Almost every family with school-age children feels that time-crunch that comes during the back-to-school rush of new activities, clubs and sports leagues. Parents with multiple children feel it even more intensely.
It feels like there just isn’t enough time to go around. When does a family find time to shop for groceries, prepare meals or take care of ordinary chores?
More and more, families fall into the trap of just “throwing money at the problem” by ordering takeout, having someone clean their house or hiring a laundry service. It’s an easy solution, but it’s a financially messy one. The costs really add up over time and can add an additional financial pinch to an already challenging situation.
There are many steps you can take to minimize this financial squeeze and cut back on the stress of the fall activity rush. Here are five ways for families to handle the busy back-to-school season without sacrificing their budgets.
[See: 20 Tips for Saving Money at the Grocery Store.]
Have a meal plan. Don’t wait until the last minute to handle meal planning. Think about it in advance. Write out a clear plan for the week and consider the logistical challenges of each day with some time in advance to plan around them.
For example, if you know an evening is coming when it’s going to be difficult for everyone to be at home at the same time, you can plan ahead for a slow-cooker meal that people can eat when it’s convenient for them. Or plan picnic suppers for each person that you can prepare the night before and store in the fridge.
[See: 12 Ways to Be a More Mindful Spender.]
Have simple “emergency meals” on hand. Prepare several dishes that you can get to the table in a very short period of time. For example, consider always having a box of fast-cooking spaghetti, a jar of pasta sauce and a bag of flash-frozen vegetables on hand, so that you can have a spaghetti meal on the table in 15 minutes.
You can also prepare some meals in advance and freeze them. One great option is chili, which you can cook in a large batch on a weekend and save in large gallon freezer containers or freezer bags. Then, when you need it in a pinch, just pull it out and heat it up on the stovetop in a medium-sized pot. That way, supper is starting to cook within a minute of getting home and it’s finishing up while everyone’s looking for their soccer gear.
Use the “ongoing laundry method.” Rather than setting aside laundry as a weekend task and then feeling overwhelmed (and potentially turning to a laundry service), turn it into a low-intensity ongoing project. A few times a day, go into the laundry area, remove anything that’s in the dryer to a basket, move anything that’s in the washer to the dryer and run it, and add a fresh load to the washer and run it. Then, simply don’t worry about it any more. Stop in another time or two during the day and do the same thing, then just walk away. Fold the laundry when you’re watching a television show before bed.
This turns laundry from an overwhelming weekend task to something you can manage in the time cracks of a busy week. You don’t have to pay someone to take on this task for you. You can even have your older kids do it if you’re confident in their ability to sort the clothes into appropriate loads first.
Have everyone do a spot clean once a day. Rather than hiring a house-cleaning service, simply have everyone in the house spend 10 or 15 minutes once a day focused on a cleaning task. Have the children do simpler tasks such as simply putting things where they belong or emptying the dishwasher or sweeping the floor, and take on more challenging or nuanced tasks yourself. After the time is up, stop and move onto something else.
This spreads out the responsibility of housekeeping to everyone and compresses the time devoted to it down to 15 or 20 minutes a day. Such a practice can easily eliminate the need for a housekeeping service.
[See: 10 Money Leaks to Shut Down Now.]
Look for neighbors and friends to share pickup and drop-off efforts. If you have a child who participates in a particular activity, chances are they have nearby friends who are also in those activities. Talk to the parents of those friends and see if you can work out some arrangements for sharing pickup and drop-off duties.
This saves fuel and maintenance and wear on your car and likely frees up a bit of time during the week for some of the other household chores. The more activities you can “share” with other parents, the better, as it gives you more and more time to take care of stuff at home.
Periods of high family activity can be really stressful on families, often resulting in a lot of unexpected expenses. These strategies can help greatly with that stress, enabling you to handle many things with far less expense. Good luck.
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How to Stick to Your Budget During the Busy Back-to-School Season originally appeared on usnews.com
