Finances - Single Parent Pessimist

Money Saving Tips For Single Parents

Claire — Wed, 29 Nov 2017 11:39:00 +0000

This time of year is so hard on many families financially, with Christmas gifts and even increased heating bills as it's already getting so cold, which is why I like to share the tips I've found that help keep me within my tight budget.

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Guest Post by Gingerbread: Getting Financial Help In An Emergency

Claire — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 05:00:00 +0000

I’ve heard so many awful stories about people who have taken out payday loans in a desperate bid to pay bills and keep a roof over their children’s heads, so when Kathyrn Excell at the rather brilliant single parent charity Gingerbread offered to write some money tips for us, I jumped at the chance to feature it! Getting Financial Help in an Emergency: “I work full time at minimum wage and have to work 60+ [hours] a week to cover rent, bills and food”. “I’m always playing catch up”. “There’s no respite from watching every penny”. These are the words of some of the single parents that we’ve spoken to at Gingerbread, the single parent charity. Our research found that nearly early eight out of ten single parents find managing their financial commitments is always difficult at best – and at worst, often means falling behind on rent or bills [1]. We know that single parents work incredibly hard to provide for their children, carefully monitoring their outgoings and planning for anticipated costs such as birthdays or Christmas. But when there’s an unexpected change to your finances, keeping on top of things can become challenging. It can then be very tempting to take out a payday loan, or other short term loan, to cover the shortfall. However, these types of loans can often make things worse. Payday loan debt can quickly spiral as the interest payments are very high, meaning that if you don’t pay it back on time, it could end up costing you a lot more than expected. Fortunately, payday loans are not the only way to get financial help in an emergency. In our new video below, Gingerbread Adviser Yvonne talks through some of the other options available such as budgeting loans, hardship payments, short term benefit advances, and even grants. She explains how you can get support with your rent payments, or help with utility bills. The video also looks at getting help with one-off payments for furniture or clothing for example, explaining how you could access interest-free loans or a grant. The two most important things to remember are: the help is out there and you are not alone. If you’re worried about managing your finances, or know someone who is, please watch and share the video. You can find more advice on our website, by calling our helpline, or by speaking to other single parents by joiningGingerbread as a member (it’s free). Follow me on Twitter, Pinterest or Facebook. [1] http://www.gingerbread.org.uk/content/1813/Paying-the-price

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Guest Post: Financial Tips with Mrs Moneypenny

Claire — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 18:39:00 +0000

As most of you know I tend to worry about future relationships, especially now I have a child’s needs to also think of, and one aspect of meeting a new partner is making sure you’re both on the same page when it comes to finances, and Ivan Molner describes this perfectly below! Mrs Moneypenny Gives Great Money Advice We’ve all been there – you find the man or woman of your dreams. You like all the same things, even your mum likes them, you’re sure that they’re the one. But once the excitement of your new relationship subsides, and things start to get real, you need to start considering the everyday practicalities of your relationship – and that includes the one subject that we all dread bringing up, money! The fact is, however, this is a really important conversation to have. If you don’t start out with an open, honest and realistic approach to money, you’ll almost certainly run into problems further down the road…and no one wants that! If you’re thinking about taking your relationship to the next level and making a financial commitment to one another, it can seem a little daunting. Luckily, there are plenty of people out there who are ready and willing to help. I found this money advice video from Mrs Moneypenny really helpful – here are some of her top tips… What are your attitudes to money? We all have different attitudes towards money. Whilst no-one approach is right or wrong, it’s important that, when entering into a serious relationship, you fully understand each other’s financial attitudes. Are you a scrimper or a saver? And what about your partner? Figuring this out right from the start can help you to predict and avoid any problems that might arise in the future. Should you open a joint account? This is a big decision and one that only you can make. If you do decide to open a joint account, remember that this will create a formal financial link between the two of you, which will mean that lenders may take both of your credit reports into account when assessing any credit application you make. How much will you share? We all know that, in a relationship, you should share everything with your partner. But, when it comes to bills and other payments, this isn’t always strictly true. It’s important that you sit down with each other and agree which financial responsibilities you are going to share between you. Should you share the TV subscription if only one of you watches the sports channels? (I know this causes the most arguments in my house!) It may seem obvious what is shared and what isn’t but unless you sit down, go through every expense and make a final and joint decision, you might find yourself in the midst of a misunderstanding, or worse still, a row. Saving for bigger purchases If you’re saving for a substantial joint purchase, such as a house, a car, or maybe just a once-in-a-lifetime holiday, then make sure you work out how much you can each (realistically!) afford to save each month. Are there areas you can cut back in to increase the amount you can save? Check out what your combined credit profile looks like, by getting your free credit report. This is super important, as once you’re making joint decisions on purchasing and borrowing, each other’s credit report will have an impact on your individual profiles. Honesty is the best policy! When you’re discussing your finances, both past and present, twisting the facts to make your situation sound better isn’t going to help anyone. The most important thing to remember is that honesty is the best policy. We’ve all got a past, and most of us have run up at least one credit card bill in our lifetime that we aren’t proud of! A good way to address this is to sit down and go through each of your credit reports. This will allow you to address any issues one by one, and figure out any behaviours that you might need to change going forward. So, there you go. Discussing financial matters doesn’t need to be the scary conversation that we all tend to fear it will be. It is, however a crucial conversation to have and one that will set your relationship in good stead for the future. Follow me on Twitter, Pinterest or Facebook.!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?’http’:’https’;if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+’://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js’;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, ‘script’, ‘twitter-wjs’);

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