Dads & Dads-to-be

Budget - TV - sports

Howdy. Long-time reader, first-time poster, as it were. We're expecting our first May 20.

I have deduced that babies are expensive. We're looking at budget options... and the most frequent suggestion we're getting is "cut cable." Open to other suggestions, as I assume that without live sports I will surely die. But cable, internet and smartphone definitely appear to be budget poison.

If you want to think about it this way... what are the first couple of things you cut or will cut pre-birth... and for those with kids already, what were the first couple of changes you made when you realized you were in over your head?

Cheers... 

Re: Budget - TV - sports

  • Dining out.

    We cut Netflix and switched to just Redbox and free streaming online stuff.

    We actually managed to save some money on our car insurance by cutting our coverage a bit on the older car.

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BhqjipgCIAAOz7H.jpg
    -My son was born in April 2012. He pretty much rules.
  • Dining out/going places is the first one. Cutting cable really isn't that bad of a thing anymore, what with smart phones and high speed internet. In fact, there were millions (I think I heard roughly 3M) that watched the super bowl for free on the computer/tablet/phone. I can't cut ours, since we're tied into a contract for another year (Dish) but I actually stream or download just about as much stuff as I watch live. Better quality and less commercials
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  • Going out to eat was the first thing to go, now it is a rarity.

    Call your cable company and threaten to switch to someone else unless the price improves... you can save $20-30 a month as long as you agree not to leave for a year (not a contract, more or less a verbal agreement).

  • We cut cable years ago and we just have a HD antenna.  It receives about 10 channels, including 3 PBS stations!  Exciting! Honestly it's been really easy without cable.  We have Hulu for most TV shows we want to watch.

    I agree with the other guys about going out to eat.  I can't say I'm following that advice though.  I am probably the worst grocery shopper in history. 

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  • My wife and I discovered that we wasted a ton of money eating out.  As a result, we now chart out our dinner's every Sunday.  We agree on the meals, and we head out shopping.  This also includes lunches during the week. I cannot remember the last time I went out for lunch during the week.  My wife is also good with the coupons, so we save some coin there too.

    We will never give up the cable in my household.  I am sports freak, my wife is a movie freak, so we need the HD's to be in top form in my house. We did give up our Brewers season tix instead, so that saves a big chunk with that move.  Instead we will go to a select few games over the season.  Now if they make the playoffs, I will be at every home game!!! Cutting down our entertainment spending goes a long way in saving money.

    I winterized the windows in our house, so that saves a little on heat.

    We NEVER keep a balance on our CC's...NEVER!!!!

    Other than that, yeah, life is freakin expensive!!!!  

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  • There is plenty of free streaming websites, so losing cable isn't a big deal.  Me and the wife will probably end up by default eating out less once the baby is born, so that will take care of itself.
  • We cut cable and went with Internet got a Netflix membership and share it with a friend and she gives us Hulu plus. As for sports there are many websites you can watch from for free. Private message me and I will share. Other then that we are try to cut dinning out
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  • Do you or have you used Mint.com?  Its a great and secure way to manage your finances.  In addition based on what you spend money one it gives suggestions on how to save money.  My wife and I have been using it for years and its great to see in detail where our money goes and what we can cut back on.

     We are not due till Sept so we havent really made any significant changes yet. I plan on eating out less and going out less :( so that should save a good bit.  

     One question I did have is about how much money (in an ideal world) should you have saved prior to baby's arrival?  Is there a rule of thumb there or is it best to just save AS MUCH as possible?

    ps-there are ways to watch live sports online for free but the quality if not ideal. 

  • As far as money saved for baby... it depends.  Here are major contributing factors to how much you may decide you need to save.

    - Breastfeeding vs. formula (formula is obviously more expensive)

    - Stay-at-home parent vs. Daycare

    - Health insurance and health of child

    - How much you gear you wind up getting from friends/family/showers, etc.  This could save you a fortune, or cost you a ton.

    It never hurts to have as much as possible saved in case of emergency anyways, but we didn't have a great deal saved up beforehand.  We didn't do formula until about 7 months, we didn't have to do daycare for a while, he didn't really get sick until he went to daycare and we scored huge on gear, so we didn't need to buy much.

  • We aren't really planning on cutting anything during the pregnancy.  Over the last couple of years we have worked to trim our budget to be within my salary so my wife could stay home with the baby.  The big things that we saw savings from were eating out and groceries.  We also cut cable and I really miss sports.

    In answer to the savings question.  We made a list of everything that we thought we would need for the baby and gave a price estimate.  Then we set a savings goal to have enough money to buy everything if we had too.  We have an emergency fund set up in case anything crazy happens.


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  • Easy way to save money on baby is buying only what LO actually needs. I gave in to the hype with #1 and bought so much crap that I thought was necessary or was really cute. I wasted $$$$$ doing that and ended up giving/throwing most of that junk away. Make a list of necessities, then price out the items online before purchasing so you have an idea of how much you will have to spend up front, and then each month thereafter. And buy stuff like clothes and diapers in larger sizes in advance when they are on sale, then stash them away fro when LO gets to that size. Buy a Costco membership and purchase your household necessities like detergent, toilet paper, etc there. Even stuff like meat and bread that can be bought on sale and then frozen till use. Buying in advance and stashing is one of the best ways I've discovered for saving $.

    And yes, the eating out thing does rack up a lot of $. You probably won't even want to go out that much after LO is born, because it can be a headache. Easy-peasy meals prepared in advance and frozen in ziplock bags or tupperware are a godsend. Whether you use the microwave or the oven to reheat, wait a few mins and you've got a hot meal ready to go.

  • We are cutting back on eating out and we had to get a bigger vehicle, so we shopped around a lot and sold my wife's car instead of trading it in. This allowed us to get enough cash to pay off one of her student loans (the one with the highest interest rate) and put about $1,000 away for baby expenses. Otherwise we would still have the extra $97 payment and not the cash even though the car payment could have been about $50 less. Sometimes you just have to look at everything to see what you can do.

    We are even going to probably switch from cable to satellite. It sounds weird, but we pay quite a bit for cable, but they have no contracts, so we have cable from August 1 to February 28th (Preseason to Super Bowl) and use an antenna hooked up to an old laptop with Windows Vista Ultimate and the media center. That allows us to watch shows online as well as on the antenna, DVR shows and still see it all on our HDTV. By switching to satellite, we will get stuck in a contract, but by changing to the lowest package during the NFL offseason and to the minimum to get ESPN and NFL network for the season we come out the same but without the high variability in price. We also are looking at lowering the speed on our internet ($10 is $10!)

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