Organising your money is not always easy and lots of families have financial worries. Watch the video to learn about managing your finances and develop your listening skills and vocabulary as you complete the activities.
▶Task 1 - comprehension
▶Task 2 - vocabulary
▶Task 3 - word stress
▶Task 4 - summary
Well, I get paid fortnightly cause I'm not working, so it's quite difficult, yeah.
Just don't go beyond your means, just work out what you can afford and lay down some ground rules at the time… they can't have everything, you do what you can.
TOP TIPS Get organised.
Getting organised is the best place to start when it comes to finances. Write down your incoming and your outgoing. This will give you a concrete idea of where you are every month and what expenditure you have and what you've got left over.
TOP TIPS Set a budget and stick to it.
It's very important to set a budget for the month.
You've got to make sure that you actually do budget properly and try not to buy anything on credit. That's my main advice. Although, we've not got a lot of brand new things, what we have got are all paid for and I would recommend that to anybody trying to bring up children.
TOP TIPS Don’t ignore your finances and make sure you understand the small print.
It's very, very essential not to ignore your finances because you need to keep an eye on exactly where your expenditures are.
TOP TIPS Manage your debts, try and stick to any agreements you’ve made…if you’re struggling talk to the bank or your creditors and negotiate.
If you have debt, the most important thing is to keep an eye on it. Any payments you agree to pay on a certain payment date, make sure you do, because it will add additional charges and increase your debt.
TOP TIPS Contact the Citizens Advice Bureau for debt advice or help with money management.
Help with everything she needs to hurry up out the door.
TOP TIPS Prioritise your bills.
Look at the major bills, all the essential bills that have to be paid, such as your mortgage or your rent, water charges, heating charges. Then you've got things like food and travel. Put the essential items first. Then any things that you have left over, you could put aside for maybe treats later on.
TOP TIPS Look at ways of bringing down your costs.
Kids clothes cost an arm and a leg, left, right and centre. You're always going out, they need new trainers, stuff like that.
Children don't need to be in all the designer gear.
To reduce spending, there are several ways you can do that. I mean you can look at, for instance, buying refurbished or second-hand goods. That goes with clothes as well. Looking at different types of phone providers, different types of gas and electrical providers. All these different ways you can look at reducing your expenditure.
TOP TIPS If it helps…overestimate your costs.
Financially, you never think it's going to cost as much as it does.
It's a good idea to overestimate costs, you just have a little contingency fund just in case things do get a little bit more expensive than you anticipated.
TOP TIPS Food shopping can be expensive so plan ahead.
What I would do is make a menu for the week. I would work out what we was going to have for the week. Then I would write down everything - all the ingredients I would need for those menus. And then make the shopping list based on the ingredients and then go out, get the ingredients and come back. If we had any money left over that was for like goodies.
Think about cheaper alternatives. Supermarkets do their own home brands. Think about that sort of solution. And also try and keep takeaways to a minimum.
TOP TIPS Think about putting money aside for birthdays and celebrations.
It's a very good idea to plan ahead for things like Christmas, birthdays, because basically as you put a little bit away each week, it's a lot easier than trying to find a big lump sum for the time because that way you will increase your debt by spending what you haven't got.
TOP TIPS Save your pennies.
I mean a little idea - you could have a little jar on the side where you put all your spare coppers and pennies in. You'll be surprised how much they add up, but also keep it out of sight so you're not tempted to spend it.
Plan ahead. Think about ways of reducing your costs. Work out a budget and stick to it.
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- Do you find it difficult to manage your finances?
Family Lives is a charity which aims to support families living in the UK. You can visit their website here http://www.familylives.org.uk.