The results are in, you’re pregnant! Now how on earth are you supposed to save up to support a baby? What about saving up to support a family? There are many aspects to consider and prepare for. Then there will always be the flat tire and the ac unit that goes out.
Saving up is a part of life. This can help you save up for more than a child, this can be for other aspects of life as well!
Couponing
Couponing is a great way to save. There are tons of coupons out there. You can learn how to coupon to spend less than $100 at the grocery store for a ton of items, or just use a few coupons here and there. Either way, it will help!
A technique for putting away money is to put the amount you save at the grocery store away in a savings account. This will help you create that “emergency fund” without taking away from what you typically would have spent. This can be easy to track, especially if you shop at Food Lion. Not too sure about other places, but the MVP Card at Food Lion allows you to see how much you have saved per trip and for the whole year to date. This will help you keep track of how your savings account is growing!
Looking at Expenses
Take a look at ALL of your expenses coming up for the next six months. This includes mortgage/rent, electricity (estimate), cable, water (if applicable), trash, etc. Aim high on the bills you are estimating. Looking at these in advance will allow you to see where you can cut back if you’re cutting it close. Do you really need cable or can you get by with Netflix and/or Hulu for a while?
Cutting Back
Depending on your expenses and income, you should be saving anywhere from $50-$150 a month. This means you might not be able to go to the movies and dinner that weekend. What about staying home and watching a movie at the house? It might not be as new of a movie, but quality time is quality time!
Cutting back on the unnecessary trips will save you in gas as well. For example, instead of going to the grocery store, coming back home to unload, then going back out to do another errand; go do all your errands at the same time. You may have to rearrange the order a little bit if you’re getting cold/frozen items, but it will ultimately save you on gas! Everyone needs that the way gas prices are these days! You never know when they will shoot back up!
These are ways you can start saving relatively large amounts of money per month and per year. Other ways to save would be to have a change jar for all the change you accumulate. It adds up!
You can also look up savings plans on Pinterest and there are plans by week for a year of how much to save and what your end savings will be. This can be helpful especially if you need to see how much to save at a time.
You can save, but it does require some will power! Good luck!
Love,
