Budget-Friendly Tips: How to Save Money on Kids
Explore practical tips and resources to save money on kids. Join us in making parenting more affordable while ensuring your children thrive!
How to Save Money on Kids…Even in 2025
Contrary to popular opinion, you don’t need to be a millionaire to have kids, even in 2025. In fact, we are a single income family with 5 kids. Are we rich? No, but my children are well fed, clothed, and have a roof over their heads. A lot of people are asking, how can I save money with kids? Aside from the numerous posts I have on this blog for saving money, I want to answer that question today.
Choose Your Priorities
Our priorities as a husband and wife were for me to stay home and homeschool our children. This meant, the life we were accustomed to living, was going to have to change. No more Disney World trips, no more new gadgets and phones, no more frequent dining out. We would really have to give up a lot if we wanted me to stay home. We were fine with that. In fact, the more children we wanted to welcome into our home, the more we had to give up. Everyone might not be okay with that, which is fine. You choose your priorities for your family, but you will have to make sacrifices, that’s the core of parenthood.
Once you have your priorities set, it will make figuring out what things you want to invest in easier. You may only need to cut back in a few areas and invest more money in others. Either way, hopefully you find some useful tips here.
How to Save Money on Kids: Groceries
Cook at Home
One practical way to save money on kids is by cooking at home. We used to eat out at least a few times a week. The average family usually does. Not only is this costing you a lot of money, it is likely not any faster. I’m not saying never treat yourself, but use it just as that, a treat. If you eat out several times a week, drop it to once. Then, every couple of weeks. Maybe after that, once a month. We’re at a point where we eat out for special occasions and it actually feels special and is much more enjoyable. I can not live without my slow cooker. Seriously! It’s a life saver.
Limit Convenience and Junk Food
I often see parents complaining about their grocery bills. Don’t get me wrong, grocery prices have sky rocketed, but it’s totally doable to save money at the grocery. One big way is reducing convenience and junk food. I know most working parents can’t cook everything from scratch and that’s fine. Try to pick a few items you will make from scratch. For instance, something like French bread pizzas are much more cost effective than prepared frozen pizzas.
The same goes for snacking and junk food. I’m not saying never have junk food or treats, we know we love ours from time to time. Focus on healthy snacks and treats. Apples, bananas, carrots, and celery are fairly inexpensive all year round. We also buy fruits and veggies seasonally on sale. Things like yogurt, snack cheese, and popcorn are all inexpensive, healthy snacks that kids will enjoy.
Learn How to Meal Plan and Grocery Shop
Meal planning does not and should not be complicated. Even if you don’t meal plan the way I do, just by meal planning at all, you’re likely to start saving money. The same goes for grocery shopping. One of my main priorities as a stay-at-home mom is to save money. Being as groceries are one of our biggest expenses, I have learned so many strategies that I love sharing. Even if you implemented one or two, you will still see a significant drop in your bill.
How to Save Money on Kids: Household Expenses
If you know how, you can surely stretch your dollars on household expenses. Some swaps are extremely simple and easy, not to mention better for your health. Luckily, I have several articles to get you started, it’s kind of my specialty! Here are some blog posts I have already put together to answer how to save money on kids’ household expenses:
How to Save Money on Streaming Services in 2025
The Best, Easy Ways to Cut Your Fuel Costs in 2025
Cheap Ways to Stay Warm without Turning on the Furnace
10 Valuable Vintage Homemaking Skills That Save Money in 2025
Expert Tips on How to Save Money on Diapers
10 Easy Ways to Save Money on Household Expenses
Free Printables to Save You Time and Money
How to Make Homemade Orange Cleaner
How to Save Money on Kids: Clothing
This is one where there seems to be two camps. One camp is they love scoring deals and don’t mind what they’re kids are wearing, as long as they’re clothed and presentable. The other camp cares about fashion, brands, and what their kids present to the world. As you can probably guess, I am in the first camp. However; my frugal money tips for how to save money on kids clothes can apply to both camps. Whether you prefer to save money by buying second hand or only let your child out in name brand, you can use many of the same strategies to save money.
How to Save Money on Kids: Travel
Even though we gave up the fancy Disney World trips every 2 years, we still love to travel as a family, it just looks different. Maybe this is something you need to work on. Luckily, I have lots of strategies for saving money on travel and ideas for getaways and stay-cations.
Free & Inexpensive Spring Break Fun For Families
How to Save Money on Kids: Activities, Extracurriculars, Birthdays, and More
Activities
As we talked about earlier, look at your priorities. I am with my children constantly. I don’t feel like we have to go anywhere or spend any money to enjoy our time together. My children are more than happy meeting friends at the park or going to the library for a couple of hours. Your children really just want you and your time. Here are some of my best posts about free or inexpensive activities to do together as a family:
How to Have a No Spend Month in 2025 + Free Printable (includes our popular free family activities)
Discover the Magic of the Polar Express + Free Printables
20 Ways to Embrace Simple Living as a Family
How to Save More Money During the Holiday Season (includes free holiday family activities)
Extracurriculars
What I said about activities applies to extracurriculars. We want our children to be able to explore their interests. In order to save money on kids’ extracurriculars, we allow them to do one at a time. You won’t see our family dropping off our kids are multiple activities a week. Sometimes, we will even take months off if we feel like extracurriculars are getting in the way of our family or church worship time. Again, that is our priority. If you need to save money on these activities, look at your local parks and recreations. They usually have extremely affordable activities for kids. Even if it’s a few weeks long, you can at least see if it’s something your children absolutely want to do before investing a lot of time and money into something.
Birthdays
Back when we only had two children, we set out on our debt free journey. One of the first things we simplified was birthdays and birthday parties. Birthday parties were dropped completely and mainly still are. There was always an expectation of pinterest perfect birthday parties. The actual day would be overcrowded by the stress.
Now, we have simple celebrations at home, usually with our immediate family. Grandparents still send gifts or come over and visit the birthday child. We may take a trip to a local museum, Chuck E Cheese, or Dave and Busters (don’t forget your coupons). They get to pick out their birthday theme, where to go out to lunch, and what dinner we should make. Of course, they also get cupcakes or a cake, made by Mom. They have all grown to love this! It has really made birthdays and celebrations much more special.
>> 10 Frugal Gifts for Kids That Aren’t Toys They’ll Love <<
Need More Budget-Friendly Kid’s Activities?
Head to our sister site, Teach Me, Mama. This is my homeschooling and kids crafts website. You’ll find so many budget-friendly activities and crafts to enjoy with your children!
