Christmas isn’t exactly the time of the year when you think about saving money, but today I’ve got some advice and a competition that should be just what you need to start the New Year with good financial intentions.

You’re playing for two fab prizes today, so get your best competition hat on. First off, you get a copy of the super new book  ‘Money Smarter – a Family Guide’. Money Smarter is a really interesting and practical guide to teaching children the value of money, with over 50 activities that you can try with your family:

"Money Smarter"

Look after the pennies and all that…

Then to go with it, you get this adorable leather purse from Lyla and Tilly, to put all your pennies in once you’ve saved them:

"Bird picture"

Tweet this post for an extra competition entry.
(See what I did there?)

You see? Everything you need for a debt free 2013!

To enter, all you have to do is have a read of these four family finance activities, taken from Money Smart, and then leave a comment offering your own money-saving tip or learning activity. The competition closes on Christmas Day, so you can get your money-saving kit in time for the New Year.

Good luck!

Four ways to teach children the value of money

Where does money come from?
As children, it’s hard to get your head around the idea of money, where it comes from, and what it gets spent on. Sitting down with your kids and explaining exactly how adults earn money is a really useful way to teach children the value of skills and experience. To make it more real, have a look at a selection of job ads. Talk to your children about the different kinds of jobs people do, how much they are paid, and what sort of skills they might need.

Need versus want
Children always seem to need the latest gadget or toy, but how do you teach them the difference between wanting and needing something? Imagine with your kids that you’re stranded on a desert island. Get them to think about what they’d actually need to survive, and what luxuries they might want.

Good debt versus bad debt
People tend to fear debt, but the important thing to learn is the difference between good and bad debt. Debt that will put money in your pocket at a future date is a good debt, a debt that doesn’t is bad. For example, investing in going to university is a good debt, as it will help you earn more money later, but just borrowing to go on holiday isn’t such a great investment. Look through some magazines and newspapers with your kids. Cut out three pictures that represent good debts, and three that are bad.

Your fun fund
Managing your money doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom. As well as saving for the future and paying the bills, there should always be a slice of your budget set aside for fun. How you spend that slice is up to you! With your children, come up with a list of things that you’d like to spend your fun fund on. Can you work out how long it would take you to have enough money for each of your fun activities?

Competition open to UK residents only. Competition closes on 25th December 2012. Your information may be used for marketing purposes by the Money Smarter team. You are free to unsubscribe at any time.

As featured on Loquax Competitions and ThePrizeFinder – UK Competitions

THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED.

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I’m reading a book at the moment called Radical Honesty.* When I showed Boyfriend he snorted a bit and said ‘as if you need that!’

He’s probably right – I do have a tendency to just say what I think, even if it’s a little brutal – but it’s interesting all the same.

The idea behind the book is that our lack of honesty is at the root of pretty much all our stress. This doesn’t just necessarily mean actively telling lies – leading a double life or pretending you have a job but actually just sitting in the park – it includes keeping feelings and thoughts hidden, for fear of how other people will react.

The author, who is a physcotherapist, says that most of the people he sees are stuck in this adolescent state of living their lives according to how they think other people think they should be living them. The stress comes from this fear of judgement, from trying to maintain a persona that you believe to be socially acceptable, and from not being open and honest about your true feelings.

It makes sense doesn’t it?

Think about a source of stress in your life. Maybe it’s work. Why is it stressful? Because you’re afraid that your boss will realise you don’t know what you’re doing? Because you put yourself under pressure to earn as much as your friends? Because you worry that your colleagues don’t like you?

All of these things boil down to typical teenage anxieties don’t they? They are all about not being honest.

What about if you went into work and just said to your boss ‘look, I feel really unsure about how well I’m managing this piece of work, can you give me some feedback or guidance?’

Or how about if you were just honest with yourself and your friends, and admitted that actually money just doesn’t matter as much to you, and that you were going to judge yourself by your own standards?**

I find it fascinating to think about honesty in terms not of the active lies we tell, but of the thoughts and feelings we keep hidden. Wouldn’t life be much more straightforward if you never had to worry about what you said and could just be yourself all the time?

How honest are you?

*I am about five pages in to Chapter One. To be honest (see what I did there?) this is probably as far as I get. I am honest, but flighty.

**Don’t forget I’ve hardly read any of the book. This is all pure speculation on my part as to what the book would ACTUALLY tell you to do.

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I woke up in a grump today.

I kept having these annoying dreams about Christmas decorations. It sounds stupid when I say it out loud, but it was really annoying at the time. You know if you’ve been really focussed on one thing all day, like spreadsheets, and then you dream in a weird Excel format?*

Well I had the same thing but with woven paper hearts. I kept making them, but something was wrong with them, and I would wake up feeling all twitchy about it. I’d lie back down, telling myself not to dream about any more decorations, but then there they’d be, all weird and papery in my head. It was quite frustrating.

Fortunately, Monday morning in netball morning. Netball works very well at clearing my head of anything other than scoring goals and trying not to run into people, and was just what I needed to rid my brains of paper chain nightmares. It was also rather fun as it was the first session after our Christmas night out on Friday, so we got to do all that ‘morning after the night before’ stuff – ‘Jo! How are you feeling! I loved it when you stood on that table and made that speech! What time did you leave the Tennis Club AGM after party?’

That sort of thing.

All the ingredients of a perfect netball Christmas party

All the ingredients of a perfect netball Christmas party

So, after an hour of charging around, getting so hot and sweaty I was steaming up my glasses, I felt much better, and was not at all intimidated by the paper hearts when I got back home.

One question though still remains from Friday night.

What do we call our team?

We play from a local primary school – Sefton Park – so on the table at the moment are things like Sefton Scorpions and Sefton Park Panthers, but we have yet to hit on a name that has made everyone go ‘YES! That’s it!’

This is where you come in. Do you have any suggestions for a netball team name that implies a blend of feminine strength and sharp shooting?

Leave your comments please…

*Please say this isn’t just me being MAD.

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Friends and family say I’m hard to buy presents for, but how can that be true? I’m always seeing things I want to buy for myself.

Take this reindeer for instance, which I spotted earlier this week in Liberty. I’d be very happy with one of these for Christmas. (You can’t see the price tag very well, but I think it was about £1,299. It was very soft though).

"Liberty reindeer"

Tasty little things to eat and drink are always nice too. I wouldn’t be disappointed if someone bought me this modest Christmas hamper from Bettys. It’s only £500. Worth every penny."Christmas hamper"

This velvet chair from Oliver Bonas is nice too. I would obviously need a lovely big white room to put it in, just for me to fill with books and pretty things I’d cut out from magazines.

See how easy I am to please?

"Velvet chair"

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On Sunday night we went to Westonbirt Arboretum. It’s been somewhere I’ve been meaning to visit ever since we moved to Bristol and even though it’s about forty minutes away it was totally worth it. Their Enchanted Christmas runs throughout December on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings and we were led on a trail through the trees, all lit up with beautiful coloured lights.

After our walk we enjoyed hot chocolates and roasted chestnuts while listening to a fantastic male voice choir singing carols. Belle even met a green Father Christmas. It really was enchanted. Truly magical. If you are anywhere near Westonbirt do pay them a visit.

All these photos are taken by Bee.

"Westonbirt Arboretum"

"Westonbirt Arboretum"

"Westonbirt Arboretum"

"Westonbirt Arboretum"

 

"Westonbirt Arboretum"

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“Have you been drinking?” Boyfriend asks. It’s nine o’clock in the morning and he is sniffing the air around me suspiciously. “I thought you smelt a bit boozy when you got home from netball last night.”

“Well I’ve had my breakfast gin and tonic obviously,” I reply, “but that’s all.”

Eventually we track the smell down to my hair. What I was smelling as an exotic blend of essential oils, Boyfriend was interpreting as the first signs of alcoholism.

For eight weeks now I’ve been trying out the Aveda Invati range of hair thickening and revitalising products:

  • "Aveda Invati"invati™ exfoliating shampoo – ‘Removes build-up that can clog pores and renews the scalp.’ – £19.50
  • invati™ thickening conditioner – ‘Restores strength and improves hair elasticity, reducing breakage.’ – £21.50
  • invati™ scalp revitalizer – ‘Helps energize and rehabilitate the scalp.’ – £43

I’ve always had annoyingly fine hair, so when this opportunity came up I jumped at the chance. (My thick, glossy hair bouncing seductively as I did.*)

Some people say I’m gullible when it comes to believing promises. I like to think of it more as trusting and open-minded. Whatever the case, I went into the trial with an open mind, hopeful that here at last would be the answer to all my glossy haired prayers.

Unfortunately, it was not to be. Although it smelled nice, and left my hair feeling silky and soft, the shampoo and conditioner did nothing to improve the thickness of my hair. Nobody noticed any difference, even after eight weeks, and I’ve yet to be approached in the street to star in a hair commercial.

This is me before:

"Before using Aveda Invati"

And here I am after:

The scalp revitaliser was the tricky bit. I followed the instructions precisely – 8 sprays on each side of the head – but it left my thin hair feeling weighed down and oily, and needing to be washed every day, where normally I can get away with just tying it back no the second day if I’m feeling a bit lazy.

However, although it may not have had much effect as a hair thickener, the shampoo and conditioner on their own were really lovely. They smelt great, and left my hair feeling really soft, shiny and in good condition. Unfortunately I really can’t justify spending over £40 just on a shampoo and conditioner just because it makes my hair feel soft.

*Not.

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Wondering what to do with your Saturday night?

Let me tell you about what I did last Saturday, and see if I can inspire you. My last Saturday night in was spent courtesy of Family Bargains. For those of you who don’t know, Family Bargains is like the big sister of 99p Stores, where not everything does cost 99p. It still has though, as the name suggests, bargains for all the family.

There are plenty of good brand names, as well as more unusual products you may not have heard of, but for our Saturday night in, we stocked up on some old favourites, (wine and chocolate obviously), and splashed out on a new board game:

"Family Bargains"

I just had a quick look on the Debenhams website, and the game on its own is still £15, even though it is half price at the moment. We got everything in this picture though – an entire evening of fun – for less than twenty quid. Now that’s what I call a Family Bargain.

(Don’t look too closely, otherwise you’ll see that I have already eaten all the cherry liqueurs all by myself.)

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This week I have been reading a new book by Grace Marshall called ’21 ways to manage the stuff that sucks up your time’.  There is a certain irony in this, as one of the ways I procrastinate is to read books about how to get things done. The great thing about this book though is that it is really simple and quick to read. There are 21 short chapters and each gets right to the point, giving you practical advice for how to be more productive.

"Grace Marshall"

Photo: Christopher Huthwaite

I’ve picked my four favourite techniques, so that you can become as super organised and efficient as I now am!

1. Batch your bits

Sounds a bit rude doesn’t it? It isn’t. It’s about organising little tasks into clumps so you don’t get distracted. I am terrible at this. I have my email open, read one, pop over to twitter, get distracted by a link to something, look at some pictures, then fancy a cup of tea…

Is this just me? I hope not. Although I didn’t do too well in that adult ADHD test. Grace’s tip is to gather all these little jobs into chunks. It sounds simple, but if it’s that easy, why don’t we all do it? With emails in particular, Grace recommends having just one or two times every day when you read and reply to messages. You could even set up an automatic reply saying something like ‘I reply to emails between 3pm and 4pm so will get back to you then’, just so people know exactly what to expect.

2. The two-minute rule

This is a idea from David Allen’s ‘Getting Things Done’, (another book I’ve read as an alternative to actually getting things done), and this technique really resonated with me at the time. The idea is that if tasks come in that you know will take less than two minutes, do them right then. Don’t file them, don’t add them to a list, just get them done. Of course this doesn’t mean just flitting from one thing to another constantly – you have to work it into the bit batching idea, and only look at these sort of tasks at designated intervals.

3. Post networking post-its

Ah yes, networking. Everyone knows it’s a good thing but how many of us do it as effectively as we could do? It’s all very well to go along to an event and talk to people, but a friendly chat is never going to turn into anything other than that unless you follow it up. Unfortunately, if you’re doing it well, you’ll talk to a lot of people, and if you’re like me, when you get home and look at the cards you won’t be able to remember who anyone is or what you talked about.

Grace recommends writing a note to yourself immediately or very soon afterwards to go with each business card. This way, when you follow up, you can refer directly to your conversation. As someone who is hopeless at remembering faces, I’d also recommend making notes about the person’s appearance to help you recognise them if you meet them again!

4. Say no and stay nice

Another tricky one for me, as I always like to be accommodating if I can. With Grace’s technique though you get to say no but still appear helpful. Say someone calls you when you’re in the middle of something else. You want to help, but you’re busy. “Have you got a minute?” they ask. Well yes, technically you do have a minute, but these things always take longer don’t they?

So, instead you say something like “Yes, I’ve got two minutes now, or we can talk for longer at 4pm. Which is best for you?”

You see? Clever isn’t it? You haven’t really said no, but you turned it around so you’re saying yes on your terms.

What are your top tips for getting things done and not getting distracted?

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…you’re reading an article in the Guardian Weekend magazine about how many people have died mining tin for mobile phones on the island of Bangka and you turn the page to find a full page ad, in the middle of the feature, for the Blackberry Curve 9320.

"Blackberry Curve 9320 ad"

Seriously, it was right there, all festive, in your face.

In the corner of the opposite page is a picture of Suge. Suge was buried alive in August when the pit he was working in collapsed. He escaped with a broken leg but three of this friends joined the 75 others who have died in Bangka’s tin mines so far this year.

Suge says the accident was ‘a small sacrifice to give happiness to people in the world, to give them phones and electronics’.

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Today I’ve got a fantastic competition for you, where you can win £100 to spend on pampering yourself at a spa near you. Christmas for parents can be a little on the draining side, financially, physically and mentally, so what better way to recharge your festive batteries than with a spot of self-indulgence?

"lovetub"

The prize has been very kindly donated by lovetub. Lovetub is an indulgent chilled dessert, (not a saucy outdoor hot tub, as the name might suggest), packed in to one single-serve tasty tub. Each tub can be popped in the microwave and in 30 seconds you’ve got yourself a delicious gooey centred treat.

To celebrate the launch of their latest two new flavours, lovetub wanted to share the love and give one of my readers a voucher which entitles you to a beauty treatment of your choice, at a spa or beauty parlour near you, to the value of £100.

If that wasn’t enough, you could also bag yourself a free lovetub or a money-off coupon by visiting the lovetub Facebook page. Everyone’s a winner! If you haven’t already tried the delicious desserts, this is the perfect opportunity.

To be in with a chance to win a personal pampering session, you’ve got a few options. Each will count as one entry, so the more you do, the more chances you have to win!

  • Leave a comment on this post telling me why you deserve a treat
  • Go and like me on Facebook and leave a comment there saying hello
  • Follow me on Twitter and tweet the following – ”#Win £100 of pampering with @mummyblogger http://wp.me/pJA3j-124″
  • Sign up to receive new posts by email or RSS feed

The competition will close on 11th December and a winner will be chosen at random after that, so you can have your lovely treat in time for Christmas.

Good luck!

As featured on Loquax Competitions

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This is a guest post from Mari of Mari’s World fame as I have a small kitchen and a disinclination towards cooking.

It’s not very often you get invited to guest post on somebody’s blog and then get to call them a doughnut, right? But that is what I am about to do and I am so very pleased that Slummy single mummy missed the trick on this one as I am now the very proud and excited owner of a Morphy Richards soup maker.

I have been longing for one since the summer time, dreaming of me quickly whipping up homemade soups for my lunch and being very nutritious and frugal but prices range from around £40.00 to £140.00 so that stopped me.

THEN I met Slummy single mummy at an event, funnily enough it was a cooking event and she is very forward in saying cooking is not one of her passions and she’ll take the easy life every time. She said she’d been offered a soup maker by Morphy Richards and didn’t want it as she didn’t have space and didn’t know how to use a soup maker, and was anyone interested. My hand shot in the air faster than the blenders spinning blades, ‘Me, me, me, I’ll have it… please’

It was a match made in heaven, I got the soup mixer and Slummy single mummy gets a post all about it.

The Morphy Richards soup maker takes up the same amount of space as a kettle on the worktop, it’s made in stainless steel and has a removable lid which contains the blade and heating element. It is so easy to use any fool could work it out and my first trial was to make one of Morphy Richards’ own recipes that intrigued me for the speed to make it, the frozen peas element and of course the delicious ingredients used. I tried

Really quick and easy pea, ham and mint soup

Preparation time : 5 minutes
Cooking time: 21 minutes
Setting: smooth
Serves 4

Ingredients

450g frozen peas
20g fresh mint, leaves only (I didn’t have this)
200g ham – chopped/shredded
800ml hot stock from cube or vegetable
4 tsps olive oil
75ml creme fraiche (I didn’t have any so used Philadelphia instead)

Now get this…

  1. Place the peas, hot stock, mint and ham in the soup maker and select the smooth setting (this will last 21 minutes)
  2. Season with salt and pepper to taste, add the olive oil (I didn’t) and the creme fraiche and using the blend button blend the soup again for 20 seconds
  3. Serve with crusty bread or sliced bread like I did. ;)

How easy is that? Chuck it all in and press a button. That is the moment I fell in love with my soup maker.

I was careful not to immerse the bits in water but it washed up very easily and now sits waiting for today’s trial of French Style Pistou but you’ll have to nip over to Mari’s World to see the outcome of that one and this time I’ll be using the chunky setting…isn’t it exciting?

 

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There is now exactly one month until Christmas.

I don’t care what any of you scrooges say, I don’t even mind that the supermarket aisles have been lined with selection boxes since September, Christmas is coming, and I love it. I love everything about it – the smell, the crappy songs, the mounds of recycling, but especially buying presents.

Now I am lucky enough to have been blessed with the ability, most of the time, to choose presents that people actually like. Either that or I am scary enough that people don’t like to tell me if I get them something they hate. Either way it’s the same outcome for me, so that’s fine.

If you get stuck though, and don’t want to waste money on endless boxes of  chocolates or overpackaged miniature Jack Daniels and glass tumblers sets, then personalised gifts could be a good option. A personalised gift is a sure-fire way to say ‘I was actually thinking of you when I bought this, it hasn’t just come from that stand-by box under my bed for people I had forgotten about’.

Best of all, it doesn’t have to be just pencils with your kids’ names on or novelty family calendars. I’ve just spent a happy hour (in the name of research) on gettingpersonal.co.uk and bring you my top five more unusual personalised gifts:

1. Baubles

A lovely pressie for a baby’s first Christmas, and something they can keep forever. They’re made of fine bone china too:

2. Doormat

A nice idea, but do you really want to be saying  ‘I saw this doormat and thought of you’??

3. Heritage blue plaque

Just in case the rest of the world hasn’t realised your unique contribution to mankind yet:

4. Pestle and mortar

What better way to tell your partner you love them than to grind some spices together?

5. Friday afternoon hammer

You’ve been busy hammering stuff, you fancy a beer, you’re not sure which bottle-opener-hammer is yours…

Happy Christmas!

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