The Family Blog
Parenting is one, if not the most important thing, many of us will do in life. But while there are oodles of books on how to get them to eat and sleep, there is yawning gap when it comes to practical help in dealing with the financial aspects of parenthood, and producing financially aware children. "I hope that by sharing my experiences I can help other parents avoid some of the pitfalls when it comes to money and children." Lindsey Rogerson is a financial journalist who writes for a number of newspapers and personal finance magazines as well as womens' magazines. She was personal finance editor of The Scotsman for two years and wrote the Financial Heathcheck column in Scotland on Sunday for three years. She has won awards for writing on both investment and insurance.
This week Id like to go public with a game I have been forced to play with my mortgage company for the best part of a year. In our house it has become known as "mortgage chicken".
In January 2008, conscious that we were one of the 1.4 million UK households due to come off a [...]
We are by now quite used to those more descriptive Chinese expressions and terminology – they often seem to come with references to wildlife and nature as well as often with a more Confucian style. Most recently though, this illustrative style seems to have been replaced with a more blatant and blunt language which reflects [...]
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Other things to know before you go
According to the Association of British Travel Agents, 11 million Brits are heading abroad this winter. With the credit crunch biting harder than the winter weather, we all need to be well prepared for our trips to avoid being [...]
Chances are that if it hasn’t started already then parents the length and breadth of the UK will be bracing themselves for some hard lobbying from their offspring about what the latter expect Santa to pop down the chimney with, this year.
More than ever, this Festive period, retailers will be upping their efforts to get us [...]
I can’t believe I’ve got so worked up over 30p but it’s the principle of the thing!!
I had to go to Cardiff on Sunday night (lovely place by the way – great for a weekend away). I got a cab at the station to take me to my hotel. Getting the cab was an experience [...]
Wow – 2½% off VAT eh? Ooh, get the flags out. Not exactly the most exciting news ever but it should make a few items cheaper over the next few months.
The whole point of this and other possible tax cuts is not that Gordon and Alistair love us so much, it’s because they want us [...]
And so the cry goes up – “tax cuts – give them the money and they will spend our way out of this recession”. Oh the power of popular mantra. With all of the forward thinking of an excited Tigger on speed, the politicians of the world seem wide eyed with excitement in the hope [...]
As it’s national curry week, we can indulge in spicy, cumin and cardamom laced concoctions to our heart’s content for 7 days. Crispy poppadums, eye wateringly hot onion chutneys, smooth almondy murgh masalla and so on.
But don’t forget you can also whip up your own, for pence! That’s if you go for a veg curry – [...]
I’ll be honest, last week I was out of business. And a lot of it was self inflicted, avoidable misery.
I’d seen an interview with Peter Jones, he of the Dragons on local TV a while ago where he said ‘know your product, do your research, but most importantly; get your figures right!’ My figures weren’t [...]
High up on the list of mum-to be dilemma’s is what to put in the hospital bag and what to buy before baby is born.
Before last week I hadn’t even thought about my ‘mummy’ bag, but now (having had one of those conversations with my own mum) suddenly nothing else is as important.
After having a [...]





