This is a contributed post and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Meet The Harris Family.
It’s no secret that having a baby costs a lot of money but people are often shocked at just how much strain it puts on their finances. You’d never imagine just how much you’ll spend on food, clothes and medical bills throughout the process. If you aren’t in a stable financial position in time for the big day, you’ll struggle in other aspects of parenting. You can avoid all of that if you do these things to prepare yourself for parenthood before your new baby arrives.
Clear Debts
This is the first thing to do because if you’ve got loads of debt hanging over you, a lot of your extra money is going into repayments rather than on the stuff you need to buy for the baby. It might seem like you’re never going to clear that debt in time but you might not have to pay the full amount. There are companies that offer debt reductions which can massively reduce the amount you have to pay back, in some cases by as much as 70 percent. That’s a huge help when you’ve got a baby on the way. Once you’ve reduced the amount you need to pay, clearing that debt will be a lot less daunting and you can start making a monthly budget to pay it off as quickly as possible.
Create A Baby Fund
Even if you’ve worked out exactly how much you’ll need to spend on diapers, food, and clothes etc. there are often unexpected costs involved with having a baby, and sometimes you just massively miscalculate. If you haven’t got that extra money there when you need it then you’ll end up borrowing and getting yourself back into debt right after you’ve paid off everything you owe. Once you’ve cleared your debts, start putting that money into a baby fund that you can use to cover any expenses that suddenly come up or things that you just didn’t account for when you were making calculations.
Practice Spending
A good way to make sure you manage your money when the baby comes is to pretend that they’re already here. Work out a rough monthly spend for everything you’ll need for the baby and cut that spending out of your budget. If you practice living like this, you’ll be able to see how well you’ll be able to get by when the baby does come. It’s better to make mistakes now and adjust your spending than it is to wait until the baby comes and find that you’re short on money and you can’t afford everything you need. The other major benefit of doing this is that you can start putting that money into your baby fund so you’ll have a bit of a buffer by the time the baby is born.
Sorting your finances in preparation for a new arrival is vital, otherwise, you’re really going to struggle when the big day arrives.
