If you’re a mom, money might be tight for you this year. With the pandemic, many mothers are finding making ends meet harder than ever. There are definitely easy ways you can save some money, though, even in such dire times.
In this article, we’ll talk about some mommy money-saving ideas. You can implement some of them if you’re trying to save cash during your weekly or monthly budgeting sessions.
If You’re Negotiating Child Support, Avoid Hiring a Lawyer
Maybe things did not work out between you and your spouse or partner. You might find yourself with a young child, or more than one. You need to negotiate child support with your former partner or spouse.
They must pay child support because:
- They are still the child’s parent, even if you have full custody
- You have to worry about childcare, baby formula, diapers, vaccinations, etc.
If you go into family court to argue for more child support, you might want to hire a lawyer to represent you. However, you aren’t legally required to do that.
It’s great to have an experienced lawyer on your side in these scenarios, but they cost money, and you might not have very much of it right now. You can plead your case to the judge without a lawyer.
Just make sure that you document your monetary needs concerning your child or children. You must show proof of how much your requirements cost. That way, the judge will more likely grant you the increase you need.
Get Friends or Family Members to Watch Your Kids
You may also have to work while someone watches your child or children. You have options such as:
- Hiring a babysitter
- Dropping the child or children off at daycare
These are perfectly acceptable options. The only problem is that they cost money as well.
You can avoid paying that money if you have a relative or family friend who can watch the kids sometimes, and they won’t charge you money for it. If the child or children’s grandparents live in the same city as you, they might be willing to do this for you sometimes if they retired and they know you’re hard up for cash.
Even if they can’t watch the kids every day, if they can watch them a couple of weekdays, that’s better than nothing. Every day they can watch the kids is one more time you don’t have to pay for daycare or the babysitter.
You Can Save Cash at the Grocery Store
You can also save some money by looking through mail circulars for food specials and coupons. You can look for coupons online as well.
You can stock up on things like bulk rice, canned soup, and bulk pasta. You can get a lot of this sort of thing for very little money.
You might also look into getting a Sam’s Club or Costco membership. You can go there once every month or so and stock up. You can get bulk items even cheaper than you can get them at the typical grocery store.
One more thing you can do is to buy generic brand items. There is very little difference if you get Kellogg’s Corn Flakes versus the generic brand. They taste nearly the same, and if you shop this way, you’ll save several dollars off each grocery store run.
You Can Do Some Good will Shopping
Goodwill and other thrift stores are also mommy lifesavers if you don’t have much money right now. You can go to the nearest ones and look for items like shirts, pants, coats, hats, or whatever else you need.
You should go right after the holidays. That’s a time when Goodwill and similar establishments get lots of donations. They will have more than enough stock, and they will be eager to get rid of some of it.
You can get clothing for yourself and your kids as well. Your young children will not know the difference between a brand-new shirt and a secondhand one. They grow so quickly that you can save a lot of money that way versus buying new clothes online or from a brick-and-mortar location.
If you get a little creative, ways often exist that moms can save money nearly every day when they need to. You can get rid of cable or your streaming services and get an antenna. That way, you can watch local channels for free.
The more cash you can save, the better it is for your kids.