Gaining Independence With Osper

I mentioned a few weeks back about my struggle in knowing when to give a little when it comes to my older two children. The fact that I want to give them a little bit more independence but not quite knowing how. Well the lovely people at Osper stepped in to help with eldest daughter.

Have I Been A Drain On Society??

Money, it really is the route of all evil. If you have very little of it then you struggle to pay for things but when you have more it never seems to be enough.

In light of the recent budget announcements I felt like I had to say my piece. Whilst I agree with parts of the budget, I was made to feel annoyed and if I'm honest slightly angry at others.

As a family of 6 I hate what's been said re child tax credits. I didn't choose to have children in order to get benefits, I chose to have them because I love being a mum and I knew regardless of money my kids would be loved and well cared for.

However over the years I can't deny that tax credits have helped us pay the bills but my husband and I have always paid our taxes etc so really why shouldn't we be entitled to get something back?

But now the government are making those of us with larger families feel like we are scroungers, as though it as a bad thing to have more than two children. Are we forgetting that back in the day it was normal to have lots of children and back then it definitely wasn't done in order to get benefits.

Win a Aynsley Owl and the Pussycat Money Box

It's the time of the year where we all think about how we should have saved our money better throughout the year so that our bank balances didn't look so poorly after Christmas. And surely we should be teaching our kids about saving their pennies too.

I've started to introduce the idea of doing chores and earning pocket money to my eldest two daughters and they have just the place to store their hard earned pennies, their money boxes.

Now if this idea sounds good to you, then I have a fantastic competition for you to enter. House of Fraser have kindly allowed me to give away one of the Aynsley Owl and Pussycat money boxes worth £24.95 to one lucky reader.

How Much Pocket Money?

So today I am busy moving house so the lovely Kate from Family Fever has stepped in to provide you with a post to get you thinking……

I read an article recently saying that the average child in the UK receives £12.74 a week in pocket money.

Now, I know that pocket money is always going to vary from family to family and area to area. But to me, that seems a lot? 

My children are 8, 6 and 1. We put money into their savings accounts each month, but I don’t see that as ‘pocket money’. 

The older 2 get £1 a week, and there is the potential to earn a little bit more if they help with some of the bigger household jobs such as washing the car, weeding the garden and hoovering their rooms. 

See, I did the maths. £12 a week equates to more than £600 a year, per child. I have 3. And I simply don’t have £1800 a year to give to my children. 

Is Now The Time To Save Money

Each of my children has a bog standard saving account set up. All family members put money into them at various times of the year. We are hoping this will be a nice little nest egg for them when they turn eighteen. Whether it be money for driving lessons, deposit for a house, a new car, it is just nice to think that they won't have to struggle to pay for everything like my husband and I have in the past.

Now the silly thing is, is that we have these accounts set up for the kids but we don't have a savings account set up for ourselves, I think purely because we never seemed to have money spare at the end of each month to put aside.

Over the years our budgeting has got better and with my husband now in a better paid job we have recently started looking into opening up an ISA.

I don't know if you lot know but on the 1st of July this year, ISAs became known as new ISAs, NISA.

In simple terms, essentially they are still the same thing, tax free of tax effiecient accounts for your savings of investments. They are a way of increasing your returns by paying little or no tax.

I'm not clued up when it comes to money so I wasn't sure what the differences were between an ISA and a NISA?

What If I Was Rich??

I'm sure I'm not the only one who sits there and dreams about what it would be like to have lots of money. Every week I play the lottery, I'm not one of these people that picks the same numbers every week, I opt for the lucky dip option but so far when I've been waiting for those lottery results, the "lucky" part of the dip hasn't worked for me.

I often think about I would buy if I was rich, the things on my list aren't really that extravagant but they would provide a comfortable and happy life for my family.

1. House

I've always imagined my perfect house. 6 bedrooms, one for me and Daddy Hazelden to share, one for each of the girls and a spare room that I would change into a play room. I have always wanted a kitchen big enough to have an island in the middle, a place where everyone can "hang out" whilst I cook and top of my list would have to be a large garden, plenty of outdoor space for the kids to run around and of course there needs to be room for a large trampoline!!! I guess overall I want a real family home where everyone feels welcome.

2. Trip to Disney World

My family and I love going on holiday together. Our most recent trip to Ibiza was the best yet. However both my husband and I would love to be able to take our daughter's to Disney World, I mean come on who doesn't love Disney. My own dad always promised me when I was younger and it never happened so I would to make my own dream come true as well making my own kids extremely happy.

3. A Car For Me

With Daddy Hazelden working away a lot, it means he needs the car but sadly we can't afford to run two cars, this leaves me having to rely on other people to take me places when needed. I personally hate driving the car that we have, we need a big car to fit all of us in but I feel overwhelmed by it. I just want a little run around and it would be even better if it was purple!!!

How can we save money?

It doesn't seem to matter whether we are earning very little or more than the average person, we always seem to be struggling. If you earn too little, benefits etc don't seem to cover things, if you earn too much, tax takes away half your wage before you have even got it in your bank account.

Money is the main thing that Daddy Hazelden and I always argue over, we don't mean to but it definitely causes us to stress sometimes. I really do believe money is the root of all evil!!! We recently had a major struggle when Daddy Hazelden was out of work for a month, we have always lived to our means, so when that wasn't there anymore, it was very tough for a while.

I am a big budgeter so it isn't that we just go throwing our money around and wasting it, I calculate things to last penny, meal planning and buying cheaper alternatives, yet we still manage to come up short more often than not.

Things aren't helped by the cost of day to day living seeming to be permanently on the up and even when trying to be careful how we use ammenities like water, gas and electric, it doesn't change a lot in the end because they only go and increase the cost of it!!

I know we are definitely not the only family in this situation. I think it is hard because we always want better for our kids than what we had, even if what we had wasn't really that bad.

I'm always on the look out for new ways to save/earn more money especially with Christmas on the horizon.

Some things I do to cut down on costs and save money :

* Buy things second hand - whether that be from local selling sites, ebay or even charity shops there are some bargains to be found.

* Buy food in bulk - if there are offers on things like bread, meat etc, buy more and store what isn't needed yet in the freezer

* Buy cheaper alternatives - not everything you have to buy needs to be the top brand name, honestly they taste the same, just look at the aldi adverts!!

* Shop around - this goes for food, toys, clothes, utility bills - compare the prices of things before buying, you could save yourself a pretty penny.

* Swapping toys, books etc - I don't take credit for this idea, some of my friends came up with this concept in an attempt to bring down the cost of Christmas -  this way your kids get something they didn't have before and all it has cost is postage.

* Get out the blankets, jumpers and hot water bottles - I have seen a lot of people already saying they have turned their heating on and with the cost of gas and electric constantly on the rise, this could become expensive. So instead, put another layer of clothing on, snuggle up together under a blanket or pop that hot water bottle in your bed.

I think in the long run it is good to try and save as much money as we can and a good thing is, is that it shows our children a little bit about the value of money too.

When my girls have pocket money to spend, they will pick a few things that they want and I will point out that the cost and that for instead of buying so and so they could buy two or three different items, stretching the pennies out further. Now when they get money from the "tooth fairy", they pop it in their piggy bank and save it until they have a few more pennies to spend. Small things but every little helps as they say.

What other money saving tips do you lovely readers know, would love if it if you could comment and share.

xxxx

Let The Wobbling Race Commence

My eldest daughter didn't get her first wobbly tooth until she was 7 years old so imagine my surprise when my 5 year old told me this week that her tooth was wobbling.

I thought she was joking at first because she loves to copy her sister, so I had a little wobble myself and she was right, one tooth ready to be wiggled and jiggled.

Her older sister currently has two wobbly teeth, she has always been a bit reluctant to get wobbling so I said it is now a race to see who can get theirs out first.

I should have thought about this before I opened my mouth. Now the "tooth fairy" needs to go and save up some pennies so she's ready to do her job.

The going rate for teeth these days seems to have increased in price along with everything else. We are currently paying £1 a tooth. What's everyone else paying, does the tooth fairy need to drop her prices seen as there is a recession on??

*Update*

We have a winner, drumroll please........

Miss 5 year old is the champion and her prize, a visit from the tooth fairy!!

xxxx