Glad to be on board

poorandindenial

There are lots of ways. The best thing you can do is give us a feel of what you currently spend money on. the easiest way to do this is to put together a SOA (I will post a link in a sec but basically it is all of your income and expenditure for a month). When you post that you can also post the sorts of things that you would like to do for less. Some of these people on here can help with, for others we might refer you over to another board.

And as for "mum being bad" - if your kids know that your belts will be tightened then that isn't a bad thing, they will probably get a better sense of the value of money that way - how old are they. There are loads of people on here that turn moneysaving into games for their kids (like looking for certain things in the supermarket, that sort of stuff) and there are loads of suggestions for days out that are free that people have posted in the past (there is also a board for family money saving and that may have more on it too)

poorandindenial

Here is the SOA calculator

http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

there is a button at the bottom that will format it for posting onto a message here.

poorandindenial

keren29 wrote: »

Switch to Freeview if you have Sky - I don't have kids but I'm sure there are kids channels on Freeview. Swap mobiles to PAYG as soon as you are out of contract.

I don't have kids either but there are one or two on there - I don't know how I even know that, my freeview box has been out of action for months

Deep_In_Debt

Glad to have you on board, panda. Welcome. Sorry might not be much help on the technicalities but just wanted to say hello.

Ask away and we will all help where we can.

pandaperson

Thanks for that the SOA is a great tool..the kids are young 4 years and 21 months, but have been spending on horse riding lessons and ballet for the eldest and just basically spoiling the youngest (in my eyes felt sorry for her because all her clothes were her elder sisters!)

poorandindenial

If you like the SOA tool you will love playing with the snowball calculator at www.whatsthecost.com. It is fantastically motivating because it lets you see how quickly you can pay off your debt if you pay £x extra a month

It is also very addictive;)

poorandindenial

Just adding - don't worry about whether or not your daughter minds her clothes being passed down, she won't even remember.

Anyway - once we get you going to charity shops and car boots for clothes for both of them things will level out;)

doodledo_2

Hi and welcome to the board.

I have a three year old and to be honest her days out are always more or less free. Picnic in the park, walks in the wood, trips to the seaside etc she loves anything like that.

Like the others have said post up your SOA and I'm sure there will be lots of advice coming your way.

pandaperson

Thanks to all of you I now feel that I have have made the first step...still a bit nervous about the forum bit, but really excited about the ideas and sharing stuff, will try the snowball calculator!!! Thanks everyone

Nomad25

Just a final word from me before I disappear; MSE members have a mantra about no such thing as a stupid question. So if there's anything, ASK, especially about how to work around the forum [the more you get into it, the more cool tools you'll discover]. You're in good hands now. Good luck.