Family get TV tips on saving cash after double twin arrivals
WHEN their family jumped from one child to five in less than two years, it had a massive impact on Liam and Emma Ingram’s finances.
HGV driver Liam, 32, and IT engineer Emma, 34, are proud parents to 10-year-old Mackenzie and not one but two sets of twins, 19-month-old Maddison and Jaxon and six-monthold Alexa and Sienna.
The couple, from Caerphilly, struggled to conceive after Mackenzie was born, so when Emma got pregnant with twins twice it was a major shock to the couple, who met on a night out 12 years ago.
Emma said: “It was a massive, massive shock, but we are really lucky. All the times we wanted a second child and we ended up with four for Mackenzie.”
Gran Katrina also lives with the family, but with Emma’s maternity leave pay about to end, they needed to find a way of saving more money.
Which is why they called in Alex Jones and Steph McGovern from BBC’s Shop Well For Less to help out.
And the money-saving duo found that it was not only the family’s surprise baby boom that was costing them – it was also a desire for bigname brands that was crippling their finances.
Alex and Steph were surprised by the quantity of expensive baby items the family had, how much was spent on football merchandise and the array of designer gear.
Steph gave the family her top tips on how they could go on holiday for less and Alex explored the childcare options Emma could consider when she decides to return to work. They also blind-tested men’s shavers and car seats with the family to find out whether brands are always best.
By the end, they had worked out a way of saving the family up to £7,000.
With a large family to look after, Emma keeps the house very clean and uses branded disposable wipes to clean high chairs and worksurfaces.
But it is a costly way of cleaning. Alex and Steph worked out they were using around five to seven packs a week – nearly 22,000 wipes a year.
They encouraged Emma to ditch them in favour of a good old-fashioned spray and cloth, saving more than £700.
With five children of different ages to entertain, it is no wonder their house is crammed with toys.
The Shop Well for Less team found more than 600 toys and books in the house, totalling about £10,000.
As part of the experiment, the television team bought a batch of secondhand toys for the family to try out, and it was a complete success, saving them more than £80 on what they would have been brand-new.
Emma said: “They looked in almost perfect condition and it was a big saving. It is not something I had thought about before, so if you can find things like that second-hand, it is amazing. I would definitely buy second-hand toys in the future.”
Two sets of twins means two sets of car seats, buggies and other baby equipment – totalling around £5,000.
It is extremely costly, but the family was shown that by not always going for the big-brand names they could make significant savings while not making any compromises on safety.
Emma and her mum Katrina tried out a quad buggy which cost £599, compared to one of the double buggies they had costing £1,490.
The team worked out that the family uses 8,000 nappies and 40,000 wipes a year.
The first plan for saving money was for Emma to try reusable nappies, but she found that the amount of washing needed for two sets of twins was not practical.
The second plan was to try out a cheaper supermarket brand than the one they had been using and reusable wipes. Emma was much happier with this and made savings of nearly £1,000.
Gran Katrina paid £4,000 for the family to go on an all-inclusive holiday to Majorca last year.
But Steph found that they could save more than a quarter of what they paid if they visited a campsite in France and took the ferry instead of flying.
The cost of the ferry would be £264, compared to £731 by plane and would only take just over two hours longer.
She also found that a campsite holiday would cost £700, compared to £1,700 for a holiday village.
Other tips included carrying a currency card and getting currency before going on holiday to save charges.
Arsenal fans Liam and Mackenzie spend a lot of money on the latest football strips, but Liam agreed not to buy any new ones for two years.
They worked out that would save the family £600.