Mothers contribute significantly in dealing with difficult economy. Here are things they could to help the family saves more money during difficult financial condition.
- Buy affordable foods in bulk: Mothers can buy rice, dried pasta, frozen vegetables and other less perishable food products to save money. They may also cook stir fries with grilled chicken, vegetables and beans to provide affordable and healthy foods for the whole family.
- Don’t go to major supermarket chains too often: One stop shopping center would be wonderful, but they could encourage us to spend too much on inessentials, such as pet supplies, kids’ clothing, toys, snacks and other items. In this case, it is a good idea to go to specialty stores that provide more limited range of products.
- Consign unused items: Many of our clothes and kids’ toys could still be in great shape and untouched. In this case, we could go to local consignment stores with good foot traffic and decent payout. In many cases, our kids could have plenty of gifts during birthday and this should be a good opportunity to consign those toys that they are not too interested in. Some consignment stores seek only brand new stuffs, so we may need to donate those used items.
- Look for free entertainment: Moms could bring their children to nature trails, beaches and playgrounds to provide them with free entertainment. Beaches could have plenty of sea shells that children could collect and they could make necklace, wall decorations and other artworks with them. Many free attractions could provide us with plenty of fun activities.
- Perform arts and crafts project: Creative activities can be really exciting and help people spend their time productively. We could use many cheap items in the home, including cotton balls and toilet paper rolls. Children can be taught to create tall building, frogs on logs, monsters and other items. Children could also be asked to cut images and pictures out of newspapers and magazines. There are many endless opportunities we could get through different arts projects.
- Create playdates: There’s nothing more exciting than interacting with our own kids. Playdates shouldn’t cost a thing if we know where to go, such as the nearest park or swimming on the lakes. We could also bring our older children to play basketball and baseball. We may also play video games with children.
- Go to local libraries: Local libraries could help us to have fun games and exciting story hours. Some libraries also have crafts and music sessions for children. There are many educational sessions in libraries and these are not boring places where people are required to be quiet all the times.
- Do trade sitting: Instead of hiring babysitters, we should trade sitting with our family and friends. This could help the neighbourhood to save a lot of money and it’s a mutually beneficial activity. However, we should apply mutually agreed rules, so all parents are comfortable with how their children will be supervised.