Ways to save money - Parenting Video Transcripts
Video 1 Transcript
I recommend not buying too many toys for kids when they are young, because, like, the quality of a Christmas from a kid's eye is, is it the same as last year and a little bit more? And so if you start big as a small child, then you just have to get bigger and bigger and bigger. But if you just, like, get a couple toys and it's fine, then each year you can get bigger and bigger and bigger. Kids' clothes can get expensive, but they don't need new clothes, but they do need clothes that fit, that match, and that are appropriate for the occasion. So when I'm buying kids' clothes, I first go through their closet, I do the laundry, and I go through what they've inherited from an older sibling, and I make a list of what they actually need. And then I go to the thrift store first, and I look for the things on my list, and usually I find it at Once Upon a Child, but sometimes I don't. And then I will go to Target to get the thing that they need.
Video 2 Transcript
I feel bad about saying this because I have several friends who are piano teachers, but I saw an ad for Simply Piano and we tried it out and it's awesome. It's a piano teacher app. They have programmed in songs, in popular songs, that the kids actually want to play. The songs go across the screen and it listens to whether they play the right note or not, and so they can level up, they get stars, they go through courses. It is so easy to get the kids to practice their piano every day because it's actually fun. It's $120 a year, which is really cheap compared to paying a piano teacher. I think I might spend $120 on just a few kids every week.
Video 3 Transcript
I'm about to say something controversial. I don't like to own books. But that is not to say that we do not read books. We sometimes have more than a hundred books out from the library because I raised my limit on my card and I got a card for my daughter and I have to carry it in a teacher crate. It's called a rolling crate. But we read so many books from the library. You know the scholastic book ads that kids bring home from school? They're all at the library. Librarians get that magazine too. And they buy all those books and you can check them out.
Video 4 Transcript
I think buying things in bulk and on sale is probably the best tip I could give you, maybe. So if there is a sale on Amazon or at your local grocery store where something's half off, just stocking up if it's a non-perishable item, especially toilet paper, diapers, wipes, things like that, just buy a year's supply. You might look a little ridiculous buying, you know, 30 bags of wipes, but it could save you $30 if it's on sale. I have bought lots of diapers on Amazon. You know, when there's these deals, you know, you can do subscribe and save. Avoid debt. Debt is a huge money hole. You can live in a cheap place of the United States like we do in Missouri where, you know, you can buy a house for $50,000 to $100,000. You can also teach your children the importance of turning off the lights by showing, doing an experiment, looking at the power meter and how fast it spins when you have all the appliances and lights on and how slow it spins when it's not on.
Video 5 Transcript
My favorite way to save money with kids is to give them money. We give our kids an allowance, and it's tied to their chores. If they are generally a chore-doer, then they go on the payroll. And if they're starting to not want to do their chores, then they go off. I threaten to take them off the payroll. We give our big kids $2 a week, and the littler kids $0.50, and my toddlers get nothing. So the big kids get $2 a week, and it's enough that it adds up if they save it. And so whenever they see something they want, I say, You have money, and I let them buy whatever they want with that money. I'll say, This is a bad purchase, but I'll still let them make it. They're suddenly so frugal. It's their own money. It's amazing.
Video 6 Transcript
My mom is really good at coming up with fun activities that don't cost a lot. Something my family does a ton is hiking and growing up we would go hiking almost every night in the summer and it's really inexpensive and it's a great way to have fun with your family. My mom also took us to parks a lot. She took us to eat free lunch at the park in the summers and she was really good at utilizing like free community resources. So like when people would put on a free show or when there would be a free movie somewhere or free activities at the library she would always take us to those things and it got us out of the house in the summer and gave us something fun to do.
Video 7 Transcript
I have never purchased a school portrait. Maybe I'll regret it when I'm 60 and I have no nice portraits of my kids, but I have thousands of pictures of my children. And the school takes their portraits to use in yearbooks. You don't have to buy the portrait for them to use their photo. Anyway, pictures can get really expensive, and I have thousands of them on this very device. That is one way that I save a lot of money. At mealtimes, just give kids a little bit of each thing at a time. And if they don't like it, you haven't wasted a whole portion. One thing I say sometimes is, you can have more food when you've eaten the food that I've given you. You can have as much as you want, a little bit at a time.
Video 8 Transcript
I'm personally not a parent yet, but I have two incredible parents that have been great examples. And one of the best ways I've found to save money is simply by not spending it.
