One Income Families

Hi there, we are a one income family, have been for 4 yrs.
Tips: Buy baby clothes now for next year. When they come up on sale get a few items.... I do this constantly, just means I am off to a head start for next year.
Do your grocery shopping fortnightly or monthly if you can and only buy items that are on sale! Have just started the monthly rotation as DH paid monthly....
Budget, budget budget abd stick to it!!!! Most important!!!!
Save as much as you can between now and when bubs is born.
If you have a baby shower, encourage people to get items like trainer drinking cups, baby spoons, bottles if you are going that way rather than just newborn stuff. Or if you are going the MCN way, get them to get you nappies!!!

Oh, another thing - if you are going disposables, then getting them from one of the online stores seems to be so much cheaper - so far my research shows most people like dryups. (thats what we are going to try after bubs is out of newborn, we already have over 250 newborn nappies).

Trademe is great for bargains for some of the things you might want to get for bubs - we got the bouncer, stroller, change table and other bits and pieces off there for huge savings and it doesn't matter that they aren't new, bubs won't care!

Borrow - borrow as many things from friends who have older kids as you can. We have borrowed the monitor, the newborn playmat, the highchair and loads of other things too.

What do we do to save money lets see....

We use cloth for everything, nappies, wipes, mama pads and moon cups, cloth breast pads...the savings totally add up.

Meal plan meal plan meal plan. Buy only what you need and shop once a fornight. Buy budget brands, you don't need name brands ie: Coke $2.50 - homebrand - $0.89 - makes a big difference. We only spend $200 per fornight for our family of 3 and I know of larger families with a similar budget so it can be done.

Save power - again it makes a huge difference to the bills, turn of lights, don't leave things on standby.

Make meals from scratch, do your own baking. Again saves a huge amount. Get a selection of easy recipes that you can use each fornight. Once you are in the habit of it then it's no biggie to cook each night or make your own bikkies, bread etc.

That's about all I can think of for now.Hope that helps.

If you have freezer space, it's nice to make 2x meals and put half of it away for a night when you can't be bothered cooking.

Budget...and stick to it. Don't forget to budget in spending money, and money to save.

Have a look at what entitlements you can get - accomodation supplement (WINZ)? Family tax credit (IRD)?

If you know someone who has just finished their family, see if you can get some of their hand-me-down clothes and/or furniture. You'll save a heap.

We've been on a single income for 4 years (since we got married), it's tough at times but the best advice we ever got was to budget together, it saves a heap of money problems later.

I agree with what the other ladies have said.
We have been a single income family for so long, since having paris, and now i have finished study, i am working and mike is at study so we are in it for the long haul of at least another 3 years after this.

Find out what you qualify for, and don't be afraid to use it. it's there for a reason.

Like others have said, budget, realise what are wants and what are needs.. sometimes the two run into each other and you realise you can live on alot less than what you actually think you can. sit down and write out incomings and outgoings for every week, or pay period if it isn't weekly. that way we know exactly down to the dollar how much we should get in. if the pay packet is not always the same, budget on the bottom flat rate.. anything like overtime or penal rates that get added come as a bonus and are extra money.      We have everything on AP's through our bank, with an account that is $12 flat rate per month, saves us a heap on AP fees. and also makes sure our bills get paid as otherwise we just don't get time to do it. for our power we pay the same amount in fortnightly amounts, which is the years amount divided up - genesis does this. it means no matter if our power bills go up or down, we pay the same but it also means no nasty letters telling us we are in arrears if we don't pay the full amount one month as it all evens out. we use internet banking alot too as we can check on our money easily and know what we have in the bank at a glance, and also where our money has gone (surprising sometimes how much the little things add up!)

we dont use the dryer unless it's absolute need, we have a 3 tier tall washing hanger, which washing gets put on if its too wet to hang out - another good thing is a line inthe shed or carport. at least then you can just chuck in dryer for a few seconds to finish it off if really needed. we don't have a dishwasher, and unless there's heaps of dishes, we do the big lot of dishes at night. We don't hot wash at all, clothes get just as clean and far less faded with a cold wash.

and hand me downs and supermarket specials (ie stocking up when stuff is cheap) are helpful and save heaps. buying at end of season sales for the next year is too. TNT have great sales and we just go and buy roughly what size we think we'll need for the next season. Paris has all her 4 yr old shorts and summer stuff sitting in her wardrobe waiting for summer.

W do our shop once a fortnight, and for our family of 4 of us, including nappies (even when they were both in them) plus when ayja was on formula.. our budget was $240 a fortnight, and we stuck to that. there are some things we will not compromise on for certain brands, you quickly learn what is a good deal to buy budget and what just isn't great - ie tastes awwful or doesn't do the job. for stuff for us, like shampoo, feminine things, make-up - it comes out of our own spending money. (hence i don't actually use that much, because i use my spending money on the kids most times to buy at the sales etc, or pay off laybys.

we buy for xmas at the july toy sales, put down a layby and just get a few little bits closer to xmas. we buy for birthdays at sales too, kmart and farmers are great for their 20% off sale.

there's so so much more, but i guess you learn to live within your means. we are lucky in that now my income is actually more than what mikes was when our roles were reversed, so we have that little bit of extra cash, which is now going towards paying off some things that have been nagging us for a long time. and then will go toward our wedding. i have written out a plan, to pay off things, (which can be a good idea pre baby so it free's up money after baby) so that we would have been debt-free by early october.. before i would have gone on maternity leave. we no longer have to think about that, but are still sticking to the plan, so that by the end of this year, we will be debt-free, and any money we get, is ours, and ours alone.



Edited by mum2paris

What we find works is withdrawing cash from our account to cover costs for that fortnight (week whatever). Then put the eftpos and credit cards away and you automatically spend less!!

I totally have to agree with the meal plan idea I look at what is coming up on special that week and plan my meals around that - write up the meals on a monthly plan I have up on our fridge and stick to it!! Definitley helps save. We spend $250 a fortnight for groceries, toiletries and nappies - this might go down now that we aren't living in Wellington anymore?

i def found nappies cheaper when we lived in motueka and food in general than in wellington.
for some reason we spend more here than we did there

this is a great thread guys! I am panicking about going to one income as my income has been the main one and it is going to be horrible to let it go. We dont spend extravagently at the moment but we arent good at planning so little things add up. We are trying really hard to get as caught up with things as possible before bubs arrives as we are also saving for our wedding.

we plan to grow our own veges, DF is from a farming background and is missing the garden and now we have shifted to a place that has a garden we can go for it. I will be very impatient waiting for things to grow though.

We have already started to shop at the farmers market and only buythings that are in season as I think we should learn to live that way anyway.

I need to get back to a lunch I enjoy for work though. My tastebuds have been nuts during this pregnancy and I often get to work and think "yuk! I dont want that now!" I think a toastie sandwich maker will help at work.

Keep the advice coming guys!!!!

Oh, it's in the First baby, second or more board

oooh and I save LOTS of money now after switching my bank accounts (ok, so only about $15 a month) I set up a streamline account with ASB bank, which is COMPLETELY free of charge, after you have set up all your AP's etc. So no charges for aps or anything, I do all my banking through this account and it costs me ZILCH!!!