The Art of Green Finance

Advice about re-useable nappies, second-hand clothing and toys and cooking from scratch is essentially unchanged from the infant period (see part one). However, the new big cost is likely to be child-care if parents are returning to work.

Firstly, make good use of government-funded childcare. Good quality early years childcare can have huge benefits for children including improving social interactions, behaviour and educational outcome over both the short- and long-term. Ideally, choose a local nursery as long as you have a good nursery nearby. This means that you can walk or cycle to nursery which is a great healthy habit to get into. In addition, your child will make friends with other children that are likely to attend the local primary schools, making the transition to reception much easier.

Happily, the UK government are expanding early years childhood provision. As of May 2024, working parents can access 15 hours of free childcare for 2 year olds and 30 hours of childcare for 3 and 4 year olds. From September 2024, provision will be expanded to include children from the age of 9 months. This means that a big expansion of early years provision is needed and therefore means that training is likely to be available for parents who might want to consider this as a career-change idea with flexible working options!

If you need or want to work more than the hours covered by government funding, consider free childcare options next. Are there grand-parents nearby that are in good health and happy to take on some childcare? For two-parant families, there may be flexible working options for both parents with the result that paid childcare can be minimised. For single parent families, there may be trusted friends nearby in similar circumstances with whom you could alternate childcare days allowing part-time work for both families.

Food. Consider growing some of your own fruit and veg. Small scale growing is actually pretty easy and can be fitted in between other responsibilities. To keep toddlers from messing up your own veg patch, give them something to grow themselves. Peas grow quickly and can be turned into a pea pasta.

Continue to cook from scratch. It doesn’t matter if you only have basic cooking skills as toddler food is easy i.e. porridge, toast, sandwiches, pasta, rice and veg. Make sure you give them food with beans and lentils as these are healthy cost savers for future years. If they don’t like something the first time round, try again a few weeks later.

You may also like: Growing fruit and veg; what shall I grow to save the most money and How to source free (and healthy) food.

Clothing. A note on clothing: if you are offered hand-me downs from a friend, friend-of-a-friend or relative-of-a-friend etc., say yes immediately. Parents that are clearing out once their child(ren) have outgrown their clothing are generally keen to pass on used clothing to someone that will get more use out of them. Once they have found someone willing to take clothing, they are likely to offer further clothing via the same intermediary (no matter how tenous the link!) and could be a source of good clothing for years to come. In the worse case scenario, a few items of clothing are unusable and you can simple drop them at your nearest textile recycling bin. If you are repeatadly given more unusable than useable clothing from a particular source, simply politely decline by saying that you have just been given a package of clothing from another mum in that particular size. They will likely then find another route to clear out their child(ren)s clothing. Should you not be lucky enough to have a reliable supply of second hand clothing from another family, try local charity shops or NCT sales for clothes and toys.

Entertainment. Libraries start to become more worthwhile as the toddler years progress. Your local library will probably offer story-time or nursery-rhyme sessions. While you are there, visit the children’s section and initially aim to teach your child to look at the board-books without putting them in their mouth (well, not too much at least) or ripping them. Books are a great way of teaching children things that you need them to know or preparing them for things at various stages of their lives (e.g. going to the dentist/doctor, starting school, navigating friendships, stranger-danger etc. etc.) so getting them familiar with this environment early is very worthwhile. There are also plenty of books about nature and recycling that can start teaching good green habits from the early years.

The toddler years bring more opportunities for outdoor entertainment; picnics in the park, short walks, rolling or kicking a ball, chasing bubbles etc. Combine any of these with a playdate to increase the fun for everyone. Toddlers find the strangest things interesting (every pocket seems to contain a special stone!) and therefore free entertainment is pretty easy at this stage.

Holidays. Flying with a toddler is stressful no matter how well prepared you are. Even if you love the idea of lazing around in the sunshine, the reality is that with a toddler in tow, you are going to spend more time dealing with tantrums and cleaning sand out of your toddlers mouth than enjoying the sunshine. Save the foreign holidays for when your child can appreciate it more. In the meantime, set up a garden wigwam or more elaborate campsite if you have the gear. Local parks may have a boating pond and cheap plastic boats can easily be found in charity shops. In fact, anywhere with a small amount of water is bound to be a winner. If you are feeling more ambitious, take a day-return short train trip to the nearest beach (pebble beaches with rock-pools are ideal!) When the weather doesn’t play ball, make use of low-cost local entertainment such as local museums. Tip: take a packed-lunch and a flask of tea with you to ensure the trip doesn’t snowball into a big expense.

You may also like Sustainable parenting on a budget (part three); the school years.