Jessica Coates-Judson

A new bub in the house and a single income mean that being thrifty has become my number one priority (well one on them). Here are my tips for saving money while ensuring your new addition has everything they need. Disclaimer: In no way should this be taken as financial advice. You should contact a professional financial adviser or institution for your own circumstances. Reducing debt is critical. Before bub arrived we worked hard to ensure there were no outstanding credit card debts. This was our priority before growing the emergency fund.  Lists, lists, lists!! I love a good list and make one for every area of life admin. Early on in my pregnancy we wrote a list of everything we would need. Every few weeks we picked up one or two things as we had the money to pay for them outright.  Meal prepping. I invested in a hefty supply of plastic containers and made extra large batches of soups, savoury mince, bolognaise sauce and stews that I labelled and froze.  ...

At 3:15am on Friday 3rd August 2018, the moment had arrived. I had gotten up to go to the toilet and felt a gush of fluid. It wasn't huge so I tidied myself up and laid in bed for about twenty minutes. I was a bit lost as to what to do next. I didn't have any contractions and there was no more fluid. I pondered the big questions, "am I in labour?", "should I ring the birth suite", "should I wake Steve up or let him sleep a bit longer?". My questions were answered when along came a second gush and I shook him softly to wake up. Despite being 40 weeks and 3 days he still thought I was joking when I uttered the old "my waters have broken," with a big grin. Arriving at the hospital we realised I hadn't taken my 40 week bump shot.  The birth suite advised to take our time and then head in as I would have to be induced within 24 hours of my water breaking. We both had showers, jumped in the car and arrived at the hospital at 6:15am. An...