Personal budgets

I could fight that battle and have a miserable marriage, or I could choose them more wisely. That is not a battle worth fighting....

 

Sounds like a plan...whatever it takes to keep the family happy and together.

 

My wife and I plan out all our meals per week. Six meals per day with a free for all day on Saturday. We spend about 100 bucks per week on groceries and that's with a new 5 month old.

Baby saving tips I've found.
- buy Wal-mart brand formula and wipes. It's the same basic thing for half the price. The FDA has guidelines for all formula that MUST be followed.
- buy most/all baby clothes at consignment shops and yard sales. It's as cheap as it sounds. He's 5 months onld and we've spent less than 200 bucks on clothes. They grow so fast he hardly wears the same outfit more than 6 or 7 times.

It really helps if only one person does the bills. That would be me. It does not help if you are the only one working. Again, that's me but we wanted one of us home with the kid.

I added up all my bills and divided it by 4 (weeks). I pay bills up to that number every week and the rest is gravy.

I also take out a crap load for taxes. Claim 1 dependent even though I have a kid. Take out an extra 15 bucks per week. If it's not around we can't spend it although we do get a super shitload back in taxes in March which we invest or do major projects like hardwoods throughout the house.

And last but not least contribute heavily to my 401k weekly.

 

That's awesome fan.

Planing meals is something I forgot to put on there. We ALWAYS save money when the planned meals make up the grocery list. It's damn near impossible to get my wife to do it thouroughly, though.

It takes her like 3000000 hours just to make the grocery list.....

 

Those are some good tips. Will probalby try with the next kid. We purchase my eight month olds formula and diapers at Sam's Club and get all her clothes/toys on sale. Baby clothes are pretty cheap to start with. The food is a different story. My wife likes to blend up all her food from fresh fruit, which can get expensive.

 

I think it's cheaper than baby food. My wife did this for our first, plus breast fed him for almost a year. For the twins, it's all out of jars because she just has no extra time. The fact that she has to have the Earth's Best shit makes it even higher....

We get daipers / wipes at Costco.

 

It's all expensive when half of the food winds up on my daughters face, hands, in her hair, etc and no where near her mouth. She seems to really enjoy the home cooked stuff but the jar food not so much. I think we're spoiling her.

 

Don't even get me started on breast feeding. We tried for over three months. I bought a nice 400 dollar pump which wasn't good enough so we rented one for 70 dollars a month from the hospital.

The kid would just not take the boob.

 

That's not good, may have another builder/fred on our hands. J/K

My wife breast fed and the kid loved it but unfortunately my wife couldn't produce enough milk so it pretty much ended at around 2 months.

 

My wife just weaned our son when he was about 15 months. He did very well with it and it seems to have been good for him. One key thing to remember on that is to start them off nursing. If you give them a bottle too soon it will make them hard to breast feed. It is easier for them to get the milk from a bottle. You are not supposed to give them a bottle for atleast a week I think. I know we saved a lot of money on formula.

We are having another baby and I am hoping it gets breastfed too.