Good Parenting

One of the biggest decisions you will make before your baby is born is whether or not you will return to your previous job after your baby is born. For many new moms, emotions play a huge factor in this decision. Others cannot fathom the idea of a babysitter or daycare after they have held their precious bundle for the first time and they may long to stay at home to raise their new baby. Before you make your decision you will need to know if you will be able to financially afford to make this choice.

One of the first steps you and your partner will need to make is a budget. You should keep a record of all of your expenses for at least four months prior to baby’s arrival. You should take everything into account, the amount you spend each week on groceries, gas to travel to and from work (for your partner or yourself), electric & water bill, cable, internet, landline and the cell phone should also be included. Extra expenses should also be made taken note of including trips to the salon, doctors and insurance bills, dining out and any extra necessities. This way after four months of record keeping you will be able to review with your partner what items you can afford to eliminate as extra expenses. A very good idea on how to cut down expenses is to keep a small notebook with you each time you make a trip to the store and keep the receipts!

Saving on your grocery bill is another way you can easily reduce your expenses! Start saving by planning a weekly menu and sticking with it, this way you avoid wanting to dine out on days when you just do not know what you want to make for dinner. Start buying the Sunday newspaper and clip out any valuable coupon that you may be able to use and keep them all organized in a coupon box. You will be amazed at how much you can reduce your grocery bill just from using coupons!! Another way to cut back on extra spending is to reduce your power bill. Leaving a light on in a room that you are not using is wasting power, so start making it a habit to turn the lights off each and every time you leave a room in your house. Turn the computer and television off at night, you will see a slight reduction in your power bill just by doing these simple routines!

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 4:04 pm and is filed under Good Parenting.