Family life is expensive. Having children means you’ve more mouths to feed, bodies to clothe, and bills to pay. For low-income families, life’s about finding those corners to cut and those bucks to save so that you’re still able to take your family on holiday, treat them to a meal, or organize fun parties every once in a while – and all this requires astute financial management. This article sets out some top tips for low-earning families to balance their finances so that they’ll be able to live full and happy lives on a budget.
Food
One of the major weekly expenditures in family life is on food, putting bread on the table, as it were, for your loved ones. There’s no way you can reduce the physical amount of food you give to your children, but there are methods of responsibly and healthily budgeting with will, over time, save you hundreds if not thousands of bucks.
One key tip is to avoid fast food and caving to the demands of your children for snacks, sweets, fizzy drinks or ice cream. These are all unhealthy detriments to your children’s wellbeing while also being an unnecessary expense. Try and shop for store-reduced items and those products that are on promotional deals, and purchase your weekly ingredients from the cheapest store you know. Above all, avoid the easy-to-heat, pre-made meals: they’re more expensive and less healthy than quick and easy meals you can cook for yourself. Search blogs online for speedy, healthy and cheap meals for your family.
Property
Low-income families regularly struggle with the high prices of properties in and around their desired neighborhoods. All too often, due to a substandard credit score or an income that disqualifies them from securing a mortgage, families are forced to pay a high rate on rent without having the security that comes from a permanent and owned place of residence. If bad luck hits and you’re unable to make rent one month, your whole family’s life can be thrust into a precarious state by your landlord. It’s an unenviable position.
But there are other ways. Take the rent-to-buy scheme set up in many states and cities across the US. This is a scheme that’s designed to help less fortunate families get something out of their rent payments, which is the eventual ownership of their property. You can learn more by reading through websites in localized areas, all of which lay out the scheme in more detail. The other option for families without mortgages is to look into communal living, organized through grassroots community schemes, where a group of families shares rental costs on a ‘condo block’ type structure. Again, research online will determine whether this is appropriate for your family’s needs.
Loans and Debt
On the whole, the recommendation to disadvantaged families is always to avoid debt at all costs. It’s something that can hang over family life like a shadow and, once in its trap, can be very difficult indeed to escape. If you do ever feel the need to take out a loan (perhaps to cover a rental payment or a renewal on your insurance policy), you should ensure you’re not being exploited by incredibly high rates of interest. It’s often a scam that’s run by plenty of pay-day loans companies and brokers of smaller loans that target desperate families and individuals.
The safest way to go about loans in order to avoid spiraling debt is to talk with someone at your local bank, who’ll be able to map out in simple terms what your options are, what your repayment scheme might look like, and what sort of earnings you’ll have to save to rise out of debt. If you’re unable to do this at your bank, head to a citizen’s advice bureau or contact a charity service that offers financial advice to those families that have found themselves in a difficult position regarding debt.
Savings
It can be difficult to save money when you’re supporting a family, but an additional short point to the one made above concerning debt is for those who are capable of saving to always keep a stash of savings in case of worst-case scenarios where you might be forced to take out a loan. Having this small financial safety net will prevent your family from ever having to take out last-minute, high-interest loans that can quickly absorb all the excess money you’ve been earning. Be smart and keep a pool of cash in case of an emergency like health problems, or household repairs such as a broken boiler in the winter months.
Smart Shopping
For everything else in life that costs money, there’ll be a smart way to shop. The internet has opened up each and every family with a device the opportunity to browse thousands of online stores. Since so many stores are on the internet, there are also plenty of price comparison websites that’ll find the cheapest product, whether that be regarding flights abroad, insurance for your home, or even televisions. Reviews and customer feedback will also help in this regard to convince you of the value of everything you purchase.
The trick with shopping for miscellaneous items on the internet is to shop smart. Don’t binge or buy on impulse. Instead, only buy things that you truly require. Then, if possible, shop second-hand: everything from kitchen appliances to clothing drops its value by at least half if it’s been pre-owned, even if these items have barely been used. Finally, it’s especially important with more expensive items to conduct a little research before buying. Are you getting a warranty or a guarantee? What is the return policy like on the items you’re ordering? Have other shoppers complained about a common fault in this product? And, finally, is this the best, cheapest product I can find on the internet? Asking these questions is the key to smart shopping.
Low-income families may struggle a little financially, but they’re still able to budget in order to have fun, enjoy holidays, presents, meals out and all the other joys of life. It’s simply a case of following some of the financial tips laid out above.
