Beating Broke

How We’re Saving on Entertainment Costs

February 6, 2023 By MelissaB Leave a Comment

While we’ve weathered the recent bout of inflation fairly well, lately, we’ve encountered a situation that many other Americans have. Each month, we end up a bit short with more expenses than income. To compensate, we’ve had to dip into our emergency fund. I’ve resolved to stop that trend and tighten our budget. One of the easiest ways to tighten up is saving on entertainment costs.

How We’re Saving on Entertainment Costs

Even though we’re trying to save in this budget category, we still want to have fun with our kids and build memories. So, we’re trying to do that as frugally as possible while recognizing that sometimes we have to spend money to save. Here are the strategies we’re employing.

Buying a Museum Pass with Reciprocal Privileges

We bought an annual membership to our local science museum for $90. This museum participates in the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) Travel Passport Program, which means we can visit any of the 350 museums that participate nationwide for free or at a discount. We’ve already visited another museum 90 miles away, so in two visits (including one to our local museum), the membership has paid for itself. Any other museums we visit this year that participate in the program will not cost us anything.

Combine Frugality with Fun Activities

We plan to visit farms in the spring and summer to pick blueberries and strawberries. The kids enjoy picking the fruit, probably because they like eating the fruit fresh off the tree.

We also live in an area that frequently has festivals, so we plan to attend some.

Finally, our area also shows free movies outside during the summer, so we will attend several of those.

Utilize Our Library Card

Yes, you read that right. Our library card can help us save money on entertainment. Sure, the library offers us free books, movies, music, and presentations, but it does even more than that. Our library card offers discounts or free admission to 19 different area attractions. For example, with one purchased admission to our local art museum, we get one free entry for another family member. Of course, we first check what our library perks offer whenever we want to visit a local attraction.

Hiking

Recently, our family has been hiking every weekend. We did have to invest in hiking boots for all of us, but since then, we’ve not had to pay anything to hike local trails. This is an activity the kids enjoy and that we plan to continue year-round.

Final Thoughts

With a bit of research, we’ve discovered saving on entertainment costs for our family isn’t difficult. Of course, we need to be flexible with our plans and our activities, but this year we should cut our entertainment costs while still making memories with the kids. They grow up so quickly, and we only have a few years left before they go to college, so even on a budget, we still want to have fun with them.

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How We Plan to Help Our Kids with College

January 23, 2023 By MelissaB Leave a Comment

My husband and I have been on a tight budget for most of our married life. Luckily, one of us has always worked at a college, so we planned to send our kids to college where ever we worked so that the kids would get a tuition discount. Since our budget was so tight, we didn’t have the money to save for college (we still drive an 18-year-old vehicle!), so this plan worked perfectly. . .until it didn’t. My husband couldn’t pass up an excellent job opportunity last year—our oldest’s senior year in high school—so he left his job at the university. While staying at his old job for the tuition discount was tempting, the new job offered a better position, more money, and more opportunities for advancement. However, we then had to work out how we plan to help our kids with college.

Since we had zero saved, we knew we’d have to take a non-traditional track to get our kids through college.

How We Plan to Help Our Kids with College

We had our kids in our mid-to-late 30s, so we are focused on retirement savings now that my husband has a better job. Still, we plan to help our kids with college as we can. Here is the plan. (We have one in college and two more who will be in college in the next four to five years.)

Pay for Community College

Our oldest currently attends a community college. He received a scholarship that pays half of his tuition. We cover the other half.

Likewise, we homeschool our younger two, so we plan to have them take dual credit classes at our local community college when they’re in high school. We will pay for those classes.

Pay for Some Living Expenses

Our oldest lives with a family relative out-of-state while attending community college. We pay for all of his groceries every month. We also pay for any medicine he needs, haircuts, and his college books.

He does not currently have a car, but if he gets one, he will be responsible for the gas and car insurance. (We’re hoping he waits as long as possible to get a car so he doesn’t have any added expenses.)

Give Them a Set Amount

When our oldest transfers from the community college to a four-year university, we have told him we have a set amount we can contribute to his education. He knows what that amount is. To pay the difference, he will need to take out loans and/or get a job. We’re hoping he chooses the most economical option, so he doesn’t saddle himself with student loans.

When our younger two go to college, we will also let them know the set amount we can pay each year.

Encourage Applying for Scholarships

We have encouraged all of our children to apply for college scholarships. The more scholarship money they can earn, the less they will hopefully have to pay in student loans.

Final Thoughts

College is costly. Unfortunately, our plan to get 50 percent off tuition at the university my husband was employed did not work because he left the job. While that was unexpected, we have found ways to help our kids pay for college.

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Why You Should Allow Teens to Have Natural Consequences

January 9, 2023 By MelissaB Leave a Comment

As parents, we often don’t want to allow teens to have natural consequences. However, that’s the worst thing we can do for them. Every decision a human being makes has consequences—either good or bad or a mixture of both. We learn from these consequences and hopefully make better decisions next time if the results are negative or the same type of decisions if the outcomes are positive. If parents don’t allow teens to have natural consequences, we enable them and deny them essential learning experiences.

Why You Should Allow Teens to Have Natural Consequences

Older teenagers are navigating the adult world and learning what is acceptable and what isn’t. In addition, they realize that they can now make their own decisions and live with the consequences.

How My Mom Allowed Me to Have Natural Consequences

The summer I was 17, my friend and I booked a flight for January from our homes in Michigan to my grandparents’ winter home in Florida. We thought flying to Florida in the middle of winter would be a relaxing way to start the new year. I paid for the ticket myself with money from my summer job.

What neither of us knew was that my friend’s life was about to go off the rails. She started using drugs heavily, and by the fall, we were no longer friends. I dreaded the upcoming trip to Florida. I didn’t even talk to my friend anymore. How could I stay with her at my grandparents’ home for ten days?

I asked my mom if I should call our doctor and see if he would write a medical excuse for why I could not go on the trip so I could get my money back for the ticket. She said I could try. When I called the doctor’s office, the receptionist chastised me for asking the doctor to lie. I was embarrassed and learned my lesson. I flew to Florida with my friend. The trip didn’t go as badly as I worried it might, and that turned out to be the last time we spent together.

How My Friend Is Allowing Her Daughter Natural Consequences

I was reminded of my own natural consequences story while watching my friend, Sandy, interact with her daughter, Julia. Sandy doesn’t have much money to pay for Julia’s college, so throughout Julia’s high school career, Sandy advised her to apply for scholarships. She told Julia how those scholarships could be used for tuition and living expenses. In addition, she talked to Julia about the harmful effects of student loans. However, Julia steadfastly refused to apply for scholarships. She also refused to get a job.

In addition, Sandy wanted Julia to learn to drive because the community college Julia planned to attend was 30 minutes from home. Julia attempted to learn to drive, but she quit after a few tries.

Julia decided to take the bus to go to college, but she hated it. Now, she wants a car, but she has no money. She has pestered Sandy to help her get a car and pay for gas and insurance, but Sandy refuses. So instead, she’s asking Julia to find a way to pay for this herself since Julia previously refused to apply for scholarships or get a job. Meanwhile, she can take the bus even if she doesn’t like it.

Final Thoughts

Watching your child struggle is difficult. However, if parents allow teens to have natural consequences, they learn far more than having parents lecture them.

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