It’s UK Savings Week, and with the cost of living a worry for many and purse-strings tight, it’s a great time for us to take a closer look at some helpful money-saving tips for families! Saving-savvy mother and social media influencer Gemma Bird (aka Money Mum) joined us on a recent podcast to give us her expert insight into money-saving hacks. With her book ‘Save Yourself Happy’ a Sunday Times best-seller, Gemma has many examples and anecdotes and was the perfect guest to give us her thoughts on educating children on money, when to start with pocket money and savings accounts, day trips, holidays, and food shopping on a budget, and much more:
One question that comes up a lot with parents is how to educate their children on money management. In our nurseries we often take the children out to local charity and second hand shops with cash to pick out new toys for their rooms, and they’ll donate toys that they are finished with. This helps them understand a bit about the exchange of money for goods and our parents really love that. We asked Gemma about teaching children the value of money and how to do this.
Gemma advised that you start to teach them about the value of money simply by not always saying yes, and explaining why it’s not always a yes, for example we ate out yesterday which costs money so today we are having a picnic. “I think it’s a good thing to say no to children; I think a lot of parents feel a lot of pressure or that they can’t say no especially if they’re with other parents, but I’ve never worried about whether the kids kick off as most often within two minutes they’re over the situation. What I’ve noticed for both my children even if I have bought them something, within an hour they’ve asked me for something else – so it doesn’t make them happy for a long time, so it’s about sort of understanding that and knowing you’re not being ‘mean’ by not always saying yes as they are often just fleeting requests.”
Parents are also often keen to find out when their children should be trusted and empowered with their own money.
With Gemma’s 10-year-old son Brody they teach him a lot more about money and he’s got a Go Henry bank account which they put £2 in a week so he can learn to save it up to buy the things he wants. Gemma personally started giving pocket money at around eight years old, but says there’s no right or wrong and she thinks parents all do things differently, so you should do whatever feels right to you. And you don’t have to put it on a card, you can give money.
Talking about using the pocket money to help her son Brody gain understanding of money management, Gemma said: “He recently wanted a bubble tea but we were out with his sister so I was clear that if he wanted one, she would need to have one too. He bought the two bubble teas but then the next day asked for another one – to which I said you need to wait to have enough money on your card now, which helped him understand. He’s beginning to appreciate you have to work hard, you have to pay for things. Like we got on the train the other day and I tapped him with my debit card, and he asked if we had to pay to go on the train! By demystifying money children start asking questions naturally as well.”
Gemma says, “There are options depending on what you want to use a savings account for – for example do you want the children to know about the account and have access to it, or open up a long-term account that they’re unaware of until they’re 25 and you want to help them on the housing ladder? Or you could get both options. Our children have two accounts – an everyday account we add in money and can draw money out of, and an ISA that tracks the stock market that we as parents build up over time to eventually be able to give them a lump-sum of money that hopefully has the greatest return on investment.”
One commonly asked question by Kids Planet parents is about activities to get out and meet people when you don’t have that unit already, as people are really interested in ways to build community without paying out too much.
Gemma said a really good way to do that is look at your local council run schemes and local churches. At some churches, you can pay a weekly donation such as a pound, covering coffee/cake and for a couple of hours you see other parents and all the kids play together.
She explained that from there you often meet friends so what you can always do if there’s a group say of you, you could set up a rotation of the first Monday per month hosting at each other’s houses. It means you’re only hosting every several weeks and simply providing tea, coffee, biscuits – and still getting together while the kids play, for basically no money.
If you like to keep active, Gemma recommends posting on your nearest area’s Facebook group asking if any parents would like to join for a walk in the park, and also checking out google for local mum meets. Gemma explains this was really good for her mental health as well and she enjoyed connecting with parents going through a similar time!
Gemma says: “When I was young my mum used to take my sister along to jobs. She’d just watch TV programmes and my mum would clean houses! Nowadays aside from that, it’s simple to make a bit of extra money by selling things online, and as an idea, you don’t only have to sell your own. You’re going to have lots of mum friends that probably work in the city or they’re really busy so they don’t have time and you’ll find that they’ve always got so much stuff to sell so many other parents just don’t have the time to do it. So an idea is to start your own business selling things online for people and you could agree a profit to make for the favour. The act is free, it’s just your time.”
Another idea Gemma mentioned is joining a company where you become an ambassador for a beauty product, perfume. She explains that it can often be described as a negative thing and a pyramid scheme, but as long as you have done your research into the company – you could be earning money selling and promoting something that you truly love to use yourself, which can be an easy and enjoyable thing to be a part of on maternity leave.
Here are some of Gemma’s top tips when food shopping:
When travelling abroad, Gemma books about 11 to 12 months in advance as she advises this is when you get the cheapest flights, and books activities that she finds online before the trip so they are paid for in advance. Gemma puts the children on her bank account so they don’t have to worry about insurance as they just pay monthly for insurance included with the bank account.
If you’re looking for a cheap UK holiday, there are places you can camp for free if you google it, you just need all of your camping gear and food and drink as you would at home, but you get a welcomed change of scenery in the great outdoors. If you’ve already enjoyed going to air bnb’s, another idea is to do a ‘house swap’ with a friend or relative who may live in a totally different part of the UK! You get to go and experience all the things in their area and vice versa.
Gemma says: “Compare parking at the airport with taxi costs ahead of time. When we went away for three weeks, it actually worked out cheaper to get a taxi there and back then parking. However it’s best to check, as if you book your airport parking really early you can save a lot of money.”
“Another tip is to avoid staying centrally – whether that’s the Cotswolds or LA – you will pay less if you stay five minutes out of the central area. Every holiday you go on, take snacks and medication and things like that with you because you tend to find things here are more expensive like getting suncream here is more expensive than abroad. We always take empty bottles to the airport with us too, and when you get through there are water machines everywhere!” said Gemma.
Our parents wanted to know how to organise family days out when you have children of different ages. Gemma has two children with a six and a half year age gap, so has plenty of experience in this department. She advised that what they try and do if they’ve got a week off school is to say today we’re going to go to the park for the morning because they both still like the park and we’ll have a picnic, and the next day will then do something that costs money for example trampolining (in the past when the younger child couldn’t do trampolining, Gemma says there was a little free soft play next to it so to look out for things like this). Gemma would take food with them so they were only really paying for the eldest to have a jump around! If they choose activities more suited to one child one day, they do the same for the other child next time, which helps them understand compromise.
“Google is your best friend – literally Google free days out in my area – we do that all the time. Museums are brilliant and you know it’s always things like food and drink that add up on the days out so take those with you because you know kids are in the car saying they’re hungry but they’re often not hungry they’re just bored. But little snacks are useful to have for those moments!”
We hope you found these tips super helpful and have some things you can take away from Gemma’s personal experiences!
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