4 Smart Ways Large Families Can Save Money

Big families have the unfortunate label of typically being more expensive than small families. What I mean is that the cost of raising a large family is considerably higher than those of a small one. More people, more money; simple.

As a result, it pays when you can think of ideas and ways to save money as a family. The more you can stop spending, the better life will be. After all, no one wants to constantly live in fear of their finances. We’ve got family vacations we want to go on, and we need money saved up to do that! So, here are a few smart ways your large family can start saving money today.

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Collect All The Loose Change

If your family is anything like mine, then you will find loose change scattered all over the house. It’ll be on desks, coffee tables, shelves; you name it. People go out, buy things with cash, and come home with the change in their pockets. Upon which they empty their pockets to get rid of all the little change they don’t like. Let’s face it, no one likes carrying change around below a certain value. It just feels pointless and takes up too much space in your purse or pocket, so we discard it. Think about how often you do this, then think about how often everyone else in your house does it too.

Essentially, you’re all just wasting money! But, if you make a collective effort to organize your loose change, then the family can save a lot throughout the year. Get a big jar or two, and it can be the place everyone puts their change from now on. You wait until it’s full, then take it to the bank and deposit all the money in your account. This is such an easy way to save money without making any additional sacrifices. Everyone can go about their daily lives, with the only difference being that your change is saved instead of discarded and left to collect dust.

Adjust Your Internet Package

For large families, this can usually mean a massive internet and phone bill every month. Especially on the internet side of things as your whole family uses it. This often leads to you thinking that the biggest package is the best one for you. However, if you monitor your internet usage, you might find you’re overpaying for what you need. If you read this website, you’ll see there are lots of different packages you can buy. Some offer more internet than others at higher speeds. As you can imagine, the quicker your internet, and the more data you need, the more expensive it is. What you should do is adjust your package to suit your needs. If you find your family is not using all that data you’re paying for, then it’s pointless to have your current package. Shop around, find a better value deal, and save a lot of money.

Thrown in with this tip I’ll also say you should constantly consider changing providers once your contract is up. Look around for a better deal, as you could get some new customer offers that are cheaper. Or, when you threaten to leave, your current service provider might offer a sweeter deal to convince you to stay. All families use the internet these days, so you better try and save money on the ongoing costs.

Family Movie Nights

Now, bear with me here as you probably don’t see any connection between this and saving money at all. But, once I explain what I mean, you’ll be blown away. Okay, so, the concept of a family movie night is that the whole family gets together in the living room for an evening of films and maybe even TV too. Why do this? Well, aside from helping you all connect as a family and bond, it can also save money in multiple ways.

You see, by bringing everyone together, you’ve got the whole house in one room. This means you don’t need the central heating turned on in any other room other than that one. Immediately, you can save a lot of money. Furthermore, you have everyone watching one TV, as opposed to individual family members watching TV in their rooms. Again, this can save money, this time on your electricity bill. To add to this, all the lights can be turned off throughout the house, including the living room to set the movie scene. Once more, this saves on your electricity bill. Doing this once a week can save a significant amount of money when you consider how much energy is used over the course of a few hours. Plus, you can take this idea and apply it to other things too, not just movie nights. Family dinners are a smart way to save on energy bills too. Everyone eats together, the cooking appliances are only used once, and you confine everyone to one room.

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Organize Weekly Meals

Following on from this idea of family meals, you can save money by organizing your meals every week. Decide what you’ll be eating for dinner every day, and you can build a shopping list. This enables you to buy all the ingredients you need in one shop. As such, you don’t have to keep revisiting the store and being tempted to buy additional things. Your home is full of everything you need, and no excess food ‘s wasted.

This is a big concern for large families as so many of us waste food. Aside from wasting resources, this wastes so much money. My advice is to try and buy what you need and nothing more. This means you only spend money on food that will be eaten, and you can reduce food waste. Not only that, but you also maximize food storage space too as your cupboards and fridge aren’t clogged up all the time.

By saving money, your family makes life so much easier for everyone. You’ll have savings to pay for family holidays, college education, and a whole lot more!