Entertaining Children in the Holidays on a Budget

Mar 19

As a parent who has struggled for money at different stages throughout her life, I am fully aware of how tough the Easter holidays can be for keeping your children entertained during this time of school where they get irritated and moody even easier than usual. With the added stress of planning for the coming of the Easter bunny cash is not so easy to come by and I share my favourite tips for entertaining younger children at this time of year with few coins to rub together. Love can cost you!

  • Do something creative

If your children are anything like mine then they will look to show their creative side and it does not have to be all fancy coloured cardboard, pricey marker pens and ridiculously priced decorations that need to be used. I’ve found that they’re just as happy with some crayons and cereal boxes or printer paper for creating posters, cards and doodles. With the whole family participating in this activity the fun, and the children’s focus, lasts for hours!

Another great creative idea is designing pictures that can be painted onto their bedroom walls as decoration for their places of personal solitude, and then helping them with the actual painting of the designs. Again everyone is involved, it can fill up a day or two and it helps them feel like they’ve done the hard work.

  • Get out and Exercise

Not only is exercise great for getting yourself and your children out of the house for an hour or so each day just by going for a walk, it is good for you and makes you feel better about yourself. I’ve found that if you throw in an incentive to your children to go for the walk, such as a hour at the park to play on the swings and slides or to feed the ducks, then there is never an issue in getting out, fit and healthy.

  • Game Time

Whether it be a simple game such as playing ‘Snap’ with a packet of cards or one of numerous board games, such as snakes and ladders, junior scrabble or even monopoly if they’re old enough to understand the rules correctly, although very competitive in my house, game time is the perfect way to fill an afternoon. Many games can also be used to help boost learning for when they’re back at school and I play bingo with my six and seven year old and it has massively helped them comprehend their numbers in school much better. However, it does have the adverse side effect of when I’m trying to some play online bingo games at Butlers in peace during the evening that they both want to stand over my shoulder or be sat on my lap to watch as I play!

  • Go Camping

When my husband was younger he was part of the scout movement and he spent many weekend’s away with his troop as a child, and this is something that we involve our children with now too, especially during the holidays, as we pack up our tent and our things and go for a long weekend away to a camp site for a short break. Camping fees are incredibly cheap these days and as we have a large enough tent and we are away from the daily grind everyone enjoys their time away and comes home refreshed and rested. If you are in Scotland go camping quick as they are thinking about banning wild camping.

Whether it be a simple game such as playing ‘Snap’ with a packet of cards or one of numerous board games, such as snakes and ladders, junior scrabble or even monopoly if they’re old enough to understand the rules correctly, although very competitive in my house, game time is the perfect way to fill an afternoon. Many games can also be used to help boost learning for when they’re back at school and I play bingo with my six and seven year old and it has massively helped them comprehend their numbers in school much better. However, it does have the adverse side effect of when I’m trying to some play online bingo games at Butlers in peace during the evening that they both want to stand over my shoulder or be sat on my lap to watch as I play! Alternatively you can test these two amazing classic slot machines here and here.

 

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Speculate to Accumulate; Poor Credit Options

Mar 04

Although I’ve written hundreds of posts here on MonveySavingBlog about saving
money and making the best of what incomings you have, sometimes it seems
impossible to meet your financial requirements each and every time,
especially when it when unexpected bills and expenses. Although there
are some great tips on budgeting to be found Online (go here), unexpected
bills and commitments might be a part of your financial life which
require some additional and ‘off the bat’ research.

You are not alone
Borrowing money is something that millions of people do each day in the
UK, be it in the form of an ‘Over-Draft’ or even a ‘subsidy’ from your
employer or work (if your boss is nice enough to allow this) or even
looking for small personal loan or unsecured loan is something which
thousands of people are doing right now online. If the first two options
here are not open to you, perhaps your are currently unemployed or don’t
have an overdraft facility on your bank account then indeed, looking for
a an unsecured, personal loan is a solid option providing you can meet
the required standards to be accepted by the loan company in question.

Here are my tips for finding and towards dealing with a UK loan
company

Look for a Direct Loan Lender or loan company in your local area, this
way the company is local to you and you can form a tighter relationship
than with a phone number. Many UK lenders have branches throughout the
UK and in some of the top cities around and about making it easy for you
to go in and sign up for a loan or even pop along to pay cash over the
counters… Brokers traditionally are smaller and more remote than
direct lenders thus by cutting out this middle man you can often secure
a better repayment rate post approval.

Know your credit score
To know who might approve you for your loan you may need to know a
little more detail about your actual credit score or credit reference
that the company will perform post approving you and actually lending
you the money. Some companies use public records to see if you are who
you say you are and to see where you have lived previously. It is
possible for something as small as an unpaid electric bill is negatively
affecting your credit score and causing lenders to either increase your
APR based on the credit check or reduce the loan amount, sometimes both.
By checking out your credit score it is possible to positively affect it
over time by addressing the issues which are marked on your personal
file. Things like you address for the past 3 years, any other or
additional loans you currently have and other financial commitments
shall appear on your credit check. This is then looked at by the loan
company in questions underwriters who appraise your ability to repay the
loan amount successfully. Check out some of the tips ONLINE which can
help you bring back your credit score to a place where you will be
approved in the future.

How quickly do you NEED the money?
In the fast paced UK, getting a loan if you are in a stable financial
position can be achieved in little over a few hours (see here), should
you have a low or poor credit score, your chances and the time it takes
to find a lender may be significantly increased, try to allow enough
time to have a loan company approved you and send you the money before
you desperately need it, the additional stress could be curtailed by
seeking a specialised Bad Credit Loan lender or lender who loans to the
unemployed, with many different rates of APR offered in the UK the
choice is plentiful but Everyday Loans are an expanding UK company who
can approve you the same day if you call into one of their UK branches.

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Negotiating Your Offer: Simple Strategies for Homebuyers

Mar 03

It’s time to make an offer on a home, but you’re not a professional negotiator. That’s OK. You’ll need to brush up on your skills though. Negotiation is one of the most important aspects of buying a home. Your ability to negotiate will often determine the price you pay for a home, and it could save or cost your thousands of dollars, depending on which way the negotiations go.

Get Pre-approval

Always, always, always get a pre-approval. This is one of the biggest mistakes that new home buyers make. They walk onto a property without any clue how of how they’re going to pay for it. It’s frustrating for the seller, all of the agents involved, and the buyer when he can’t sign a contract for the house he wants.

Pre-approval means that you’ve already filled out an application, gone through the process of a credit check, and the bank has approved you for a loan. You just need final approval based on the actual house you want to buy.

Take a Tour

Take a tour of the home you want to make an offer on. You’ll have to go to a few open houses, take lots of private tours but, when you’re ready, take a final walkthrough. Inspect everything. Then, tell the seller why you love their home. This establishes rapport. It also shows that you’re genuinely interested in the home.

Make an offer that is anywhere between 90 and 97 percent of the asking price, based on any repairs that might need to be done to the home. If extensive repairs or concessions need to be made, offer less. Don’t lowball the seller, however, if the home is in decent shape.

Making Your Initial Offer

Your initial offer is an important one. It sets the tone for future negotiations. Ideally, you’ll offer somewhere between 90 and 97 percent of the asking price. This allows for some room for negotiation. If you start too high, you’ll end up hitting the seller’s asking price too soon. You’ll also pay more for the house than you need to. Bid too low, and you risk offending the seller and losing the home altogether.

Getting A Home Inspection

Make sure you pay for an Austin home inspector to come and inspect the home from top to bottom. Most homeowners don’t do this, but it’s one of the most important steps in the negotiation process. It gives you more wiggle room in the price if the inspector finds something wrong with the house. For example, let’s say your initial bid on a $100,000 home is $97,000. The home inspection reveals that there’s a problem with the water heater and the furnace is about to die. That’s not good. Furnaces can cost upwards of $4,000 to $10,000 or even more. Hot water heaters aren’t cheap either. The inspection might also reveal whether the home infested with pests like termites and needs to be serviced from companies like Pest Control Experts (https://www.pestcontrolexperts.com/local/georgia/) to solve this issue. Something like this might not cost too much but if the termite infestation has been happening for a while it could have properly rotted through the wooden structure of the house and therefore, the house is not worth your money.

Here’s where you can approach the seller and ask for a concession on the price of the home. You’ll need a new water heater immediately, and the furnace is about to die, so you can ask for money off to buy a new one.

Get An Appraisal

Get an official appraisal of the home. Some homeowners are irrationally attached to their home for sentimental reasons, even when they’re selling. They’ll assign a higher value than what the market can bear. An appraisal will ferret out the true value of the home so you don’t pay more than what the house is actually worth.

Get Your Agent To Negotiate

Spend some time learning how to find a realtor that knows how to negotiate for you. After all, this is what your realtor is for – not just signing the paperwork. A good realtor will be able to assess the seller’s willingness to sell, and will also understand how to negotiate the deal.

Most realtors are trained in negotiation, but that doesn’t mean that all real estate professionals are equally adept at it. Interview 10 agents, and ask about their previous sales. This will be a good indicator of what they can do for you.

Dennis Ellis has a long career in the real estate market. After years of working with homebuyers, he enjoys writing about navigating buying and selling property for the everyday person.

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