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Ways Moms Can Spend Time With Their Children

August 14, 2011 by

Between a career, housework and other life demands, finding time to spend with your children can be difficult. However, before you have time to react, your children will be grown and moving away from home. Here are three ways you can spend more time with your children.

Play Board Games

There’s no better way to connect with your children than by recapturing your youth. Set aside one or two evenings each week to play board games with your kids and reunite as a family. The best board games are those that bring all ages together for an exciting challenge.

Cook Together

Typically, moms take on the household cooking, shooing children away until the meal is complete. If you’re guilty of doing this, change things up by inviting your kids to cook the next meal with you. Many kid-friendly cooking recipes are available to help your children experience the joy of cooking, while also reconnecting with you.

Watch Movies in Bed

If you normally rush through weekend mornings catching up on housework, make next weekend different. Instead, eat breakfast in bed with your children and lounge around all morning watching movies. This can develop into a family tradition, and is a great way to shed the stress of the previous week while enjoying quality time with your youngsters.

Many opportunities exist to spend more time with your children. Whether you reconnect over the dinner table or by playing board games once a week, by reconnecting with your children, you’ll develop into a stronger family.

Filed Under: Finance, General Tagged With: , ,

Treat Yourself Without Breaking the Bank

May 5, 2011 by
Various Federal Reserve Notes, c.1995. Only th... 

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If you are a mom it can be hard to find the money to treat yourself when you are always buying new things for your children. It is important to remember that everyone deserves some downtime. It is possible to treat yourself to some fun and relaxation without breaking the bank.

Look for specials in your local area by using sites like Offers.com. Some bowling alleys will have ladies’ night where women bowl for free. You and your lady friends can all bowl without spending a dime on games. There are usually also food and drink specials. A group of you can even share a babysitter to save money.

Go to an early matinee movie and leave the kids with your signifigant other. Matinee prices can sometimes be four dollars lower than nighttime tickets.

Host a party at your house and make it a potluck. If each guest has to bring a dish, then you won’t have the burden of spending money to feed an entire group. Make fun cocktails or give your party a theme to add to the excitement.

If you can get a babysitter on a Tuesday or Thursday night, many bars and restaurants have specials on these days to attract college kids. Take advantage of these deals with your own friends. Fifty cent beers and two dollar tacos can be fun at any age and are easy on the wallet.

Organize something fun but free for women in your area. Start a walking group if you are a health fanatic. If you enjoy reading, be the host of a book club.

 

Filed Under: Finance, Internet Tagged With: , ,

Finding Alternate Sources for Educational Funding

February 10, 2011 by

It’s no secret that there is a lack of funding for education. Teachers aren’t paid enough, there isn’t enough money to pay for necessary supplies, and many classrooms lack the technology needed to prepare students of today for their future, which is especially essential for students who also lack this technology in their homes. So how can teachers and parents get funding to pay for these supplies— whether it’s paint and crayons or laptops and SmartBoards? The answer comes to crowd funding.

Crowd funding, which comes from the same idea as crowdsourcing, is the idea that if you can get one person to donate just $10, and you can find 99 other people also willing to donate, then you could raise $1,000. It adds up! These fundraising efforts are done online with the use of websites designed to receive donations. Sometimes these fundraisers are done with sites specifically created for teachers trying to raise money for a specific project, and sometimes they’re done through general fundraising sites.

There is a lot of power in the idea of using online mediums to raise money. Through the use of crowd funding, teachers can solicit funds for a need that is specific to their classrooms. For example, one teacher decided that the seats in her classroom were too hard for her second grade students. She wanted to replace them all with chairs that resembled exercise balls, except these balls were flat on the bottom so that they didn’t roll around. Instead of hard seats, her students would be able to bounce up and down, which would help control the “wiggles.” The school didn’t have the money for it, so she used an online site asking people to donate to the cause. She was able to raise enough money to have every chair in her classroom replaced.

Something so simple, yet it had a great impact. Think what you could do with online fundraising!

Filed Under: Children, Finance Tagged With: , ,

Tips on Saving for College

February 2, 2011 by
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College seems like it’s a long way off when you have a baby in your arms, but as most parents will tell you, those little ones grow up faster than you could ever imagine. Today you’re writing thank you notes for baby presents, and tomorrow you will be filling out college financial aid forms. To make things easier, you might want to consider saving for your child’s college expenses as soon as possible. You don’t need to invest millions right off the bat. Just look into your options, and start watching your child’s college savings account grow.

Going to websites such as elearners.com gives you a glimpse into the world of college academia today. You can learn how much college costs so you know what to brace yourself for. Don’t forget to adjust for inflation as your child gets older. If you have more than five years before your child goes to college, consider investing in mutual funds since they provide the option for long-term growth. If you go for a 529 College Savings Plan, your investment is managed by a professional money manager. This might not be your best option, however, since you can only change fund allocations once a year. You might find yourself stuck with an investment you can’t change if the market is tanking.

If your child is within five years of attending college, scour through scholarship options thoroughly. You can get scholarships from clubs, for academic achievement, and even for sports performance. Find out about grant offerings, and get your financial aid papers into the college as soon as possible for optimal aid. Moving on to college is a major transition for students. It’s stressful both for the child and for parents. This stress can be greatly reduced with careful financial planning. It’s never too early to start saving for college, even if you only put away a few dollars at a time.

Filed Under: Finance Tagged With: ,

Benefits of Children on Tax Returns

January 1, 2011 by

Having children can certainly help when it comes to tax refunds. Since the expenses of having and raising a child can be costly, including diapers, food and formula, clothing, and more, the government provides additional tax credits to parents. Generally, the largest benefits come after having the first child, but additional children continue to add credits to tax refunds, giving these parents a larger break come April. Depending on the tax bracket that individuals fit into, many can qualify for a $1,000 tax credit per child. According to the IRS in 2009, if income for a single person is less than $35,463, or for married people earning less than $40,463, a credit of up to $3,043 is given for one child. In addition, parents who work can also receive a credit of $600 to $1,050 for each child receiving care.

After the child is born, the IRS requires that the W-4 status be changed with the employer. In doing so, parents can start to notice an increase in the amount that is taken home, sometimes as much as $150 extra every month. Another way that single parents can receive higher refunds each year is to change the tax status to head of household after the birth, which will result in higher deductions. Contributing money each month to a Section 529 State Education Savings Account for children can also help to reduce the amount taken out in taxes from each paycheck. Any child that is claimed on the taxes must have been during the prior tax year. According to tax news, parents are required to note the social security number for all children claimed on the tax return, which can be applied for apply for at the same time a birth certificate is obtained at the hospital. Children can definitely help to boost the amount received from a tax return, and many parents don’t even know the benefits that will come to them when taxes are filed.

Filed Under: Children, Finance Tagged With: , ,

Teach Your Child About Budgets With a Prepaid Credit Card

December 15, 2010 by

In the never ending lists of “two kinds of people in this world,” another entry would be those who balance their checkbooks and those who don’t. Balancing a checkbook utilizes basic math, but it’s also about keeping track of money going out and money coming in. These are the building blocks of maintaining financial security. Isn’t that what we want to be teaching our kids? An effective tool that can be provided to children to learn about living within a budget is giving them with a prepaid credit card. By having a fixed amount of credit attached to a specific card a teen can be shown how to track their purchases and their available credit. Those are two important factors to understand for a future of balancing checkbooks.

A prepaid credit card let the buyer determine the amount of credit. A user can make any type of purchase as long as they stay within that credit limit. When a teen uses this type of credit card, they can start to form the habit of checking balances before every purchase. They will need to know how much credit they have before they can buy something. Now, if you can find a way to make keeping track of these credit balances fun and practical the battle is won!

One way is to find a user-friendly accounting software program. Since the average teen spends plenty of time on their laptops, adding a new “app” won’t be that foreign to them. You could even make providing a prepaid credit card conditional based on the use of a budget program. Allowing a teen to track their purchases over the course of time will show them exactly how they are spending their money. As they become familiar with the concept of budgeting, they will surely benefit when they start working on their own. It could be an eye-opening experience!

Filed Under: Children, Finance, Parenting Tagged With: ,