Share Family Budgeting Tips and Win a £50 Argos Voucher
Waking up to Family Budgeting
Argos has kindly offered to donate a prize for a contest on London-baby.com.
Argos has been our saviour over the years: they deliver storage units, nursery equipment, appliances … you name it, to your door (a huge bonus for a car-free family) at a great price point. They keep ample supplies of affordable birthday gifts, boys clothing, lunch thermoses, hand blenders, girls clothing and other small less bulky items that we occasionally need to purchase from our local store.
As our rent increases in Central London and our kids eat and grow more, we are pinched financially. My family has had a dramatic rethink of our budgeting practices and have been successful in saving money each month. Instead of trying to budget for the kids clothing needs, birthday gifts, etc., we have increased our spending money and have everything come out of there. If the kids need a new coat that month, we don’t go out to eat until we have paid for it. Admittedly, we should have been doing this all along, but instead of thinking “that’s a one off” we now have a tangible way to deal with it: less pocket money.
As a result of our reality check to soaring costs of family life, I thought I might have a discussion on London-baby.com about family budgeting practices.
Give a budget tip that has worked for your family, that has helped you save money, leave your email address and I will put your name in the drawing for a £50 gift voucher to Argos.
This contest is only available to UK residents; if you have a UK postal address for me to post your voucher to, please leave your comments and enter the contest.
My husband did an excel spreadsheet and we budgeted in an amount each month for every possible thing that might crop up, like kid’s clothes and gifts. The idea was to then save a set amount for this into a savings account at the start of the month. We normally end up borrowing it back or being too skint to pay it at all, but having a budget sheet is a great leveller, and keeping each other informed on our spending helps lots too. Great comp!
Local NCT events are real financial saviours. Their “like new” sales have helped keep budgets in tact, with second hand and sometimes unused clothing, equipment and toys for sale at great prices.
Hey!!!!!! thanks for the great tip. I like the spreadsheet idea, but do you log all your expenses into it?. How labour intensive is it?