When looking at how to cope with the daily struggles that our family finances can bring we must first look at our attitudes. Staying positive and proactive are the two most important attitudes we can adopt when times can be a little testing.
Of course we are not suggesting that you take it too far and not takes things seriously and sweep them under the rug. But having the ability to firstly stay positive about the strengths in our lives will then enable us to feel confident enough to proactively take on the challenges that the weaker financial aspects present.
So with that positive mental attitude in mind, here are our proactive tips to being clever with your family finances.
Focus on your Family Goals
The people that can focus on the end goals are generally more apt at taking the necessary steps to achieve them. If you can visualize what you want you are already taking active steps in getting it.
Whether you want to be able to afford for the children to be involved in more out of school activities or trips, or whether you are focused on finally building that conservatory extension, visualizing these goals will automatically have you creating financial strategies on how to achieve them.
Start Planning Your Family Finances
So now that we have adopted the right attitude we can set about planning how to start pulling our finances together so that we can live more comfortably and allow us to put our pennies into those investments that really matter to us.
To do that, we start with the details and work our way up. Starting small, for example, planning your dinner menu for the week, is a great way to start thinking really carefully about where every penny of our money goes.
Planning your meals and shopping smart can make a huge difference when you can cancel out impulse dinners at fast food restaurants, or last minute greasy takeaways. It’s not only your wallet that will thank you for all that forward planning, your waistline will too.
Consider Making Larger Investments
We can all feel a little nervous when thinking about the larger purchases we sometimes need to make for our family. Mortgages, cars and even summer holidays can really do wonders for upping our blood pressure and raising anxiety. However there has never been more information, advice and help available to help us through the larger investments that we have to make as a family.
Different mortgage options are available to families of all different financial incomes and needs. So researching the different rates and options available in your local area is a good place to start when beginning to look into buying your first family home.
Similarly, cars can be a nerve rackingly large investment for any family so perhaps a flexible payment plan with a company like https://www.approvenow.com/bad-credit-auto-loan/ could be just the financial flexibility your family needs with these sorts of purchases.
Family ‘Stay’cation Summers
Instead of spending a quarter of your family’s budget on a family holidays somewhere exotic (I know it would be rather nice though, wouldn’t it!) why don’t you think of fun and interesting things that you can do with your children, where you live, over the summer holidays.
Researching fun, interesting and, where possible, free events and activities in your local community can mean that your kids are happy and entertained over the summer months without you having to shell out for an extortionate family vacation.
Become a Second-Hand Pro
Buying and selling second hand goods has never been easier and the goods up for grabs have never been of such high quality. Looking for items in your local community that you need on apps such as wallapop.com can save you huge amounts of cash when you tot up all the savings you’ve made over a year.
It’s also a great way for you to make a little cash for yourself also. Have a rummage through your wardrobe and your kids wardrobes and look for any attractive items that either you never use anymore or that the kids have grown out of. You’ll be surprised how much spare cash you can make by finding interesting items around your house that you have outlived.
Of course that also goes for furniture. If you’re sick and tired of looking at the sofa that you’ve had for the last five years, put it online and see how much you can get for it. You never know, as the saying goes, ‘one person’s rubbish is another person’s treasure’.
Leave your tips for frugal family finances in the comments!
