Anybody have kids AND money?

[Aloha_Shooter]

One of the things I harp on when I teach Scouts the Personal Management merit badge is learning to distinguish between wants and needs. Dave Ramsey and Clark Howard may not be the best guys to follow when it comes to investing but their approach on minimizing household debt and really identifying needs from wants is sound. The number one tool I have is making them log everything they earn or spend for 90 days (that's required for the merit badge anyway). If they protest, I show them my log book from 4 years of college -- I can show them to a penny how much I spent on food, soda, comic books, pinball, you name it. It's usually quite the eye opener when I challenge them to go over their own logs. Do this with every member of the family and review the logs together as a family once a month. You can do it weekly but some of the spending may get lost in the noise whereas a monthly and year-to-date review with everyone can highlight some spending that you weren't aware of.

I never make a major purchase on the spot -- I always like to do at least a week's worth of research first and even after deciding on the purchase want to sleep on it for a night or two before completing the deal. When I didn't have money, I just flat out wouldn't go to things like computer shows or gun shows or anything that might tempt me into spending. Now that I have some, I still walk around and won't handle anything (too tempting, it's like women holding a new baby) until the second pass. If I see anything I like, I go around a couple more times to give the seller a chance to unload it on someone else -- and if it disappears, I figure it's a sign from Heaven that I should save money. This tactic works even on minor purchases as I'll frequently decide after 20 minutes of walking that I really didn't need another dust-collector or more calories.

You say you're in a happy medium lifestyle-wise. I'd say you should think about reducing it even further. One thing you might think about is setting up a separate account that gets 10% of your gross off-the-top. This conditions you to think about living at 90% of your current standard. Later, funnel any raises into that account. I made it a general rule as I grew older that at least half of any payraise I made went directly into investments (paying off debt counts as an investment).

Get your kids to learn to scrimp and save from general self-interest. My dad raised me to think I was pulling one over on them by pocketing my bus money and walking to/from school once or twice a week. They incorporated two haircuts a month into my allowance and I usually stretched it so I went 3-4 weeks between haircuts. Now that I'm middle-aged, I'm sure they knew exactly what was going on but were happy I knew the value of a dollar.

[Snowman78]

All good stuff and I do most of it, we NEVER eat out. One vehicle (paid off). No data plans for our cells phone, ect. I also keep the heat down low at our house (63) helps save on the Xcel Energy bill. Our bigest cost is the morage (we are trying to re-finance) and daycare (near $650 a mounth)

[hatidua]

A lot of people have seemingly necessary items that aren't even remotely necessary.

[PugnacAutMortem]

All good stuff and I do most of it, we NEVER eat out. One vehicle (paid off). No data plans for our cells phone, ect. I also keep the heat down low at our house (63) helps save on the Xcel Energy bill. Our bigest cost is the morage (we are trying to re-finance) and daycare (near $650 a mounth)

Man if we could swing daycare for that much we would be totally set. We're paying upwards of $1,200 a month for our 2 year old, and its about to go up when our daughter is born in December.

[02ducky]

Kids = no money.

Good luck, like other have said cut back on the unnecessary stuff.

[T-Giv]

Damn I had no idea childcare was that much! Hopefully my wife don't get prego in the near future of we would be in the same boat...if not much worse. Good on you guys for doing what is necessary to prioritize your kids. Too many people these days that have kids and don't adapt their lifestyle in any way. Makes me sick!

[hurley842002]

Great advice guys!

I'm in the same "kid no money" boat. My child and marriage happened very quickly, so I've struggled going from roughly a thousand a month surplus, to zero....

I wasn't as smart with my money (saving) as I should have been, before I started my family, but I HAD zero debt, so that is a plus.

We pretty much live paycheck to paycheck, after all bills and daycare are paid, but I'm the happiest I've ever been, and love being a husband and a father.

We will catch up and get ahead sooner or later.

[wctriumph]

You can blame women's lib for the economic woes this country faces.

[blacklabel]

We've worked on cutting back and I'm always looking for new ways to do so. We've also been working on paying off our smallest credit cards and working towards the largest. That should be done in the next 4-5 months. After that we need to pay off my truck and then we'll be able to sack away a decent amount in savings/investments/preps on a monthly basis.

[sniper7]

Man if we could swing daycare for that much we would be totally set. We're paying upwards of $1,200 a month for our 2 year old, and its about to go up when our daughter is born in December.

wow, are you guys gone pretty much all day 5 days a week? that seems pretty high