Recession Fatherhood: A quick and
helpful primer
So, the economy’s in the toilet, the
paycheck isn’t going as far as it used to, the bills aren’t
getting any smaller, and your little ones are still
clamoring for entertainment, eh?
We feel your pain.
When you’re a dad, facing the realities of our economy –
with prices going up and the certainty of employment going
through the floor – is indeed a tough spot. The little ones
look up to you for everything from guidance and education to
feeding and entertainment, and yet checking the wallet and
finding it empty can make even the most fortunate of us feel
powerless.
Fret not, dads. This month The Fresno Dads Club
offers its guide to “Recession Fatherhood,” a handy
primer on how to keep the little ones fed, entertained and
educated for free or on the cheap. Read on, and if you have
ideas to share, please feel free to send ‘em along.
Food:
 Aside from housing expenses, forking over for food is
usually the biggest expense in a household. But with a house
full of little mouths open like baby birds in the nest,
cutting the budget without cutting their intake can be quite
a feat.
That said, dads and families can take a few simple steps to
reduce their food bills significantly. How?
First, reduce or limit going out to eat. And not just
by cutting those all-you-can-eat token-filled evenings at
John’s Incredible Pizza, either. Unless you’re in the mood
for expertly prepared filet mignon or shrimp cocktails,
making dinner at home is almost always less expensive than
heading out to a restaurant. Cooking? The more you do, the
better you’ll get.
Lunches? Mac and cheese takes only 15 minutes to make
and feeds two for less than a buck a box. Perpetually
underrated PBJs on whole grain are not only nutritious, but can
also be the source of future happy memories when your
children make their own. If your kids are already
chicken-nugget addicts, a bag of frozen nuggets can get you
through a week of lunches for the price of one-and-a-half
Happy Meals. And screw Save Mart; as the most expensive
non-boutique grocery chain in town, it’s best avoided.
Instead, hit WinCo or Foods Co. for better
prices on the same products. For the biggest savings, be
sure to visit their bulk sections.
And as a final thought, don’t be afraid to spend part of
your Sunday clipping coupons. That coupon section can indeed
offer some tremendous money-saving deals.
Entertainment:
Kids can be little sponges for wallet-draining
entertainment, can’t they? A night at the movies for a
family of four – with tickets, non-smuggled snacks and a
soda for everyone – can easily exceed $50 or $60 bucks. New
discs for the XBox or PlayStation can run anywhere from
$20-$50. And if you’re paying a sitter to watch the bambinos
while you and your significant other go on Date Night, you
may have to limit yourselves to just the soup.
There are better and less expensive ways. A Netflix
membership can keep you and the little ones up to your
eyeballs in movies all month for far less than the cost of
seeing a movie solo. While it can be a tough sell for older
kids, swapping XBox or PlayStation time for something along
the lines of Monopoly can not only save money and
electricity, but might even help with securing precious
“family time.”
If you read to your children – and you should! – consider
forsaking Barnes and Noble or Borders in favor of a
library visit. Most of Fresno’s libraries have extensive
children’s sections, and a visit may even garner you a few
minutes of peace if one of their “Volunteer Readers” is
there to keep the kids entertained.
And Fresno has plenty of free play activities available. An
afternoon at a park like Oso de Oro – FDC’s favorite
– can help keep the kids active and involved for only the
price of the gas to get there. RiverPark has an outdoor play
area for the littler ones, too, but you have to restrain
yourself from visiting the nearby Me & Eds or Jamba Juice to
save the money. For smaller kids, the play area inside
Fashion Fair Mall is still a favorite, but like a RiverPark
visit, one must have the restraint to avoid a stop at Mrs.
Fields or the food court while you’re there.
 Got lawn sprinklers? Instant water park! Add a few cheap
squirt guns and it may even help the older ones get over
their “Halo” addictions.
And for any child under five, an afternoon of entertainment
can be had with a pile of old newspapers or magazines, blank
paper, safety scissors and a glue stick. Have them find
photos they like in ads or articles, cut them out, arrange
them into a nice collage and glue-stick them in place. I’m
tellin’ ya, it’s hours of entertainment for the $2 price of
a glue stick.
Still need that Date Night? For two or fewer kids, the
Jax Junglehouse drop-off childcare business in north
Fresno runs about half the price of any babysitter who's not
your mother-in-law or your dear Aunt Fanny. The kids get to play with
other kids, they're well supervised, and you and your
significant other get to go enjoy yourselves. Not a bad
deal, right?
Expenses:
There are plenty of other ways to nip expenses in the bud.
For some, these suggestions may be painful, but let’s face
it: they can save more than a few bucks in the long run.
Starbucks addict? (Like me?) While I would never belie any
father’s need for caffeine, mochas and lattes run at least
$3.50, especially if you’re finding the new McCafes a bit
too convenient. As an alternative, consider that a $6 jar of
Folger’s Freeze Dried combined with a $4 jug of Coffee-Mate
French Vanilla creamer will closely match the flavor of a vanilla
latte for about a tenth or a fifteenth of the cost.
Translated: A couple of week’s worth of caffeine fix for the
price of less than three Starbucks runs.
Can your wheels do without the thumping subwoofer, the flame
job or the chrome spinners? It’d save you some bucks without
costing you any street cred, mostly because being a
father is just about the most badass thing you can do,
right?
Do you have the confidence (or need your other half’s
permission) to cut your children’s hair yourself?
Doing so will save the cost of a haircut per child at least
bimonthly.
Know the location of the nearest thrift store?
They’re great places to get kid’s clothes on the cheap. And
what’s better, when the kids outgrow them you can sell the
same clothes back.
And as a random thought, do you really need to spend as much
as you may on beer, or wine, or liquor, or smokes, or the
lottery, or Chukchansi? Can you find a way to cut or
eliminate these completely? Of course we all have our vices,
but I’ve gotta believe reducing or eliminating these could
not only save serious dinero, but perhaps lead to being a
better father. That’s not a moral judgment, mind you… it’s
just the reality of fatherhood.
Guidance:
Yes, your kids will probably ask why you’re trying so hard
to cut expenses. I don’t believe there’s any harm in being
honest and telling them how expensive things are these days.
Kids can be remarkably resilient, and will accept change
readily if you can get past their initial five minutes of
whining about perceived deprivation.
But there is a fast way to guide them on the virtues of
cutting expenses and saving money. And it’s as old as the
hills.
Get a glass jar, or an empty five-gallon water jug, or an
empty Jif or Peter Pan container once you’ve immersed your
family in PBJ lunches. Cut the proverbial slot in the top,
and let your little ones put any coins they find or receive
right in the jar. Instant piggy bank, and what’s
better, you’re teaching them to save. The daughter of
someone I know once filled a five-gallon water jug with
pennies. Sure, it took a while, but at the end she had
nearly $1,000 in there. In pennies! One iPod, one PC and a
few new wardrobe items later, Little Thrifty was a happy
girl who not only knew how to save, but took a lot of pride
in her achievement.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we’d all learned to save that early
in life?
--by Tim Savage, a.k.a. 'Thorne',
charter member of FDC and full-time dad
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"0 to 5 in 30 Minutes," the premier locally produced
television program for parents of younger children,
broadcast a very complimentary profile of the Fresno Dads
Club as part of its June 4 episode. Shown on KVPT Valley
Public Television just in time for Father's Day, the profile
segment showcased the Fresno Dads
Club's efforts to serve as a community for fathers in and
around Fresno, and explored the importance of fathers in the
lives of children.