How you can spend less raising kids

Having a child is a part of life fulfilment, which requires spending a significant amount of money. In fact, there’s no specific amount of money in raising a child, but not everyone agrees parents have to spend so much to raise a baby to adulthood. Here’re ways to help you save money while raising your children

Firstly, when raising your child the need for Food, Diapers and Love are very essential, when babies are born, they don’t need much more than food and diapers, even those necessities can often be bought for less. There’re ways you can feed your babies cheaply. However, breast-feeding is the cheapest way to nourish an infant. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that infants should be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life to achieve optimal growth.

In response to the importance of exclusive breastfeeding, the Federal Government established the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) in Benin, Enugu, Maiduguri, Lagos, Jos and Port Harcourt with the aim of providing mothers and their infants a supportive environment for breastfeeding and to promote appropriate breastfeeding practices, thus helping to reduce infant morbidity and mortality rates. Breast-feeding is also the best way to save money, which is always available for every woman to nurse their child.

Give cloth diapers a try too because today, there’s cloth diapers which is much better than the one your mother or grandmother used. Pins and plastic pants are a thing of the past, and modern cloth diapers have come in cute patterns.

Forget the expensive nursery; it’s a thing people get passionate over, when all a baby needs is a crib, a firm mattress and maybe a changing table. Parents should also consider the future when decorating a nursery and make sure it will easily transition to suit an older child.

Sometimes try to buy second hand items to save money because buying fairly used items whenever possible can help you to save more because a year-old child doesn’t need a brand-new wardrobe at this stage, they quickly outgrow clothes, accessories and toys, which mean many items sold used are actually nearly new.

Once kids move out of the baby and toddler stage, their wants may expand, but don’t confuse what they’d like with what they need. Sometimes we spend money we didn’t have to, some experts say, Kids don’t need things; they need you.

Birthday party for your kids is another issue to look at, your child may want to have a party every year in a very expensive place but save those for a while and have low-key parties probably at home or in a less expensive place with family and close friends on the other years.

There’s nothing wrong with saying ‘NO’ to your child. Carefully consider child care. The cost of child care is very expensive nowadays; however, it might not be a necessary expense.

Child care can cost as much as a mortgage for some families. Parents may want to consider whether they actually come out ahead by having both parents work. But if it happens that the other party doesn’t have anything doing, there’s no big deal, and all they need to do is to eliminate or reduce child care costs. Parents should also do the calculations before paying someone under the table to watch their children.

Not sharing a room for kids is the biggest expense related to raising kids, it may seem as though your house needs to grow along with your family, but there is no reason every child needs his or her own room. If storage is an issue, work with children to get rid of all the mess toys and clothes so they will fit in a smaller space.

TIAMIYU ADIO ISMAIL