money

10 Tips for Cutting Costs as a Family #SaveSmarter

Save smarter: watch the pennies mount up

Last week I took a test. Devised by Aviva, the Financial Personality Tool promised to enlighten me as to my own particular strengths and weaknesses when it comes to money. It got me completely right, and opened my eyes to some opportunities to be a bit smarter about how I save, spend, and manage my finances. I took the test for my husband, and it agreed that my suspicions were correct: we should never have got married… That shock out of the way (who am I kidding, it was never a shock – I love him to bits, but gawd …

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How to Save Smarter (#SaveSmarter)

This post is sponsored by Aviva. Do read it though – it’s fun! A Fun Way to Save Smarter I always seem to have just enough money in the bank; never any spare, but even on a bad month, we always seem to be able to scrape something from somewhere to pay for what we need – usually involving some activity of the kids! We’re lucky. That said, I live in fear of something happening to the house that requires expense. It’s a bit of a dinosaur, our house, and something seems to fall apart at least once a year, …

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How to tackle the debt skeleton in your closet

  Given the rising cost of living in this country, with rents and house prices literally going through the roof, I wasn’t too surprised to read that UK household debt is at its highest in five years. In fact households now, on average, owe 26.5% of their annual income on loans and credit cards (including student loans; excluding mortgages). This is the highest level since before the recession. It’s makes for alarming reading, but it’s easily understandable that people are increasingly having to turn to credit in order to get by. Yet while debt is never enjoyable or desirable, it …

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Wot so Funee? Buying a home

By the Bug…   I have been musing on where I might live when I am old enough to move out of my parents’ house. There’s a road near us with the same name as me, so I’ve always assumed I’d live there eventually, but there’s a problem: it doesn’t have the right kind of home. I gave my mother the benefit of my thought process this week. Buying a home Me: It must be really boring living in a flat. Mum: Well, that depends. A penthouse appartment would be kind of special. Anyway, most people live in a flat for …

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Pocket Money: Wot so Funee?

From the lips of the Bug… I have an axe to grind with Mummy. You see, we’re supposed to get £2 each every Saturday, but we forget to ask, or she forgets to pay, or we’re out without money when we remind her. It’s all very convenient… She has promised to set up a Roosterbank or PKTMNY account for us so that money can be sent magically from her account to ours every week by pocket money fairies. I’m not exactly sure how I get it out of there to spend it, but I’m not fussy, if it’s in my …

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