[Kelby Green – Ambassador]

When my wife and I got married, we decided that when we had kids we wanted them to be close in age. Our thinking was, we would go through the diaper phase, potty training, and the rest of the baby stuff back to back, which would mean smooth sailing once the youngest hit around two. So we did just that and had our first in late 2013 and her little sister was born in early 2015.

While we successfully moved past the above-mentioned phases, a new problem has developed.

We can’t seem to save ANY MONEY!

It seems like every other weekend there is a birthday party for one of their little friends. Or they get sick and we have to cover the co-pay at the doctor’s office. They also like to eat food, so there’s that. Haha!

But in all seriousness, we don’t spend recklessly by any means and we still can’t seem to save anything above what is already in our $1,000 Dave Ramsey approved emergency fund.

I know kids are expensive and we weren’t naive to this fact when we decided to grow the family, but geez!! Anyone else going through the same thing? Or for you parenting veterans, any ideas?

[Antoinette Minor – Ambassador]

No, children don’t have to eat! lol

I don’t have children but I think I can translate what I’ve done to your issue. There always seemed to be a friend’s birthday party to go to as well. My puppy always seems to have some type of medical emergency when I least expect. Last year alone she caused a $250 bill for stealing raisins and eating them (poisonous to dogs), $400 bill for that time we had no idea she was allergic to a vaccine and almost DIED, and $100 for simply just being constipated. I loved her and hated her all 2016.

Anyway, I took these unexpected things and just started to expect them and make small funds for them. $10 a pay goes into the doggy fund, $10 a pay goes to the happy hour/party fund. It allowed me to stay on budget and when these things came up I was taking it out of the small funds rather than my emergency fund.

I hope this makes sense!

[Kelby Green – Ambassador]

Thanks, Antoinette…I really like that idea! And the fact that the per paycheck amounts are so small, you probably don’t even notice a difference in your budget. I’ll have to try that out!

[Kayla Buell – Ambassador]

Hahahaha (sorry, not laughing at you) just laughing at my future since I’m currently 5 months pregnant with our first little one lol! We went to look at nursery furniture this weekend and I wanted to cry. My hubby’s going to be the one who feels the impact of baby expenses the most because I’ll be cancelling a lot of his subscription services ASAP and changing the password to his iTunes account so he can’t buy movies with the click of a button. Babies sure are expensive, and we’re working on Baby Step #2 (paying off all our debt minus the house). But I know it’s going to be really hard to save that 3-6 month emergency fund per our guy Dave. Best of luck, Kelby!