Saving money?

BTBCWM

Guess I'll try my first thread here...  As I stated in my intro, my one major concern/worry is not being able to financially support a child.  I'm not the least bit concerned about being good parents, at least not my wife.  I'll probably screw the kid up six ways from Sunday, but my wife will be a great mom.  

 So, having said that, I was looking to see if any of you other dads or dads to be have any interesting ways of saving money or savings plans that have been successful?  I'm interested in learning new ways to save money.  The idea of paying for a baby is awfully daunting, so any advice or suggestions are welcome.

 I'll share the one thing my wife and I do.  We pay for everything in cash (other than bills), so whenever we pay for something we take any five dollar bill we get in change and set it aside as baby money.  We'd been doing this with ones already and using the saved up ones for gas whenever we drove to visit family.  Now we also are doing it with fives.  It's pretty frustrating when you buy something for 4 bucks and only have a 20, and get three fives back, knowing that 4 dollar item just cost you 20 lol.  On the other hand, we save around 100 a month and have used that to buy almost every big-ticket item we need.  It feels good when we can go buy a stroller or pack and play or swing or whatever and it be money you have already written off.  It's also forced us to tighten up what we spend since we have less left each pay period due to the fives being written off.

 Anyway, that's what we do, now what you guys got?  We can use all the help we can get with ideas on how to save! 

Duffman78

Well there are many ways to cut cost. First example use coupons there are those that extreme coupon like us. Man I thought that I would never use a coupon as a single man; but being married and having a son $30 to 40 dollars once a week sometimes more ads up. If you double coupon for example today we had a $3 coupon from Target and $10 MFG coupon from Pampers we got a 100 count for diapers for $6. The math ads up to 5x's the savings. Second example second hand items are good buys. Lil ones going to out grow it in a month or two anyways. As long as items are in great shape. Most items you find are almost new. Third example buy in bulk it equals more savings. Fourth and final example as a man cut down on drinking beer and or hard liquor.

Good luck and hope this helped.

iWesleyd08

we first started saving money by not going out to eat. problem with that was we didnt do it too often to beging with so we save about a whole 10 bucks a month. granted that adds up it still wasnt enough. we started putting money into our savings everytime that we wanted something that we knew we shouldnt get. we would check the price of the item and thats how much went to savings. it worked pretty well. I also agree with duffman. coupons are great. check your local stores on the coupons that can be used and use everyone that you can get your hands on. if you go onto the sites of products that you use regularly (you, wife, and baby products) you can sign up for their email notifications and they will send you loads of coupons that you can print and use and possibly combine depending on stores and policies and such. couponing doesnt have to be as extreme as the shows int order to save tons. also, check which stores have the best prices for different things. dont feel obligated to buy a pack of diapers at babies r us because thats where you are when they are cheaper at wal-mart or target. once baby is here you will get to test which diapers you and baby like and then find where they are cheap.  

StayHomeDad

Buying used stuff I think is going to be huge for us.  We volunteered at a Just Between Friends event and got early entry to purchase items.  A lot of the people that work the event are obviously either pregnant or have had children so you get to talk to them about other tricks of the trade.

iWesleyd08

I ment to put this in my post as well. We bought a swing, pack-n-play, travel system(car seat, stroller, and carrier), and high chair all for $100 total all in excellent condition. They were at a yard sale in a nicer neighborhood around us. 

ThumpersMan

basically gave up my hobbies until I am making enough to support the baby. 

Sometimes it sucks but I'd rather give my (future) daughter everything I can. And at some point i'll be stable enough to get back into my hobbies. 

Coupons always caused us to spend more than we initially intended. We haven't learned to be disciplined enough with coupons yet. 

Cutting back on eating out was the easiest and quickest solution for us.

Is more shifts/hours at work a possibility?

one2seven

We've been good at saving recently by just having a good chunk of each of our checks direct deposited to a savings account that we don't even acknowledge the existence of most of the time.

 

My worry is that now that we've finally started getting the financial ship righted, we're about to struggle again when my wife becomes a SAHM. I make enough thats its doable, but difficult...still it beats spending 70% of her take home pay on daycare. Cutting out restaurants will be the hardest part since its our biggest vice, but we've been getting better in that regard lately. 

FlashFry

do you have direct deposit? One thing you could do is open another saving account and have X amount of dollars dropped in there every pay check. That way you are saving money without ever seeing it. It is nice because you pay your bills / buy things with the money you see hit your checking account while knowing that your savings is growing all the time. It works nice because you are not tempted to spend it as badly as you are when you see the cash sitting in your wallet or in a jar on our night stand.

sdjack

Being a first time dad, when I first went into the baby stores I was blown away at how ridulously expensive baby stuff can be. Then, after the initial shock wore off, I wanted to get my son everything possible. From my experience so far, don't impulse buy, especially if you plan on having a baby shower. Take advantage of the shower. If you register, go for the must haves OTHER than diapers and wipes. People tend to get you diapers, wipes and clothing regardless.

Also, along with couponing, look for free stuff. Most brands of diapers, bottles, and formula allow you to sign up for coupons and free samples. Destination Maternity signed my wife up to get a few samples of formula without us even realizing.

DavidStamps

Hey!

Just to piggyback off what others have saved, we too are clipping coupons and signing up for saving programs. Babies R Us has a frequent purchase card, so when we bought our crib (kid due in Sept!) we got 300 points which equaled $10 in a gift card. It's not a lot of dough, but every little bit helps. I'm also considering joining Costco, buying in bulk will also save you a ton of funds.

At home I'm using the envelope method. Every pay period I pull out extra money, put it in a envelope in our drawer and leave it there. Out of sight, out of mind. My wife doesn't know it's there so she won't have any ideas about shopping sprees and I feel comfortable knowing that if we ever have a random, last minute need, we have the money liquid and available. 

As far as our kid's future, we are going to set up a 529 account for college and we are looking into a living trust to make sure our family is protected. 

Hang in there....and don't forget, every little bit helps!

D.

jessilynnwilliams

Since I'd been reading over my hubby's shoulder for a while, I thought I'd comment. (Sorry, I know this is the "no girls allowed" club!). 

You guys have a lot of great ideas, and we wanted to say thank you for sharing them with us! I'm already a coupon clipper, and that does help a bunch! We have been checking out some baby resale shops, and have found a few good things. (I'm a little bit of a germaphobe, so it probably makes that a little more difficult to find things!) We've also had a lot of good luck at Burlington Coat Factor (not sure if anyone mentioned that).

Sorry, I don't remember who suggested picking up more hours at work...but my hubby is military. Believe me, they'd LOVE to have him working 24 hours a day.... but the paycheck would stay the same

And to whoever had said they were considering costco... is there a BJ's by you? We got a membership there and they have in store cupons as well as accepting manufacture's coupons!

 Thank you all again for your advice! We appreciate it! And congrats to y'all on your little ones!