We are BROKE !! We need a new car and can't afford it . With 3 kids in a car seat the car needs to be big too .. I work 50hrs a week and hubby works that sometimes more . I need your help on how you save money .
We are BROKE !! We need a new car and can't afford it . With 3 kids in a car seat the car needs to be big too .. I work 50hrs a week and hubby works that sometimes more . I need your help on how you save money .
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6 Replies
When your pay goes in have an automatic withdrawal into a savings interest account. It will do it and eventually you will get used to not having that amount there. Goodluck
Look at your budget and find what you can cut down cancel or change to free up the money in your budget to save. Or make repayments.
- Cheap shop for household items
- No outings or extras, plan cheap days out, take food.
- Cut down kids extra curricular clubs or sports to one each. Check out ymca for cheap kids and family activities.
- buy bulk fruit and vegetables, cheap meat, have easy dinner at least once a week, ie) french toast, beans on toast, toasted sandwiches, one night of really cheap cooked dinner, fried rice or noodles or tuna and potato cakes, and one vegetarian night. Buy everything homebrand Buy whole foods, soon you'll have enough stocks to make alsorts from your staples in your cupboaRd and a bag of potatoes or apples or pears etc
- Maje and take your lunches, snacks and morning coffee to work. Splash on a travel mug and nice coffee so you don't feel like you're missing out & it's convenient.
- Use vinegar, lemon and bicarb to clean your house, saves lots and cleans perfectly.
- Buy treats at the supermarket like ice cream and 70c lemonade and make spiders and popcorn at home So you still enjoy yourself, if you're not enjoying it you won't stay with it.
Go see a financial counsellor they cost nothing, aren't attached to any products so there advise is totally non-biased. They can help you get on track without the costs involved of my budget or similar. They can negotiate with creditors etc just like my budget can.
But the big ways to save money is to have a good hard look at your spending. Become non consumers. Look at the big cost of housing. Are you living in a suburb, house size you can afford long term. How often do you eat out? Do you leave the aircon/heating on all night and all day? Go over your actions and spending with a fine tooth comb. Work out what you actually really need to live on and live on that and put the rest in savings. Don't compare your lifestyle to others. Live simply think about how simply our grandparents lived where takeaway was a genuine treat not a once a week thing. Do you really need wifi or can you make do by using the libraries wifi on the weekends.
Have a good look into different car seat combos in your current car (if that's the reason for needing a new one) before writing yours off as no good. Many cars, even smaller ones, can fit 3 across with the right combination. Far cheaper than a new car.
If it's not just the car seat issue, then there are great suggestions from the other posters.
I find the more we earn the more we spend. Together hubby and I make around $1800 a week. We dont have a morgage and our car oayments are minimal yet we are almost always broke come Friday. I am following this post!
Sit down and work out your budget. Work out where all your money goes. For a week, track every single cent that you spend, even if it is buying a bottle of water from the shop or a 90 cent chocolate bar, write everything down and then look at it. That will give you lots of ideas on where you can cut back. Work out a finite limit on your spending money every week. When you get paid, pay your bills, put money into savings, give yourself your spending money and then put everything left into another account and leave it there. Meal plan and stick to it. Shop in bulk where you can, and target shop for your specific meal plan. Meal plan EVERYTHING right down to snacks every day, school lunches etc. My kids often have the same foods that their friends get from tuckshop, for a fraction of the cost, and are healthier and yummier. Don't buy take away, it's much cheaper to pre-prepare food at home, or eat something simple. My kids love it when we have a late day of extra curricular activities and we come home and they end up with something like scrambled eggs on toast or a baked bean jaffle. There is ALWAYS ways to cut back on how much you spend, you just need to look. Even something as simple as changing the brands you use on stuff... I switched from Radiant to Coles Brand laundry liquid and saved an absolute fortune! We are a single medium income family earning under $50k a year. We pay a lot for extra curricular activities because we think it is important. We pay rent and we pay all our own utilities including Foxtel. A year ago we were in the exact position you were and decided we had to change something, so we did. We started making ourselves money smarter and paying more attention. Now I have a savings account, it doesn't contain a lot, but we have a savings account. I have a credit card with zero debt and last week we bought our first new car. It IS possible and you CAN do it, you just need to really want to.