Savings

The boys were drinking formula for right at 1 year and man, it was financially killing us. I hugged the Dr. when he told us that we could start the transition from formula to milk. No lie, I had to wipe the tears from my eyes. Think about it, a container of formula is about $22.00 – $24.00, depending on what you are getting. And because we had twins, we were going through a container about every 5 days. Our monthly spend for formula was about $200.00 a month. Whereas now, we buy 3 gallons of milk a week, at $3.00 a gallon and we are spending $48 a month.

We were also very lucky too, as the boys immediately took to the milk as well. We didn’t have to do a mixture of formula and milk. We saw the Dr. on a Friday afternoon and we gave them their first full taste of Milk that night. So, once again, we have been very lucky.

This is a huge savings. Now, if you are close to 1 year, I would wait and talk with your child’s Dr. before making the transition from formula to milk, as I have read that if you start this too soon, that there are allergies that could be developed. That being said, with a savings of close to $140 a month, we are able to use the additional money for other foods for the boys and also, put more into their college funds.

 

 

 

Read more

Saving Money

In this day in time, where credit card debt has risen, I think that it is important to start teach children financial responsibility.  My wife and I have started setting aside $50 a month, per child and putting it into their bank account. Yes, we did establish a bank account for our children, and we did so for multiple reasons:

1) It is a credit union and we could get them established as members very early on.
2) If we put a minimum of $50 a month, for 1 year, that is $600 a year. If we maintain this pattern, they will have $7,200 per child after 16 years.  *This is not factoring in any interest.
3) We are encouraging others to donate to our boys, instead of giving them toys, that will only increase their bank account.
4) We are teaching the boys financial responsibility and really encouraging them to save for their future.

In a day and time where families are spending money at a rapid pace, teaching the boys the importance of saving money at an early age, is so important.

Read more

While doing some research on Alltop on Twins blogs, I came across this blog post that will help you save money today! Some of these ideas we have already started implementing. Here is the article: 10 Ways to Make Ends Meet on a Constricted Family Budget

Based off of their list, here is what we have done:

4. Restructure your debts –

We are actually following the Dave Ramsey approach and have listed our debts from lowest to least and have started making extra payments just to get them down the quickest.

9. Cancel subscriptions that you no longer use –

We just canceled 3 magazine subscriptions that we have no longer been reading as much. And since there is so much free content available and most of the magazines have their content free anyway. Saves money and saves space, because I often collect all of my magazines and read them all in one day.

10. Watch free movies and television through legal online sites –

Even though I have to say that I haven’t really gotten into the free movies, I do need to call Comcast now that our contract is up.  We don’t need all 5 of the movie channels now that we have the kids and honestly, we can save the extra money to use toward paying down additional debt.

We are probably more focused now than ever before to save money today. In order for us to reach our financial goals, we have cut out a lot, but still need to do better to have everything paid off sooner than later. And then we can put more money in our 401k and our boys college funds.

Read more

Being the father of twins and being the one that looks at the checkbook on a daily basis, the added expense of twins took a toll on us financially. But we have taken some steps to help us save money each week:

1) Coupons – We actually subscribed to two weekend only newspapers for our area. The cost of these two papers were $60 for the year for the two papers. In the first month, between the two newspapers, we were able to use enough coupons to pay for the entire year. Our average weekly savings is about $35 a week at the grocery store.
2) Discount sites – We signed up for Living Social, Groupon, and local coupon websites and they too have been helpful. Whether purchasing oil changes, gift cards to consignment shops, etc, every little helps.
3) Loyalty Programs – For somethings we are not brand loyal, but then for somethings ,we are. One thing that we did was to immediately signup for Gerber and Pampers Rewards programs. We get coupons on a regular basis, which help with our weekly purchases of formula and diapers.
4) Friends, Family, Co-Workers – All of the above help us by bringing us coupons on a weekly basis. I’m not a fan of it takes a village philosophy, but with twins, it takes those closest to you to help.

We on average spend $50 a week on formula and another $10 – $20 on solid food for the twins, so every little bit helps.

Read more