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Winter proofing your home for the New Year

Winter proofing your home for the New Year

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Well, hello there. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. We spent a quiet Christmas at home and then I had my traditional New Year’s Eve with my gorgeous family. I love the feeling of the fresh new start that comes now the tree is down and the decorations have gone back in the loft. There’s plenty of chilly weather to come, though, so I’ve been thinking about ideas for winter proofing your home for the New Year, and making our living spaces cosy and warm once all the twinkly bits have been put away. You know I’m totally here for all things hygge, and it’s the perfect Scandi concept for whiling away the rest of the winter in cosy comfort.

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Student discounts 2019

Student discounts for 2019

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This time of year comes around so fast, doesn’t it? We’ve got piles of stuff in the hall and I’ve got a bit of a lump in my throat because I know it will soon be time to say goodbye for another year, but it’s always mixed with that feeling of excitement, new beginnings and great times ahead. This list of student discounts started as a few notes for Charlie when he started uni, and ended up being a massive post with all sorts of information about student discounts, shopping, bank accounts, ID cards and more. As usual, you might be an old hand at this, in which case much of this won’t be news to you (thanks to the people who put ‘I knew all this already’ on my Facebook page last year - all the eye rolls for you), but you might also be a new student, so I’ve listed absolutely everything you need to know. Do remember that some of the discounts will only be about for a limited time, so if you’re thinking of buying something, it’s best to do it now. Remember, you need to prove you’re a student and the first thing you’ll need to do is register with the NUS here: National Union of Students.

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Five realistic tips for managing your money

Five realistic tips for managing your money

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You all know I’m terrible with money. I blame Instagram, and Pret for having yummy rice and coconut milk lattes that taste like heaven, and Waitrose for having delicious ingredients that just call out to me when I’m shopping. I’m honestly getting better though (mid forties - it’s about time), and I thought I’d share my top five realistic tips for managing your money. The ones that work for me in a way that those stern ‘cut up your credit card’ kind of money management tips never will (yeah, not going to happen, sorry). Read more

Managing your finances when your kids come back from uni

Boomerang Kids: managing your finances when your kids bounce back from uni

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I don’t know about you, but I didn’t go to university (it was free then, too!), so it was quite a steep learning curve when Sam, and then Charlie, went off to uni. There’s so much to think about, from accommodation to finances, but one of the things we never really considered was what would happen when they came home again after graduating. I’ve heard of parents turning the spare room into a gym as soon as their offspring were out the door, but we’ve always made it really clear to our kids that this is their home forever. The thing is, though, it’s an expensive old business, in fact, new research from Skipton Building Society has found that 2.7 million parents in the UK are supporting their grown-up children into later life. But what does this mean for your own finances? Can you help out your kids while still saving for yourself and planning for your own future? And how do you readjust as a household full of adults? Skipton asked me for my managing your finances when your kids bounce back from uni, so here are my top tips:

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Student discounts for 2018

Student discounts for 2018

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It’s that time again! After my 2017 roundup of student discounts was so popular, I thought I’d go wild and do a whole new post listing student discounts for 2018. It’s been interesting to see how many of the discounts are lower or come with more terms than last year. As usual, remember that some of the discounts will be on a limited basis, so if you’re thinking of using them it’s best to do it now. I’m giving you a whole ton of information here, and there are bound to be some things you already know, so if that’s you, just skip these bits and move straight on to the discount, but if you’re a first time student or haven’t really looked into it yet, I’ve listed everything you need to know. Remember, you need to prove you’re a student and the first thing you’ll need to do is register with the NUS here: National Union of Students.

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Our tips for making the leap to university (copyright vanessachampion.co.uk)

Our tips for making the leap to university

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This time last year, we were just beginning to get everything ready for Charlie to go to university. He was delighted to be offered a place at Leicester, and we were slowly ticking off items from the ‘to do’ list, from sorting out a student bank account, to shopping for bedlinen and essentials for his new uni accommodation. Making the leap from living at home is a huge undertaking and can be a really stressful time for even the most confident teenager. Student accommodation provider, Unite Students has recently released The Leap – a report about the challenges involved in making the transition to uni, and providing tips for making the leap to university from a range of experts, parents and students.

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Top tips for buying and selling on Gumtree

Top tips for buying and selling on Gumtree

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If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know that I’m incredibly interested in sustainability. Whether that means committing to preserving our natural resources and lessening our individual environmental impact by eating less meat, doing my bit to save our planet by working towards ditching the single use plastics (sorry, favourite takeaway, your plastic containers mean that we won’t use you), or just committing to reusing and recycling as much as possible in our day to day family life and trying to reduce the amount of waste we create. Of course, one of the best ways to work towards zero waste is to sell your unwanted items, be they clothes, furniture, cars, or anything else, online. It’s a great way to save money and then, of course, you can purchase something to replace it feeling completely guilt-free. It’s a win/win way to live more sustainably. I wish I’d known then what I know now, though. I’m definitely going to give it a go a lot more often, and it’s all thanks to some top tips for buying and selling on Gumtree that I’ve learned.

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Café au lait on a sunny terrace

Dreaming about the future with Aviva (ad)

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Do you wonder what the future holds for you? Are you one of those people who firmly lives in the present and doesn’t really even think about it, or are you a planner, with your whole life’s course already plotted? Maybe you’re like me: a bit inbetweeny – vaguely aware that the choices you make now will affect you in later life, but happy to leave it to some hazy future time to actually sort anything out. Recently, Aviva challenged me to have a bit more of a proper think about my future, especially how we’ll manage financially. They have an online tool called ‘Shape my Future’ (more of this later) which can give you a rough estimate of how much you’ll have to live on when you’re older. It’s been an eye opener, I can tell you.

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My top 5 tips for preparing your kids for university

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Ahh it’s October again. Along with all the mists and mellow fruitfulness, it’s time for all the planning and panicking that comes with sending your teenagers off to uni. Charlie hasn’t quite got enough points to do the course he wants at university, so we have a year’s reprieve as he’s studying for one more year at a local college, but having already experienced it with Sam (who has also gone back to college after deciding that Uni isn’t for him), I know it’s both an exciting and stressful time. Here are my top 5 tips for preparing your kids for university.

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Il de Ré

The positive life plan

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I’ve just spent a gorgeous week on board P & O Cruises’ beautiful ship, Britannia with my friend Erica. We spent the week discovering all the dining options on board, as well as exploring bits of France and Spain and doing some baking with Eric Lanlard too - I know! Anyhoo, more of that later - for now, I wanted to tell you about a fantastic conversation we had one night in The Glass House over a couple of drinkies. We started off just chatting about life, the future, family, etc as you do, and a bit of a plan started to form. We split our thoughts into topics and added the rule that everything had to be positive - no beating ourselves up - and this positive life plan was born. I’m excited to share it with you!

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My top five savings tips

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So recently, I’ve been telling you all about the fab Financial Personality Tool from Aviva. My financial personality came out as a ‘time dueller’ and that’s so true. I’m always busy, busy, busy, with a huge list of things to do and places to be, and anything that doesn’t catch my eye tends to get forgotten or pushed to one side in favour of something more interesting.

When Mr E got made redundant, one of our biggest realisations was that we didn’t have an emergency fund. I’ve read before that you should have something along the lines of three months’ salary set aside before you even bother about saving for anything else. We’ve started our fund now, mainly because I’ll never forget the feeling of panic that comes from receiving the phone call telling you you’re going to lose your main income.

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The Aviva Financial Personality Profiler

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I’ve talked about financial stuff a little bit recently - after Mr E’s redundancy, which really shook us up, we’ve been having a good, long look at our finances, and thinking harder about what we do with our money.

So when Aviva asked me to work with them to try their Financial Personality Profiler tool, designed to get us all saving smarter, I was really interested to see how I fared. After asking a few questions, the profiler allocates you one of 10 personality types, each with different spending/saving traits (a bit like a superhero), so you can determine whether you’re Captain Savvy (financially informed, but prone to self indulgence), or the Super-Stretcher (financially astute, but likely to overspend on their family).

Aviva's financial personality profiler tool

Aviva’s financial personality profiler tool

Once you’ve worked out your financial personality, there’s some great advice for battling your financial nemesis.

You might think it’s a gimmick, but I found that as you work through the questions, you really have to stop and think about whether you’re being completely honest - are you influenced by others (the answer is yes from me)? Are you prone to splash out and ‘treat yourself’? There are some very clever questioning techniques in there too - whether you’re the kind of person that has an addictive personality, even your box set viewing habits! But it’s all designed to get to know you and work out exactly what sort of relationship you have with your cash.

I have to say, having worked through the questions, my result was spot on: I’m a ‘time dueller’ - always rushing, always overwhelmed, never enough time and generally juggling multiple tasks at once. Things get added to my to do list, but if they’re not interesting, they’ll generally get ignored until the very last minute!

The Time Dueller

The advice I got was good, as well. I need to worry less about the small spending decisions I make (like driving to the next petrol station to save a couple of pence on my petrol fill up) and concentrate on some of the bigger issues. And honestly, I know exactly what my weaknesses are: popping out when I’ve had a busy week and splurging, even if sometimes I really know I shouldn’t. It’s made me think that I need to try and find small treats to reward myself after a busy week and resist the urge to shop online for things I don’t really need but that make me feel good.

SO interesting.

Do give it a go - I guarantee it will make you really think about your own financial personality. Let me know how you get on! Watch out for the second instalment next week, when I’ll be talking about savings hacks and giving you my own tips on how to #savesmarter!

This post is sponsored by Aviva. Click here for more information on Aviva’s #SaveSmarter campaign.

NatWest Money Clip - is it worth bargaining when it comes to finances?

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This is the last in my series about finances in partnership with NatWest Money Clip and I’ve learned so much. It’s come at a really good time for me, since our financial crisis last year, and I’ve addressed so many issues and, hopefully, saved quite a lot of money as well. I feel much more organised, and have put into place loads of small changes so that we keep on saving money and plan ahead should it (god forbid) ever happen again.

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