This post has been written in association with the Money Advice Service.
Talk Money Week, 12th-18th November
Talk Money Week is a new public awareness week from the Money Advice Service aiming to change our general reticence around discussing money. It is being held from 12th-18th November and will include events across the UK designed to help people have more open conversations about their finances.
My money story
Missed opportunities
Living within our means
We don’t waste money buying things we don’t need and anything we do purchase is more often than not second hand. As the person in charge of food, I always plan our meals and shop using a list. It is very rare that food is wasted at Shoestring Cottage. Mr Shoestring is super handy and great at repairing stuff and DIY. All this means that we no longer have any debt and we can afford the days out and holidays that we really enjoy!
Julia says
Family finances was never talked about in our house but I was aware that while we had enough to be comfortable, we were still a family to be careful with it. One of my earliest memories is getting money each Christmas and my Nan always piping up with “put it in the bank!” Then when I was a teenager my pocket money went up from £5 a month to £10 a month, with the proviso that half of it went into the bank!
Although we come from a frugal background, my brother is the opposite of me and will happily fork out for the latest and greatest stuff – though never going into debt for it.
My husband is a bit like that too, so from the start of our marriage I was in charge of the month to month household finances and squirreling away what I could into savings.
At one time it got to the point where I had to start giving DH some “pocket money” along with the kids so he didn’t just take from the account! 25 years later and while the pocket money has now stopped, little else has changed! He still gets stuff from Amazon on an almost daily basis, but as long as it’s not coming out of money set aside for the budget or the savings I still squirrel away (the savings accounts are in my name only!) that’s his choice.
On the other hand, he is much more mathematically minded than me and understands pensions, interest etc so deals with the investing side of things, like the inheritance from the death of his parents which has allowed him to retire early and still have a “toy fund”.
It’s a fine line to tread discussing money with kids – you don’t want to put family struggles on their shoulders, but at the same time they need to learn that it’s not there for spending at will!
Mine always got their age in money a month (£10 month for the 10 year old etc) to keep it fair and so they had an annual rise to look forward to!
When they were very little they each had 3 jars (savings, taxes (!) spending and I used to have them put a certain percentage in each. The taxes was to get them used to having to live on less than they got and went to charity at the end of each year. Time will tell if they took it on board (or even remember as it was 10+ years ago now!) as they have yet to start full time employment!
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
Impressive, Julia!