Motherhood Moments: How I Save Money with 4 Kids

Today I'm talking about how I save money raising our 4 kids! Grab a coffee and join the conversation 🫶

Transcript

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Hi, I'm Kirsten, fellow mom, and your biggest cheerleader in all things motherhood and parenting. My husband and I co-founded Parker Baby Co. with one mission in mind to nurture and grow strong families. And that mission continues right here on Rooted Conversations. So grab a cozy drink, take a deep breath, and remember you're not alone in this journey. Hi everyone, welcome back to Rooted Conversations. I am Kirsten Heepner, your host and the owner of Parker Baby. I this is the episode where we call it monthly motherhood moments. And it's just me and it's just a quick episode where I just chat, just me and you, about um just something that I've been thinking about, or I jotted down some stuff. Um this month I'm talking about ways that I saved money with four kids, um, four little kids. And the first thing that came to mind was like seems counterproductive. And I was trying to think why this was the first thing that came to mind, and uh what it is is actually having more kids, I felt like saved me money. So I think having more than one kid, more than two kids actually saved me money because they play together more, and so you don't have to do as much stuff. So they are active together, they play creative games together, they um can play make-believe, and you don't have to like go and take them to all these places and do all these activities as much. And I just felt like it was just better for them and in the long run, it was just better economically for our family to have more children. Now, obviously within reason, like I think if you have like nine children, that's obviously gonna cost a lot more money. But like four children, I feel like was really good for our family. I think it ended up economically being saving us some money. Now, now that we're getting into like sports seasons, I'll get back to you on that. Um, that's probably gonna change, but I will let you know on that, on that front. Um the other thing that comes to mind is food. So your first my first inclination was to say like we did food pickup, but we actually didn't do food puck-up. We when the kids were little, I used grocery shopping as one of our outings for the week. So I tried to get out of the house once a week, or I'm sorry, once a day. And grocery shopping was one of those outings. So though we are spending money, it was money we were already spending. So we would go and spend an hour at the grocery store. My kids were very good at the grocery store, so that was something to take in account. So that was like our thing, and we would talk about fruits and veggies and colors, and um it was a learning experience, also. And we would then go to the toy section and look at the toys, and they would tell me what they wanted for their birthday, and I would take the picture, and that would change every week of what they wanted for their birthday that was in six months or whatever. Um, that was something that we did. We bought in bulk a lot, so we had a Costco membership, buying in bulk, and then um never buying like pre-packaged things. I feel like is very important, or like I'm sorry, not pre-packaged, like the small packaged things, so like individually packaged is one trade and say, and then you break those down into smaller things for your children. So something that I always did was bought off-brand things, and then um I would get like for snacks, we would get cupcake trays, you know, like the cupcake pans, and I would put a different snack item in each little cupcake section. And the kids thought that was like the coolest thing ever. And it would mix, I would mix like a fruit, some fruits and veggies, and then like little treats, like even like um, I would put lucky charms in one of the sections. Like it does not have to be these fancy snack things, and buying frozen veggies, um, is also a little hack to saving some money on healthy foods because frozen veggies and frozen fruit is helpful, even though fruit is usually eaten through pretty quickly before it goes bad. And frozen fruit, unless you get it from Costco, is very expensive. Um, the other thing we did a lot was breakfast for dinner. That is very cheap. Put protein powder in everything you can possibly think of. So we've put in protein powder in eggs, we've put protein powder in pancakes, you know, every smoothies. That was an that's a big one we've done a lot for meals, especially for lunches. Um, protein powder in everything, just to like give them that extra oomph and to make meals go a little bit further, but yeah, uh, and just kind of having like your go-to meals, so you're not buying all these extra ingredients that you're not gonna use. So tacos are we're always so we always had like tacos one night, like pasta one night. I had like meatloaf was one thing we had had a lot. Potatoes, um so yeah. Um, and then like clothes, obviously tried to hand them down as much as possible. As the kids got older, they wore their clothes harder, and it was harder to hand them down. Um, but with three girls that were the same age, I justified getting nicer clothes because they were all three wearing those clothes, and so I invested a little bit more money because those clothes lasted longer, and I was able to have all three of my girls wear those items, especially dresses. So my other tip is if you have girls, buy a lot of big dresses for your little girls, and then as they grow, they can wear them as shirts, if that makes sense. So they're like long, and then as they get older, they become like shirts with leggings, yeah. Just keep those organized in totes and hand them down and ask friends to like switch with you and um always accept hand-me-downs from friends. You can always just go through it and pick and choose what you want to keep, but buying clothes is just for kids, is just kind of a silly task. Toy rotation um that keeps them excited and um and your house less cluttered. So I've talked about this before on the podcast that like packing away some toys and putting them in a closet and leaving some out, and then when those toys get bored, you move them out and bring um and move them into the closet and bring the other toys out, and so toys feel fresh all the time, and so you're not needing to buy new toys. On that same note, just don't buy toys that light up and plastic toys, invest in toys that inspire imagination, so kitchen um sets and cars and dolls, and doll houses, and um blocks and magnetiles, like building things, like don't buy like the one hit wonders that do one thing. The other huge thing that I forgot about that my mom told me about that reminded me, um, those little tyke cars. My kids would still play with those, I'm pretty sure. We had three of them, and those saved me. My kids played with those forever. You know, I'm talking about like the red and yellow cars that played with outside. Oh my gosh, my kids play with those forever. They would tie like wagons to them and they would push each other. That's what I mean about having multiple kids, they just entertain each other endlessly. Coloring, craft stuff. Um, the busy toddler on Instagram, she has so many things to do and toys to recommend that have open-ended imaginatory toys um that you can invest in instead of these like crappy toys that end up in the trash in a week because they have lost their their interest. Um, yeah, and something at my friend told me it was like subscribe and save. I a lot of people feel like that saves the money, I feel like that does not. But I know a lot of moms feel that way. So that's something that you are interested in and you are organized enough to like stop subscribing to it when you are done. I'm not I'm not organized enough to like stop, and so I'm the person that'll like keep receiving it and like build up this like backlog of things. So those are my tips. Let me know if you have anything else that you want to add, but um that was a fun one. I learned a lot. Oh gosh, man. Yeah, you learn a lot about money when you have kids, and oh, the other thing was ask for experiences um instead of gifts, like toys from parents and and stuff, um, especially when you have lots of if you have like more than two kids and you don't need more toys, Lord knows we don't need more toys. Um ask for experiences. So, like ask for a zoo pass for the year, like an annual zoo pass. Ask for tickets to the ballet, ask okay, that that was really ambitious. I don't know what I was saying. Sorry, don't ask for that when you have children. Um ask for um children's museum passes. And then also like go to the library. The library is so many fun reading programs and so many amazing things to do. Get connected into your library um and your church, find VBS's. I um I remember when my kids were little, we would go church sh just hopping. Like, okay, VBS at this church, VBS at this church, just every summer. Just like boom, boom, boom. Those are like I don't know if they're free. I forget. Are those free? If if they're not free, they're really cheap. Um, and the kids have a blast at BBS. Okay, that's it. That's all I got. So, okay. Anyways, I hope you guys are having a great summer. I'm I'm having a really good summer. We just got back from a trip, um, a road trip, like a 10-day road trip down to Tennessee, and we had the best time. And I can say this now because we're home. Everything went so well. Like, I just prayed the whole trip that our car wouldn't break down because we have a Honda Odyssey, um, and it has like 180,000 miles on it. And I know those, I know these cars can go forever, but like, you know, you're getting up there in mileage mileage, and I was just like, it could break down, like it could, and that just would not be fun. And no one got sick, and like my kids are ages where like everyone's tall enough to ride all the rides and like um do a seven-mile hike, and no one really complains. Like, it was just kind of crazy and surreal to be on a 10-day road trip, and everybody could handle everything, you know. So, for you moms out there that are like in the thick of it, like it does come, and it when it does, it is like it's wild, and I'm not taking it for granted, and it is like shocking when it does come, and you look back on this time that you guys are in. Like, I look back on the time when they're all little, and I'm like, How did I get here? And then I miss when they're little, but I also don't. I'm also very, very thankful for where we're at. I don't know if any of you guys are readers, but the book Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reed, she's not a mom, but she's like an aunt, and she like ends up she watches her niece a lot, and she like really loves her niece, and she talks about motherhood a lot, and there's she's has some amazing quotes about motherhood, and just like my kids always ask me, they're like, Do you wish that we were little again? And I am always like, No, I don't wish you were little, but I miss who you were when you're little, but I also miss who you were yesterday, and I'm gonna miss who you were today tomorrow, and like but I'm also so excited for who you're gonna be next year and who you're gonna be as a 16-year-old. And I love every version of you, and I'm just always gonna mourn who you were, but I'm so excited to see who you are gonna become. I don't know, motherhood is a wild ride, it's so wild, anyways. Okay, love you guys. Have a great summer. I our next episode is about swim safety, which is so important, and I think every mom stresses about their children in water, so tune in for that one. And we will see you guys later. Thank you so much for tuning in to Rooted Conversations. I hope this episode reminded you that you're growing, you're growing a strong family, and you're growing as a parent. One moment, one choice, and one hug at a time. I'll see you next time.