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.

photo credit: paper or plastic?

Are you looking for a job or employment or just a great moneymaking opportunity? Your reason could be any of the following:

• You have been laid off or retrenched and currently unemployed
• You are a stay-at-home parent and wish to find a part time or full time job to supplement the household income
• You have a job but you wish to find other sources of income (create multiple streams of income)
• You are a recent graduate and you want to do something while searching for a suitable job
• You are a graduate but find it difficult to find employment and hence you plan to start something on your own
• You hate your current job and wish to look for an alternative work

Whatever your reason is, finding a job in this current economic downturn may not be easy. Being jobless when you need the income is no laughing matter. This is where the list of suggestions below may be helpful to you. The ideas below will give you a wide range of choices to choose from. The hardest part could be deciding which job; task or activity suits you and fits into your family life.

I am unable to give a detail description for each of them in this post, as it would take pages and pages to cover all of them. For subscribers of the WParent blog newsletter,I will provide the job description for free upon request. You may send me a message requesting for the job description at jacquelyn@wparent.com. Please select any 3 of the moneymaking ideas below that you are interested in and I will give a reply soonest. However, I will not entertain request from non-subscribers, as you have to be a subscriber to request for the information.

photo credit: tanakawho

• Offer services:

Babysitting, childcare, companion to the elderly, house-sitting, pet sitting, personal shopper (e.g. clothes, groceries), new parent helper (this is common in Malaysia), house cleaning, office cleaning, window washing, laundry service, carpet cleaning, car washing, rubbish removal, driving services, moving services, sewing services (e.g. curtains, clothing), cooking services (e.g. for working people, the elderly), grass cutting/gardening (tree or shrub pruning), house painting, catering, baking, handy person/handy man (e.g. repair, maintenance), computer services (e.g. computer repair, maintenance, website design), tour guide, newspaper delivery

photo credit: nertzy

• Teaching:

Art teacher, music teacher, dance teacher, academic tutoring, cooking teacher, carpentry teacher, sewing teacher, self-defense teacher, sports teacher (e.g. soccer, football, swimming, tennis), crafts teacher (e.g. candle making, soap making, basket weaving), fitness trainer, cake making or decorating

photo credit: bald_eagle89

• Small businesses (stand/cart/kiosk):

Vending machine, food stand, ice-cream stand, cake stand, snack or fruit stand, hot dog cart, popcorn or candy stand, handicrafts stand, T-shirt stand, toy stand, jewelry stand, book stand, secondhand stuffs stand, party organizer, photography, writing (e.g. ebook, books, articles), eBay business or other internet business (e.g. blog, website,internet marketing, MLM, affiliate programs)

photo credit: Doonvas

Successful people duplicate their business ideas and expand them. Eventually, they offer the same business opportunity to other people through franchising. The above are some of the ideas that you can look into. I am sure you can come up with more ideas of your own. Please add your ideas below if you do not mind to share them here.

photo credit: pfala

The Wise Parent Guide to Save Money

During these hard times, a lot of people are preoccupied with thoughts on how to save money. Why save money? Well, first and foremost it is within your personal control. Nobody can save money for you but yourself. In addition, it is your own responsibility to do it. It is even more important if you are a parent with a family to support.

The ideas in this article are extracted from the free ebook entitled “The Wise Parent Money Strategies”, offered to subscribers of Wparent.com. To begin with, you have to determine whether you have money to save by tracking all your income and expenditures. One way to ensure that you have money to save is by creating a budget and allocating a portion of your income to your savings fund. For those who have accumulated a lot of debt, a portion of your income must go towards debt repayment. For more ideas on tackling debt, read this article http://wparent.com/debt/

Practical money tips

* Save on eating out
A lot of families have taken to eating out to save time on food preparation and doing kitchen chores. However, eating out is also not cheap especially when the whole family does it a few times a week. To save money, eating at home is recommended as it is much cheaper and healthier. Get the entire family to put in efforts to help with kitchen chores and food preparation.
* Save on electricity bills
In the long run, using energy efficient lights can save money. At the same time, everyone must be reminded to switch off the lights or air-conditioning when not in used. It does not take much effort to remember this rule.
* Save on baby expenses
Having kids are normally part of family life. However, they come with a huge price tag. Starting from babies, parents have to fork out a lot of money in preparation for the arrival of a new baby. Learn budgeting tips from this article http://wparent.com/budget-baby/
* Save on unnecessary expenditures or credit card debt
This area takes some discipline and planning ahead to make it work. Personal expenditures like unnecessary trips to the department stores have to be taken under control. Credit card usage should not be abused and the balance must be cleared every month.
* Save on vacation or holidays
When you are trying to save money and cut down on expenses, a vacation or holiday should be the last thing on your priority list. Discuss with your family on the various options that are agreeable to substitute for a vacation. It could be picnics at the park, visits to the museum, barbecues at the beach, etc.
* Save on housing mortgage or loan repayment
Loan repayments especially on car loans and housing loan or mortgage have to be properly calculated and planned. If you cannot afford it, postponed the idea or get a cheaper version.

photo credit: Jeff Keen

Practical money advice

• Live like a college student: A lot of people got themselves through college by working part-time as well as by keeping a tight budget. Most of the times, material things were the least important compared to getting through college and graduating.
• If you can’t afford it, don’t spend that money: This is a very straightforward idea but easily overlooked. Some people tend to spend without thinking of the consequences. Then they accumulate debts, which they do not have the money to repay with. Stick to your budget and make allocations first if you need to purchase something. Practice delayed gratification all the time before making any buying decisions.
• If you are in a debt hole, stop digging: This is the consequences of not facing up to your actions. If you have debts, then it is imperative that you settle them quickly. At the same time, do not accumulate or create any new debts or you will be buried in too deep.
• Don’t misuse your credit card: Treat your credit card with respect. Owning several cards does not give you the license to spend money freely. The main purpose is for convenience only and if you follow by the rules, you don’t have to worry about the consequences.
• Don’t go shopping: When people are stressed out, feeling down or depressed, retail therapy seems the way to go. However, these people get more depressed once they see their debts piling up. Think of other ways to make yourself happy like have a social gathering with like minded friends. Above all, try not to do something that involves the need to fork out a lot of money.
• Money education for your children: Children are considered both as an asset and also a liability. Teach your children early about money. Parents have to shoulder the financial responsibility of supporting the family and also educating their children to respect money. If the parents are doing cost cutting to save money, it helps if the children understand and also get involved. When the children grow older, the parents need not worry so much as their kids already have a good basic foundation on money handling.

As you can see, the ideas above are very easy and clear-cut. The hardest part maybe is to be disciplined enough to follow or apply them one by one. If you view them positively as a way to improve your financial situation, then the ideas will be easier to implement. However if you see them as having a negative effect on your lifestyle, then you will hesitate or procrastinate from taking any actions. If you want to live in self-denial, then nobody can help you. Therefore, think of the positive consequences even though you may have to live without for a certain period. Making sacrifices now may be necessary to ensure a better future.

If you wish for more money saving ideas, there is also another section contained in the free ebook entitled “The Top 10 Money Mistakes to Avoid to Become and Stay Rich”. There are three spreadsheets included with the free ebook for organizing your personal and household budget and expenditures.

Wparent.com invites you to give your best tips on saving money. What method works well for you?

Visit the recent carnival at Solid Planning where you can get more money tips.

Wise parents would want to teach their children about money, where it comes from, the usage and so on. This article is written with your child as the reader in mind. It is meant to be a guide on money and to be read by both the parent and child together. The parent’s job is to elaborate more on the ideas mentioned in this article. The purpose is to give your child an introduction and a general idea about the function of money.

How did money begin?

A long, long time ago, bartering or the exchange of things or goods was carried out, as money did not exist yet. People traded the things they possess for other things that they do not have. They traded animals like cows, pigs and sheep. Grains and salt were also common as were tea, tobacco, rubber, beads and animal furs.

photo credit: Jarosław Pocztarski

In addition, metal items made of copper, gold, silver, tin and lead were also popular in the form of pots, tools, weapon and jewelry. Eventually, metal was chosen to be the most convenient and the best choice to barter with and coins were produced. However, coins were too heavy in big quantity and paper money was introduced. Today, both coins and paper money are so commonplace all over the world.

photo credit: tao_zhyn

Why do people need money?

People use money for a lot of different reasons. Some of which are:
• To buy things that they want
• To buy things that they need
• To help fulfill or meet some of their dreams or goals. For example, to go on a trip or to learn something or to pick up a skill.
• To make it possible for them to assist other people. For example, by donating some of their money to an organization or to the church.

photo credit: Eleventh Earl of Mar

Where do you get the money?

Your parents may give you some money as an allowance or you may have earned that allowance by doing some chores or work around the house. On special occasions like your birthday, you may also receive money instead of a present. If you sell something to another person like toys or books, that person will normally pay you with money.

You will also get or make money if you provide your services. For example, by cutting the grass, by washing the car, by doing babysitting work, by giving tuition to a younger child, by doing housecleaning and by running errands. The money that you get from your allowance and from doing chores or providing services is called an “income”.

photo credit: jermudgeon

What do you do with the money?

You can decide to save the money, spend the money or give it away. Saving money for example, in a piggy bank is for the purpose of saving it for future use. You can ask your parents to open a savings account for you in a bank where it is much safer.

photo credit: ken +

You may also decide to give away or donate some of your money for a good cause. The money can also be spent, as you like. It is important to spend wisely so that you do not use up all of your money. Some money can be used to buy things that are really important (needs) and other things that are fun (wants).

A way of keeping track of your money is to make a list first of what you want to buy (expenses) and the money you have (income). This is called budgeting. Always remember to save part of your money and not to overspend. You will never run out of money if your income is always higher than your expenses. If you keep this up over time, your money will continue to grow more and may be useful to you in the future.

For more great ideas on money, refer to the Carnival of Investing Strategies.