When it comes to saving money in the family home, so many of us already know there are better ways or choices, but it’s not always that easy to implement them in our busy lives. For example, we know it would be a great idea to bake things in bulk for school lunches. But in the real world, where parents are juggling drop-offs, pick-ups, work, sport, swimming classes, and all the rest, sometimes it’s just easier to grab stuff from the shops.
When I consult for families that are struggling to fit everything into the standard day, I often look for ways to streamline certain activities that don’t add a lot of value, but take loads of time to complete.
Efficient families maximise their time between making money and enjoying time with their families. The same families minimise activities that are essentially a waste of time like waiting for services or unnecessary trips to the shops to name only a couple of examples!
Over time and after experimenting with a number of things, I’ve become a big advocate of services that come to YOU.
In terms of managing my car and all the associated bits and pieces, I’m a big fan of using services like MeFleet who help to save both time and money on everything to do with running my car. MeFleet uses people power to create the same savings that large companies obtain through their buying power. MeFleet was founded by experts in big business buying power as well as large corporate fleet management and they enable everyday people to enjoy these benefits.
For working families online supermarket shopping is a huge time saver and you can avoid dragging the kids along (and no doubt buying things you don’t need). Many car related services come to you. Using mobile car wash services means that you avoid sitting around for an hour in a busy car wash. Using mobile tyre or windscreen services avoids 2 or 3 hours wandering around the shops and spending money you probably didn’t need to. If you’re careful with selecting these services, the cost isn’t any more. It’s much better to be doing something constructive instead of sitting on a plastic chair sipping an instant coffee, reading three-year-old magazines!
Similarly, many parents that I work with have given up the relentless grind of shopping individually for each birthday party invitation that comes home from school in favour of ordering gift vouchers online. This five minute exercise (combined with buying a bulk pack of birthday cards next time you are in the shopping centre) can give you back hours of your life! You don’t spend any more money that you intended to, you don’t have to lug an awkwardly shaped package to the birthday party and the birthday child gets to buy exactly what they want! That’s a win-win situation people!
The last thing that I really recommend against is parents taking all their annual leave in dribs and drabs so they can do a whole series of little jobs only to find out later that they don’t have any time for a holiday themselves!
By Angela Jacobsen, Oz Super Nanny.
Angela has been a nanny to stars including Madonna and Kate Winslet and is also a MeFleet Brand Ambassador. Visit ozsupernanny.com for more tips and offers and use Angela Jacobsen’s MeFleet refer-a-friend code: OZSUPERNANNY