and spend about $200 on nonperishables and frozen food: canned veggies, frozen veggies, ground beef, chicken breasts, shrimp, etc. We’ll usually be good on these items for about a month and a half. Then the remainder of the month I spend about $50 to complete the meals – sauces, eggs, milk, bread, etc. I’ve found that I can usually make a meal for 6 for about $10. So that way we’ll have dinner for 4 (me, husband, and two kids) and then we (me and the husband) can take the leftovers for lunch. Our grocery bill is under CONTROL. lol.

The rest of it? Not so much. But I’ve found that we are pretty much down to the bare essentials, so the next step is increasing our income.
.-= Tara´s last blog ..giving back because you can =-.
Adaobi

Prepackaged is more expensive than fresh, but depending on how far down the prepackaged route you go you spend more money. A big box of Cheez-its can be bought on sale for $2 but you spend about $4 or more for a box of the 100 calorie snack packs, which contain a whole lot less by weight. For my daughter I buy the canned pasta on sale, not the little microwavable bowl versions since those cost more, and just empty the can into 1-cup capacity Rubbermaid containers. I get two days of lunch for her instead of one. I also just recently found a juicebox from Rubbermaid that I can use instead of constantly buying juice boxes for her. I can get the 64 oz juices on sale for about $2 and then fill that up instead of paying almost $4 for an 8 pack of juice. Now I just have to hope that the containers don’t get lost in school. Yes it means a little extra work in the kitchen cleaning containers, but it’s worth spengin those few minutes out of my day if it means saving money.

I bought a freezer just for the sole purpose of stocking it full of food. When meat and frozen foods go on sale, a really good sale, I by as much as I can and store them. Saves time and money because I can just pull a frozen meal for lunch, and I already have the chicken for dinner. No last minute store runs.
Donness

Our spending habits have changed drastically! You won’t find too many brand name items at our house. Instead, you’ll see a lot of “Great Value” items from Wal-Mart. We also check out our local Dollar Tree, Family Dollar and Dollar General before going to Wal-Mart. I just recently starting collecting advertisements from the retailers so that I can utilize the “price matching” feature. We’ve learned that breakfast food just isn’t for breakfast. We’ve learned just how versatile ground turkey is; it can be substituted into most recipes (chicken is just too expensive!). But the most important thing is that our son, who is 19-months old, is too young to know that anything different is going on. Since he grows out of his toys fairly quickly, I’ll check Craigslist before buying a new toy. Luckily my next door neighbor has a child who is a year older than my son. She always offers me hand-me-downs that are in almost brand new condition; she could do better selling them. But, I sure do appreciate her kindness. As for entertainment–cable television. We haven’t been to a moive theater since 2007. I scan HBO, Showtime, Encore, etc. for newly released movies and record them to watch later. No dvd/video game rentals or pay per view movies here! And don’t forget about the library! Although I would’ve loved to have purchased some hard copy new releases, I get on the waiting list at the library to check them out instead.
Donness
Shaun

We definitely use coupons on a weekly basis.
Allowance – what’s that?
Entertainment – well we’ve grown to watch movies on demand, play games with the kids, go for walks or play at the park, instead of going out to eat we will eat in… dinner at a friends house where we share the wealth of cooking is always a good idea too.

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