Saving Money With Wee Ones

When my husband and I started registering for baby items, my love noticed that adding the word "baby" to any product increased the cost by £50. While that may not be totally true--babies are expensive.

More recently he’s moaned that what he was made to think would be the most extravagant expense (nappies) paled in comparison to the cost of childcare. And he’s right--childcare costs an arm and a leg (sometimes two). Naturally, we are always looking for ways to do things cheaper, but still well, when it comes to our child. We can’t negotiate the price we pay nursery to keep him alive and educate him while we are at work, but we can certainly control the cost of other things we do with him.

Below are three things we do to help cut corners and save money where our little love is concerned.

The cost of going to the movies can be downright astronomical. Just recently we took our sun to a Family Summer Movie Series where tickets were just £1 per person, but we spent nearly £15 on snacks (medium drink, small buttered popcorn and a bag of M&M's). While that "first movie" experience was a great one--thanks Disney Pixar’s Sing--we much prefer our at-home experience. We scour Netflix for the newest kid-friendly releases (monthly subscription cost is very cheap), we build a kid-friendly meal into the weekly menu (pizza, nachos, grilled cheese) and let our son help decide what’s included, we put on our pyjamas and snuggle up on our own couch. We hype it up days in advance and our son loves it! It costs a fraction of the price and we get the same "Parent Win-feel good" as the more expensive option. Plus there are way fewer germs.

My husband and I both try to workout several days a week (running, yoga, kickboxing, barre and dumbbells). While our son does participate a bit by doing squats and lunges with us when he’s interested, he doesn’t really get to be super involved. On Fridays, when weather permits, we go for a family walk. He sits in the stroller and we push him and talk. We don’t allow mobile phones or music. It’s a great time for us to talk and connect with one another about what’s been happening that day or week and what we want to do for the rest of the weekend. When we’re finished, everyone is high on endorphins and some good physical and mental energy has been exerted.

We were all in on Pampers nappies. That’s what they gave us at the hospital and we loved them. We were also all in on Aptamil formula after I finished breastfeeding. But after some research we found out that our son liked a local store brand formula just as much as Aptamil and that we liked a store's own label nappies even better than Pampers. Both cost nominally less than the name brand, but every penny counts. Don’t marry yourself to a name brand just because others tell you to, or that’s what you were originally sold on. Be willing to price compare and test other products that might not be as well known.

While these may not seem like "cash cow" changes, they save us a little money here and there--and that all adds up. Didn’t someone famous once say, "Pennies make pounds?!"

What do you do to save money with your wee ones? Please share!