Tightwad Tips to Raising Kids

With these tightwad tips you can be a tightwad and raise kids. Everyone says kids are so expensive and they can be. You don’t even have to try to spend a lot of money on kids, it just happens, if you let it. Below are survival tightwad tips that will allow you to be a tightwad and raise kids at the same time. Yes, your kids will still love you and they will be happy too.

Organize Yourself

The best frugal strategy to raising kids is to organize them. It is critical to know what you have on hand before you go shopping for kids so you don't buy duplicates of anything.

It has been tough to organize my husband and myself along with our four kids in a 2000 square foot house with three bedrooms. But, being organized has saved us money. You can see how I got our kids organized by clicking on how to organize kids.

This page will show you how to organize every aspect of your kids from their closets to their schoolwork.

Here are some other ways to save money raising kids.

Shop at a Warehouse Store

Some great tightwad tips to save money on babies are to buy diapers and wipes in bulk from a warehouse store such as Costco. I’ve found Costco diapers to be great quality and the cheapest by far.

About the age old debate of cloth versus disposable… by the time you factor in the cost to wash and dry cloth diapers, not to mention your time, it’s about the same as disposables.

Feeding Your Baby

Breastfeeding is the cheapest way to feed your baby as it doesn't cost anything. If you can't breastfeed because of medical reasons or you're just exhausted and you're baby is hungry all the time, don't feel guilty and talk to your pediatrician and look at formula feeding.

Hands down Costco has the cheapest price on baby formula around!

Baby food in jars is a good option for your infant, but view it as a convenience only. Baby food sold in the store is expensive and you can save a lot of money if you use a baby food mill to make your own.

If you're pressed for time during the week, you can make your baby food in batches on the weekend, then freeze in ice cube trays. Just pull out a cube and heat when your baby is ready to eat.

Cheap Diaper Pails

I don’t bother with a fancy expensive diaper pail. Use plastic grocery bags to bag and tie up each dirty diaper and take them straight to the outside trash. If I’m super pressed for time, I keep a paper grocery bag outside the back door, throw the bagged diapers in, and throw them out when the kids are napping.

Once your baby gets on solid food, those expensive diaper pails just don’t work that good.

Another of the great tightwad tips to raising kids is to potty train early!

I don't like those pull up training pants. They just prolong the potty training phase. After my second child, I’ve decided not to buy these again. There is no reason a walking, talking two year old who shows all the signs of being ready to potty train can’t go from diapers to regular underwear. This includes night time too!

Sure there will be accidents, but if you potty train correctly, they will be minimal, not willful, and will subside very shortly after potty training.

Clothing Inventory

If you have more than one child of the same gender close in age, it is imperative to organize yourself by keeping a clothing inventory. Nothing fancy, just keep a check list of what you have on hand and in what sizes and always accept hand me downs gratefully with open arms.

Thrift and Second Hand Stores

Thrift stores are wonderful for kid’s clothes. The items at thrift stores are seasonal. For example, during the summer you may find winter items and during the winter you may find summer items. It’s a good idea to keep track of your child’s growth and factor in any possible growth spurts when you buy their clothes a season ahead.

When buying kid's clothes from a second hand store wash with a good detergent like Tide and use an all color bleach. Hang dry as much as possible and iron items like girl's dresses. It’s amazing how crisp and fresh these clothes turn out with a little care. Most of the stains come out and an item that was slightly shabby or frumpy looks fresh again.

If I am unable to get to the thrift stores for kid's clothes, I'll order them online at Old Navy.com. They have great clothes for kids and cheap too.

Toys

My husband always tells me to wrap up the kid's toys and give them again as birthday and Christmas presents. Re-gifting toys to your kids and others is okay as long as you follow some simple rules such as...

• make sure all the wrapping from the original gift is off (we've received gifts with pieces of the original wrapping paper on them)
• the recipient would actually want the item (you’re not just dumping it on them)

My preference is to rotate kid's toys. Purchase plastic storage boxes to keep kid's toys stored away. Every six months or so go through their toys and store away the ones they aren’t playing with. When you pull the toys out again in another six months, your kids will be delighted with toys that are “new” to them. This also helps control the toy storage dilemma, which you can read more about in Kid's Toy Storage Solutions.

These are just a few of the quick tightwad tips I have utilized to be a tightwad and raise happy healthy kids. Utilize these tightwad tips and you will begin to discover more and more opportunities to save money while raising kids.