If you have a family to take care off, money may be one of your biggest concerns. Even if you are doing quite well at the present moment, there is no harm to find ways to save money for future used. You can use the extra money saved to start an education fund for your children.

Below are helpful ideas for families on how to save that extra dollar to be put away for the future.

• Plant vegetables and fruit trees

If you like gardening, why not grow some of your own food. This will help to cut cost on vegetables and fruits bought from the supermarket.

photo credit: woodleywonderworks

• Learn to do things yourself

If you outsource some chores like mowing the lawn or even hair-cutting, you can be adventurous and learn to do this yourself. The rest of the family members can pitch in as well. If you used to buy snacks from the store, go for a change and prepare them at home instead.

photo credit: TheGiantVermin

• Organize a carpool

This is an old idea but very workable. For example, my cousin’s kids carpooled to go school. After school and going home, the parents take turns doing this. Overall, it saves effort, time and gas.

• Share child-care duties

Instead of sending your child to a day-care center, you can share the duties with other parents. Parents can take turns to look after the children and save cost on day-care.

• Plan your weekly meals

Planning and making a list before you go shopping helps to cut down on unnecessary purchases. Buy groceries or food to include pack lunches as well to save on eating at restaurants. Shop for necessities or buy the required household things in bulk when there is a bargain sale.

photo credit: BruceTurner

• Drive less

Planning your outings mean going out less often and saving on gas or petrol cost. For example, go to the supermarket once a week only instead of two or three times a week.

• Choose a school near the home

Choose a school that is near so that you save on gas. Your teenage son or daughter can live at home instead of the dorm or college campus. They get to eat at home too and do not have to worry about food cost.

Frugal parenting is about proper money management to ensure the family is well taken care off. It also includes proper planning that takes into account future expenditures and allocating the necessary funds for them. For example, if you have children, you may want to set up an education fund immediately right after they are born. Below is a family acquaintance (names have been changed) and this is a story on their lifestyle.

Meet the Tang family who are in their late 30’s. They own a house, which is partially paid for, and a car that is already settled in full. Both Mr. and Mrs. Tang are working where Mr. Tang is a teacher in a Chinese primary school and Mrs. Tang is a secretary in a private firm. They have 3 children, the eldest is an 11 year old boy, second is an 8 year old daughter and the youngest is a 5 year old boy. All the children go to the same Chinese school where Mr. Tang is teaching.

The Tangs’ combined salaries is RM3300, barely enough to cover their monthly household expenses. Mr. Tang supplements their income by giving tuition during the night time and over the weekend. By doing so, he is able to bring in an additional RM2000 per month. Mrs. Tang is talented in cake baking but having to work and take care of the household chores leaves her very little time to pursue her interest.

The busy lifestyle keeps the Tangs occupied most of the time and does not leave much time for leisure. Hence, they seldom go out to the shopping mall unless there is a necessity. Every weekend, Mrs. Tang goes to the wet market and supermarket to get her weekly supplies of groceries, vegetables, fish, chicken, etc.

The Tangs live quite near the market and place of work including the school and hence their petrol or fuel expenses are very low. The house location was their main consideration when they bought the house 5 years ago in addition to the affordability. However every other week, they do travel to Mrs. Tangs parents’ house which is located 60 KM away. The whole family enjoys this visit as they get to bring back local fruits that are in season like rambutans, mangos, pomeloes, durians, bananas and papayas from the family owned fruit orchard.

Their simple lifestyle enables the Tang to live comfortably on their income. Mr. Tang also manages to put aside some money each month for his children’s education fund. The children do not complaint much at this stage on the simple lifestyle as their parents continue to teach and remind them on the value of money. An earlier posting, “Simple Ways to Teach Your Child the Value of Money“, gives useful ideas on how to do this.

I believe that it is a rare case if a couple has never argued about money. Money conflicts are very common between couples. The arguments may be related to a lot of issues regarding money such as:

• Who is earning more money
• Who is contributing more towards the family’s support
• Who is in-charge of the money matters, like settling the monthly bills
• Why one partner gets to spend more money on personal treats
• Why there is no money left at the end of each month
• Why there is so much debt
• Why one partner is over-spending every month
• Why the savings account is under one name only
• Why one partner has a retirement fund and the other does not

The list can go on and on. My partner and I also have our share of money disagreements. Although we rarely have strong earth-shaking arguments about money, we often have minor disagreements in our views about money issues. One of the obvious thing I notice is that we both have different opinions and attitudes about money in some areas. I called it our differences in ‘Money Personality’.

My money personality is as follows:
• I am frugal.
• My goal is to reach financial freedom as soon as possible.
• I prefer to earn passive income but currently I have to go out to work and earn an active income.
• I want to accumulate money fast rather than gradually.
• I tend to worry a lot about money. For example, on whether my retirement fund will be sufficient or not, whether my insurance will be enough to cover my medical expenses at old age or whether the children’s education fund is adequate to cover all the necessary costs.

My partner’s money personality is as below:
• He is also frugal (we agree on this part).
• He does not mind to work until retirement. Hence, building or establishing a passive income stream is not important.
• As long as he is working every month earning a salary, he does not see the big deal about accumulating money fast for early retirement.
• He likes the idea of working for someone else rather than working for himself.
• He is confident that the amount of money taken monthly from his salary for his retirement fund will be sufficient to meet his needs.
• He is comfortable with his current way of life and is not interested to learn new ideas, skills or trade.

Knowing your partner’s view on money matters helps to prevent big arguments on the related issues. Both of you would know where you each stand and both have a right to his or her own views. Hence, compromising is a good way to settle a dispute and reach a mutual decision.

What money arguments do you have with your partner? What do you disagree about the most?