New Year's Crafts for Kids

New Year’s Eve is a fun time to reflect on the year before with your children. Here a few ideas you can do or use them to get your own creative juices flowing:

·       Create a book that you can print – these are a simple and fun task to put together. Include all of the fun things you did over the past year. Let your little one draw pictures that go with the activities they’ve done. These are also a good idea for early readers.

·       Write a Poem – Use the letters in the word “New Year” and write a poem about things you’ve done over the past year.

·       A New Year Essay – this is good for older children. Write an essay on the “The Best Thing That Happened to Me This Year Was…”

·       Entertainment over the past year – Make a list of questions about your favorite movies, songs, books, television shows, websites, photos, activities and why you liked them.

·       Keep the New Year In mind – make a list together of things you’d like to do, goals you’d like to reach in the new year. Include places you’d like to visit, books you’d like to read, things you’d like to learn, etc.

·       Create a scrapbook: Use photos and memorabilia from activities you’ve done, trips you’ve taken or other fun things and put it all into a scrapbook that your child can look back on for years to come.

There are plenty of ways to create fun reminders of the past year. Use your own creativity to create beautiful memories with your children. 

New Year's Eve with Kids

New Year’s Eve is an exciting time for everyone – the end of the old year and the start of the new is always a cause for celebration. However, if you have young children at home, it can be a challenge to find activities to do when a champagne toast at midnight isn’t an option. There are plenty of options to make New Year’s Eve fun even with young children – here are just a few ideas to help get you started:

1.     Make your own balloon drop: This is an easy and fun way to celebrate New Year’s Eve – create your own “ball drop” right in your living room. Get a drawstring garbage bag, fill it up with pretty balloons and hang it upside down. W

hen the clock strikes midnight (or earlier if you have REALLY young children) pull the draw string and let the balloons drop.

2.     Old movies: Pop some popcorn and cuddle up on the couch with your favorite movies from the past year.

3.     Have your own dance party: Dress up in your Sunday best, decorate the living room and dance the night – and the year – away in style!

4.     Make a time capsule: Pick some of your favorite things from the past year – photos, movies, books, toys – anything that reminds you of something fun or special – and put it in a container. Tuck them away some place where you’ll remember where they are and open them next New Year’s Eve.

5.     Bake a cake: The Greeks have a tradition of baking a “good luck cake” by putting lucky coin or other trinket right into the cake mix to bake it. The person who gets the lucky coin in their piece of cake is said to have good luck the next year.

6.     Celebrate midnight in another country: This is an especially good idea if you have younger children who won’t make it to midnight in your area. For example, if you’re on the east coast, you can celebrate at 6:00 pm  - it’s midnight in Paris.

So there you have it  - a few ideas of celebrating this fun holiday with young children. Use these ideas for your family’s celebration or come up with your own! 

Tips for Stretching your Budget

We know times around the Holiday Season are tight. Want to stretch that budget? We have four tips for you. 

     We know times around the Holiday Season are tight. Want to stretch that budget? The reality is that children are expensive. They like eating, drinking, living indoors and indulging in recreational sporting activities, all of which cost money and the costs add up for parents especially if they have more than one child. The good news however is there are methods of stretching that family budget.

Write out a list of your monthly expenses in relation to incoming cash so that you know exactly what you can and cannot afford. Another good tip is to stop paying fees. Little fees all add up into big fees, so cutting out using ATMs too often and avoiding late fees can end up saving you a surprising amount of money. Coupons are an old fashioned but still highly effective way to save money, with many websites offering Internet coupons for stores, and other sites such as Groupon offering product, restaurant and travel deals. There are other ways to make every dollar count, such as sharing an adult meal between two children when eating out rather than buying separate kids meals. 

Cheap travel tips

There are plenty of good tips around for those that want to be able to travel as cheaply as possible.

One good cheap travel tip is to get some work at the same hostel in which you are staying in return for food and board or at minimum a discount. Another good piece of advice is to walk everywhere that you can for up to thirty minutes. This will not only save you money but also help you to keep fit.

Another good tip is to take a tent with you when you go on vacation to Europe. Many cities in Europe offer excellent campsites that work out to be considerably less expensive than the price of hostels and many of them even provide a free bus to the local city center as well.

You can sleep for free on many night trains. If you were to go to northern Italy and spend a day there, you could then sleep for free on the train to the south of Italy, spend another day there and then sleep for free again going back up.

Social networking is good for teens

New technology always causes generation fear, and the advent of social networking has seen much the same, with many of the older generations fearing that the technology is making teenagers unable to deal with face to face contact. The reality however is much different – and much more positive.

Social scientists studying young people have found that digital use by teens is both inventive and beneficial in social and even educational terms. The Pew Research Center sees no evidence for the idea that networking is cutting down real world communication either, which found that those who text most avidly are actually more likely to spend real time with their friends. Rather than social networking replacing “proper” socializing, it is merely augmenting it. Children still spend plenty of time in face to face interaction, and as they grow older and receive more freedom from their parents, it is common for them to cut down on their online social networking. 

Stretching a family budget

The reality is that children are expensive. They like eating, drinking, living indoors and indulging in recreational sporting activities, all of which cost money and the costs add up for parents especially if they have more than one child. The good news however is there are methods of stretching that family budget.

Write out a list of your monthly expenses in relation to incoming cash so that you know exactly what you can and cannot afford.

Another good tip is to stop paying fees. Little fees all add up into big fees, so cutting out the use of ATMs and avoiding late fees can end up saving you a surprising amount of money. Coupons are an old fashioned but still highly effective way to save money, with many websites offering Internet coupons for stores, and other sites such as Groupon offering product, restaurant and travel deals.

There are other ways to make every dollar count, such as sharing an adult meal between two children when eating out rather than buying two separate kids meals. 

How to overcome financial procrastination

Financial procrastination can end up costing people dearly as they fail to organize their finances in ways that would be the best for their own future. The good news however is there are some simple tips that can help people to get organized and stop procrastinating.

Automating your bills is one such tip. These days the great majority of big companies will have automated billing systems via either credit card or debit card payments. Automating the most common ones such as electricity, phone and water bills means that you not only reduce the effort involved but also reduce the risk of being hit with late fees.

It is important to start saving the moment you are able. People often try to save only once they have paid their regular expenses but many of us often spend extra money if it is there, so organizing regular small transfers to a separate account is a good way to avoid temptation and begin saving right away.