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Over the past year, it has been challenging as a family to stay within budget and ensure that our finances don’t get out of control.  It would be easy to suggest that with the country being in lockdown for large parts of the year, then surely money saving is easy.  For us, we have certainly not found that to be the case, and I am sure that many families have felt the same.

A budget squeeze

Our eldest son has spent the end of his key stage one with us at home, and also a large part of his first year in juniors.  Coupled with having his younger brother around too, it has meant that we have had to think a lot more about keeping the children fed and watered.  Snacks and other treats have been required, more squash has been needed, and all sorts of other nutritional items, such as fresh fruit and vegetables have seen food bills rocketing.  Of course, the second lockdown also occurred in the early part of the year, and during winter the need to heat the house much more during the day was important for a comfortable place to live and work.

Additional to this, we have seen other unforeseen expenses, such as writing materials, books, printing costs and other school related items.  It was our choice to purchase these for our son, because we wanted to ensure that his education at home was as close as possible to what he would have received had he have attended school.  However, all of these extras and additions to our monthly budgeting has seen us struggle to make savings.

Saving where we can

It hasn’t always been a struggle however, and where we have made savings on things such as fuel for the car and other costs saved on trips out has seen us able to put a little bit of money aside for some general home maintenance.  One of the big achievements that we made during summer 2020 was to switch our bedrooms around.  The money that we had managed to save bought us new carpets, paint from B&Q, furnishings from Dunelm and new beds, and the boys have absolutely loved their new sleep space, as have we!

One of the ways we’ve been able to increase our saving is by earning cash back at our favourite brands with my money pocket. Every time we spend online, we can check if we can get some cash back through the site and shop via their portal. It’s such a great way to save money on things we were going to buy anyway.

Changing what we spend our money on

Other areas that have seen us make some savings have been with our leisure activities.  Whilst my husband and eldest son have missed out on their live sports fix, and while we have all missed our visits to stately homes and gardens for fresh air and walking, we have at least been able to enjoy lots of time together in the home, with movie nights complete with Domino’s pizza, buffet nights with selections of Iceland finger foods and family games nights, such as bingo with our new gaming sets from The Works.  We have certainly been able to find lots of things to keep us occupied in our evenings and weekends, and sometimes it has been nice to slow the pace of life just a little after a busy 12 months of home schooling and full-time work.

Looking ahead to the rest of 2021

Our goals for the rest of 2021 are to keep on trying to put a little money aside where we can.  We have grand plans ahead for the next phase of our house redecoration, with the stairs and landing and dining room high on our priority list.  As the country begins to reopen slowly and safely, we would also like to save some money for some trips and being able to venture out further than our local area will be a cause for great joy and happiness.  

Saving money isn’t easy, but being able to spot the potential savings and being disciplined with re-using that money with a goal in mind will ensure that we make the best of whatever life throws at us.