Archives for September 2015

How to Plan a Great Date Night on a Budget

September 30, 2015 | Leave a Comment

People will tell you that once kids come into the picture, having traditional date nights will be hard, and they’re right.

For a multitude of reasons it becomes difficult to get away sans kids. We’re bad for not making it a priority. Part of the reason for us is that quite honestly we enjoy having our daughter around. It’s not too often that we’re eager to get away from the responsibilities of parenting and be alone but we know it’s essential to our marriage.

You don’t realize how little engagement you and your spouse have until you’re in a situation where it can happen. Though we get away or go out, we usually have our daughter with us and no fault of hers, she consumes almost all of our attention and conversation. She’s at an age now where if we tell her we need a few minutes to talk or whatever she gets slightly offended so it’s more appropriate to just plan an evening or day where she can have fun doing kid stuff (with a sitter) and we can have uninterrupted time alone.

Dates don’t have to be expensive.

When we were planning our anniversary last month we decided to take a little afternoon road trip instead of spending a bunch of money on each other and something like a fancy dinner out. We were home by supper time but it was so nice to sit in the car together for a few hours and just chat. We stopped for lunch and went for a little walk around a few local stores. Including lunch and gas the whole day probably cost us $100 this is, without a doubt the most we’ve spent on ‘’each other’’ in a long time.

When you’re on a budget you really feel the pressure when it comes to dating your spouse. Start with easy areas to save, we started with nixing unnecessary gifts. It really is the thought that counts and saving your money to reach your financial goals will keep you much happier than a materialistic item. Discuss this if you decide to do it though so feelings don’t get hurt. Budget or not I’ve never been on who wants gifts. I just don’t really like ‘’stuff’’ and if we’re going to spend money I’d rather save it for an experience together rather than something like a fancy watch.

Dates at home can be fun. Buy a few cheap treats at the store, and watch a movie together. This is something we don’t do enough and have few excuses as to why not. Getting a babysitter to even run errands together can be fun. Sounds dorky but we love a kid free stroll in Costco! Learn a card game, cook dinner together when kids are in bed…

Having a date with your spouse is about the time together not money spent. It be hard to get past the traditional ‘show up with flowers and wine and dine’ your spouse but especially after becoming parents you’ll quickly realize it’s about making the time for other person, regardless of what the event actually is.

What’s your favorite cheap date?

The Best (and worst!) Baby Shower Gifts

September 23, 2015 | Leave a Comment

Baby showers. Some love them, some hate them. While I love buying things for little people, I dislike attending baby showers. Nothing against the expecting family, I really just hate everything about traditional baby shower games. I’m at the age where there is a stark increase in the amount of showers I get invited to though.

Between the number of showers I’ve attended, and the ones I’ve been on the receiving end of, I feel like a bit of a baby shower expert and I’m here to give you my opinion on the best, and worst baby shower gift ideas.

Best Baby Shower Gift Ideas:

Restaurant gift certificate

No matter what kind of birth you have, the perfect natural drug free delivery or complicated c-section, no new mom, experienced or not, feels like cooking in those early days. Life is chaotic and having a gift certificate or two to fall back on is a huge help!

Clothes the kid can grow into

Too many people will show up with exclusively newborn clothes, having a few outfits/PJ’s in larger sizes the kid can grow into is always appreciated. Kids grow fast so they’ll get into that cute outfit sooner than you think!

Burp pads/wipes

Newborns make an insane amount of mess. They vomit and spit up everywhere, all of which requires being cleaned up. No mom can have enough burp pads/wipes/bibs for kids since they will go through about 25721 per day. They also get stained beyond recognition and eventually tossed so don’t spend too much money on them.

Diapers

Kids need diapers in many sizes. Find out if they plan on using disposable or cloth before buying though, and even if they get a lot of diapers, it is gift always well appreciated.

Worst shower gift ideas:

Nursing Bras

Unless you’re in the change room with the new mom there is no way you’ll get this right. If you think it’s a gift mom would like and want though, get a gift certificate instead.

‘’Inappropriate’’ baby clothes

Babies, especially newborns are messy. They do not need fancy, expensive and fussy clothes! You are literally wasting money in spending in this, no matter how cute. Same goes for newborn shoes. Unless the kid is walking (usually past 1 year) they don’t need shoes with proper soles. Even in the winter, small children don’t need them, most young snowsuits will take care of foot coverage.

Non-seasonal baby clothes

Find out when the kid (should) be born before buying seasonal clothes. If the child is born in December there’s a good chance they won’t still be in newborn size swimwear come July. Pay attention to sizes when buying such items.

If the parents did a registry, look it up. Chances are they spent time to figure out what would work and need for their family. Sometimes, showers aren’t they best time to be reinventing the wheel so-to-speak. If they took the time to research a monitor they liked for example, don’t bother buying a different one because you liked it more, there’s a good chance it will end up getting exchanged.

It’s not to say new moms thought of everything though. As a mom myself there were things I received from experienced friends and family that I never would have thought of and were so appreciative of, these are things I will sometimes pass on to my friends if I think they’ll benefit from.

What is your favorite gift to give for a baby shower?

How to Save Up For a Downpayment When You Have a Family

September 16, 2015 | Leave a Comment

Homeownership is a huge goal for many people.

Given the many expenses that come with having a family, it is often, though not always, a goal that is easier to obtain before kids come into the picture. Just because you have a family before homeownership doesn’t make it impossible though, you just need to get creative when it comes to saving for a downpayment.

Get a Second Job

When you have kids, this can be difficult but if money needs to be made this is the simplest way to do it.

A friend of mine growing up always rented an apartment with her family until one day she told me her parents finally bought a house. Her dad had been getting up at 4am Monday-Friday to deliver newspapers. Though he hated the hours, he reaped the benefits when, two years later, he was able to buy the family home he has always wanted with the income he earned from his second income alone.

Sell Kids stuff

With kids comes stuff, and lots of it. After three years of collecting stuff for our kiddo I’m finally at the point of realizing some of it has to go. I had grand ideas of holding onto a lot of it in case we have more children but I’ve come to the realization that if we do have more kids they will likely get stuff too and then we’ll have multiples of things.

If things are kept in good shape you can get a decent return on money spent. By taking care of kids items and reselling them you can start a decent savings goal for that downpayment account.

Downsize temporarily

Whatever your current living situation, if it’s possible, downsize. Maybe siblings will have to temporarily share a room or you’ll need to get rid of some things for the move but short-term pain for long-term gain may definitely apply here.

My co-worker sold their house and moved in with her in-laws for six months to save money. In six months alone the managed to save $15,000 since they were able to live rent/mortgage free and no utilities. The mother-in-law insisted on no money but instead they paid for all the groceries while living there. Though she hated every second of living there, without doing so it would have taken her almost 24 months for the same goal.

Make it a Family Goal

If your kids are old enough, involve them in the plan. Explain to them what your goals are and why things may be changing to reach the goal. Maybe cutting out a summer camp or a dance lesson will be required to meet the downpayment goal but in the end the whole family will benefit and they need to understand this.

Homeownership can seem like an impossible goal to reach but with a little extra effort and family commitment, it is possible, even after the financial responsibility of kids creeps in.

Did you buy a home after your kids were born? Did you need to do anything differently?

Encouraging Good Language Development for Toddlers

September 9, 2015 | Leave a Comment

Since my daughter is the only child I’ve ever really been around for any length of time, I really have nothing else to compare to in terms of development. People often comment though on my two-year-old’s language development. Other parents, teachers and people who have way more experience with kids than I do. Recently a friend of mine asked if I did anything ‘’special’’ to teach our daughter how to speak ‘’so well’’.

Given that this is my first go-round with this parenting thing, my answer is always no, but when I think about it my daughter’s day-to-day life is surrounded by opportunity communicate, effectively.

Starts with communication at home

My husband and I avoided ‘’baby talk’’ from the very beginning. We didn’t have silly names for things, ever. If we were giving her a glass of water or a bottle we wouldn’t call it ‘’wa wa’’ or ‘’ba ba’’ instead. Traditional ‘’baby talk’’ has always seemed unnatural to me, so this wasn’t exactly something I deliberately didn’t do but after being around friends with other young children I realised how different my day-to-day language was with our daughter, it was more ‘’grown up’’ somehow.

Though I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing if you want to communicate in easier tones for your child to understand, I do think expecting them to suddenly stop using these words at a certain age is then unfair.

Read to your child, look at pictures

I can’t stress this enough. You can never read too much to your kid, it’s just that simple. We read all sorts of different books to encourage the diversity. Everything from simple picture books that are fun to longer books, that, I think, encourages focus. It’s the simple picture books (with busy pages) that we have the most fun with though. When she’s really young they’re fun pictures where we can point out all the different things on the page and as gets older I can ask everything from ‘’count the balloons’’ to ‘’who is closer to the boat?’’ to ‘’where’s the octagon?’’ type of questions. We also like flash cards.

Have basic expectations

If our daughter mispronounces something, we correct her. Not in a military drill type of way but we will usually say ‘’I think you mean this’’, just once. After a few times (or correcting her) she’s usually got the proper pronunciation down.

Be selective with screen time

We do allow our daughter to watch a little TV and movies but we’re very selective about what she watches. We follow her lead as to if she’s into a show or not but if we as parents don’t like it we won’t allow it. There are a lot of really dumb programs for children. Ones that speak in dumb languages and words. The first red flag for us as parents is the clarity of speech.

Play Games With Your Surroundings

Something I started doing with her when she was young was count the stairs as we walked up. We also sing songs like ABC’s when we’re driving in the car to keep her distracted from an otherwise boring car ride. From these things alone she has been counting and singing her ABC’s for many months now.

I am by no means and expert of any kind, these are just a few things that we’ve done that seem to have led to a pretty decent vocabulary and pronunciation for our two-year-old.

Do you have any tips for encouraging good language development for toddlers?

4 Tips for Staying Fit on a Budget

September 2, 2015 | Leave a Comment

Exercise is something that’s always been important to me. Growing up, my mom treated the family every year to a family membership at a local rec center. We loved it! We had unlimited access to multiple swimming pools, skating rinks, classes for all ages and as we got older we capitalized on the use of the gym.

Having a rec center membership isn’t an option for everyone. Not only does everyone not necessarily have access to a rec center, they can be expensive. For us as a family, while we work towards other financial goals, we’ve opted to not have a membership and instead stay fit with what we can do at or from home. Most things are pretty cheap, if not free.

Get Outside!

This is the easiest way to stay fit. Go for a walk, ride a bike, find a place to hike. The best shape I’ve ever been in was when I was walking 5km every day round trip to school. Since we don’t have access to a rec center my husband recently bought a new bike that was on summer clearance. This is something he’ll be able to use for years to come and didn’t cost much at all! I love walking and when I’m home with kiddo I like to put her in the stroller and walk around our neighbourhood. Hiking is another favorite activity of mine though I don’t get to do it as often.

YouTube

When I was home on maternity leave I would search for YouTube exercise videos to help with the baby weight. Combined with a good diet and regular walks with the baby I got to my pre-baby weight. There are entire YouTube channels offering free workout videos depending on what you’re looking for.

Home Workouts

There are entire companies out there that were established to make working out at home possible. I recently started following the video series of one of these programs and actually really like it. I can do it from the comfort of my home and all I need is a few cheap weights (check local second hand stores or garage sales), and a yoga mat. Be careful you don’t get sucked into buying some of these companies’ nutritional supplements though. They usually have a reasonable ‘’first time’’ price but can get you on subsequent orders. Eat a well-balanced diet and exercise, you don’t need fancy supplements.

Check Out Local Programs

Our local library often has fliers advertising free or cheap classes, everything from toddler ballet to 65+ Tai Chi. Some of the courses are free (Yoga in the park every Sunday!), but some have a small fee associated. When I was in university I partook in a cheap learn to run course and it was a great experience, I was especially thankful for my tight budget!

Some people only think of fancy gyms and pools when it comes to losing weight and staying fir when the reality is that you can live a very healthy life without paying for anything.

Do you have any tips for staying fit on a budget?