Top Tips for Balancing Budget & Family with Ease
From bringing the kids to after-school activities, to shopping for everyday family meals, the challenge of keeping the family organized and on a budget can be a source of stress for any busy mom. Get it all done without sacrificing quality time with the family. I'm pleased to be partnering with Safeway, which is making a concerted effort to make our lives easier and helping us shop smarter.
1. Take Control of Your Time: Everyone knows the stress of bargain hunting. Loading up the kids, buckling and unbuckling them from the car seats and keeping everyone in check as you trek from store to store. Parents, let’s make a pledge: spend less time on errands and shop at one store for everything on your list. It really is possible! For example, Safeway offers all of your household needs from food, to health and beauty, to household cleaning products—all at thousands of new everyday low prices. Plus take advantage of the great weekly Club Card specials and you’ll save a ton! Spend less time shopping and more time focused on quality family time.
2. Make Errands Fun: Turn an ordinary grocery trip into a fun scavenger hunt. Any grocery store is the perfect place to road test this tip - there are plenty of ways to create a naturally fun atmosphere for learning while you shop. Create a “find the best deals” list and give each child a few items to find. As they walk up and down the aisles, they can easily spot the bright new yellow shelf tags displaying the new everyday low prices. Ask them to subtract the new lower price from the old price (crossed out with an X) to figure out how much you’ve saved. At the end of the trip, the one who finds the most deals can pick out an extra treat!
3. Plan to prepare dinner five nights a week: Plan out several meals at once to make the most out of your time in the kitchen. Instead of preparing just enough for one night’s dinner, double the recipes. Channel your culinary Houdini by prepping one meal and creating a whole new meal the next day from the leftover ingredients! Burger night can become a taco lunch, and leftover roast chicken from dinner can be turned into a delicious and healthy chicken salad.
4. Digital Discounts: A lot of great deals come through online promotions, as well as ideas for things to do. Many local businesses send coupons and special deals and offers via email, or Facebook, so it's worth your while to read these. The digital era has even found ways to cut down on coupon clipping time. When you visit Safeway.com, you can download digital coupons right onto your Club Card through the CouponLink program. Simply find the coupons you want to use, shop the store and swipe your card at checkout—all of your coupons are automatically redeemed! No fumbling with pieces of paper.
5. Cooking with Family: The kitchen provides a great opportunity to learn new things. Involving your children in meal preparation at an early age is a great way to educate your family on healthy eating habits, responsibilities in the kitchen and proper table manners. For example, kids will enjoy being a part of the process of measuring and mixing, or chopping and dicing. It’s a great way to spend time with the family and allows everyone to feel like they contributed to the evening.
6. Get creative with lunch: Lunch is typically the only meal your kids eat away from home, so put some fun into it! Buy cute lunchboxes and purchase favorite snacks in bulk quantities. Make them ahead of time. I've frozen twenty PB & Honey sandwiches, already wrapped in wax paper and ready to go in the lunchboxes. We use the creative lunchboxes from Goodbyn, which is really just one huge container, so we don't use any plastic bags or need to separate out our food. Just pour yogurt right in, throw in a handful of nuts...
7. Take it on the road: Sometimes a mini road trip can be a welcomed distraction for both mom and child who tend to get a bit stir-crazy at home. Hit the local coffee shop that caters to kids for a fun family outing. Or, the library is a great family resource that is often overlooked and it’s free! Your local library has books, movies, magazines and weekly activities such as local art displays or story telling programs.
8. Combine grocery shopping with socializing: Who says you have to make a special plan to spend time with friends. Try meeting at your local grocery store and have a date down the aisles! Have each person bring a fun new recipe to share and catch-up while you shop for the ingredients. You won’t be spending money on meals out, PLUS you may get inspired by a shopping buddy to try a new recipe or purchase a new product.
9. The Clean-up Game: No need to do all the housekeeping on your own. Involve the family in everyday chores by making them into a fun, interactive activity. Try Eye Spy Jeopardy (“I spy the chess board on the floor; where should that go?”). Kids can ‘buzz’ for the answer and then put it in its proper place. The child with the most ‘points’ or items put away gets to pick what’s for dessert that night!
10. Online Organization: Use web-browser bookmarks to keep track of your favorite websites and online resources. Organizing them by category saves you time when looking for a specific site. You won’t need to search for forgotten post-its or scrap paper notes anymore- all your thoughts and ideas are saved on your computer and easy to access. You can make bookmarks as specific as you need, such as, “New Grilled Chicken Recipe to Try,” or “Arts & Crafts Sites for Play-Date Activities.”
