Parenting Tips

Making Room in the Budget for Charitable Donations with Children

April 15, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

When you are the parent of a small child it’s often difficult to make ends meet much less find a few extra dollars lying around for the purpose of charitable donations. But there are many rewards and benefits, even financial ones, for taking the time and making the effort to do so.

It may not exactly take a village to raise a child these days, but it seems to take enough money to fund a village at times. It’s often hard to cover all the necessities along with a few luxuries and have a little left over at the end of the day to save for college but did you know that you could actually do more good for your cause by donations than by traditional savings means?

Here’s why.

You can donate goods that are no longer of use or value to you for real dollar savings come tax time. That is money that you either will not owe as a result or get back in the form of a tax refund.The bigger the donation, say donating a car to Kars for Kids, the greater the reward might be. The really great news is that while there is an upper limit for deductible charitable donations, most people never reach it.

Not all the benefits though are a matter of dollars and cents. There is a huge reward for not only knowing that you’re doing the right thing by donating to charity but also by teaching your kids about charitable giving and its importance too.

Filed Under: Parenting Tips Tagged With: Donation, Internal Revenue Service, Philanthropy

Avoid Ineffective Parenting

April 8, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

One of the best ways to learn how to be an effective parent is to recognize ineffective parenting techniques. Chances are, all parents have used ineffective parenting tricks at some point in their childrearing, but identifying them now and being willing to change can make a huge difference in the type of adult your child grows up to be.

The most common ineffective style is “permissive parenting.” While you may not think you’re pampering your child, certain things you do for her are actually taking away her chances to make independent choices. For example, looking for a child’s lost toy is considered permissive parenting. There really is no need to drop what you’re doing to go search for a missing item when you can be teaching a necessary skill—self-sufficiency. Even waking up your teenager every morning is teaching the opposite of self-sufficiency. Think about what you’re currently doing for your child that he or she can manage alone. Of course you want to let them know you’ll always be there for them, but draw the line somewhere.

Another ineffective technique is counting to three. This simply doesn’t work because most parents get to three and end up having to count all over again because the child doesn’t listen. This only teaches that there are no immediate consequences. Kids quickly realize that nothing bad is going to happen when you get to number three. The best thing you can do is ask the child to stop the bad behavior or they will lose a favorite item such as a special toy or video game. If they don’t listen immediately, take away the item immediately.

Filed Under: Parenting Tips Tagged With: Child, Family, Parent

Save Money in the Long Run by Researching New Cell Phone Contracts

March 12, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

All families lead a very busy life which is why when the family cell phone plan is set to expire many families will renew their existing cell phone contract without doing any research. The problem with this strategy is that there are dozens of cell phone companies out there that offer different cell phone plans. If a family just renews their contract right away, it could potentially cost them money in the end. That is why it is important to take time to research or compare cell phone plans out there to make sure that you’re getting the best deal possible. Here’s a look at the items to consider when researching cell phone contracts, as it will allow you to potentially save on your next cell phone contract.

Text Messaging Fees

Consider how many text messages you and your family send each month. This will allow you to determine how many text messages you need to purchase and whether or not unlimited text messaging is worth it; or if paying per text message or for small text messaging bundles would be more cost effective.

Minutes Used

A lot of cell phone companies are offering free company-to-company phone calls. Determine how many minutes everyone in your family uses, as this will allow you to figure out which cell phone plan will meet your family’s needs when it comes to the minutes that your family uses. Overpaying for cell phone minutes is the most common problem many families face with cell phone contracts.

Customization

Some companies and cell phone plans allow families to customize their plan to meet their needs. This means if a family has a child who is using a cell phone, they can limit text messages, minutes used and even prevent them from surfing the web. This customization feature allows parents to save money as their child will not be overusing the cell phone and racking up huge bills.

Filed Under: Parenting Tips Tagged With: Mobile phone, Research, Text messaging

Protecting Your Children With Insurance

February 25, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Life is pretty much a terminal condition for all of us, no matter how well we may take care of ourselves. Just because you eat right, exercise on a regular basis, get regular checkups and wear your seat belt does not mean that you are going to live forever. And as convenient (if morbid) as it might be for you to think about your own death, as well as what may come after it happens, a lot of people never take this very useful step in planning for the future of their families. Of course, nobody wants to believe that anything that serious could go wrong, and that they will naturally live to a ripe old age. But being positive is not always the same thing as being realistic.

You protect your children from all sorts of different things in life. You encourage them to look both ways before they cross the street, make them buckle their seat belts, and teach them the skills that they will need to be successful when they grow up. But while they are still young, they are still vulnerable to being impoverished and missing out on life’s best opportunities if you were to die. While you would not want to talk to them about this for fear of scaring them, this is the kind of thing that every parent has got to think about.

Buying life insurance is one of those things which is technically optional, but that you would be very unwise not to do. After all, your income is crucial to making sure that your kids can grow up in an environment where they can benefit from the legacy you would want them to be provided with. While you might be afraid that life insurance is extremely expensive, the online insurance quotes you can easily find will likely tell you differently. For a very reasonable price, you can rest easy knowing your kids are taken care of.

Filed Under: Parenting Tips Tagged With: Insurance, Life insurance

Avoiding Bankruptcy to Protect Your Family

February 19, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

You want to do what’s right for your family, and part of that means protecting them financially. That can be hard to do, especially when the economy is in trouble and a lot of people are losing their jobs, their homes, and their hope. You don’t have to be in the position of bankruptcy, though. You can dig your way out by making some changes to your current financial picture, and most of them are things that you can handle on your own or with very little help. Debt consolidation is one area where you may need help, but there are many reputable debt consolidation companies that will be happy to help you. Just read the fine print and make sure what you’re agreeing to.

If you want to do some things on your own to help your financial situation improve, you can look into refinancing. Both homes and cars can be refinanced, and they both have a lot to offer in terms of reducing your debt. Your home may offer you equity that you can use to pay down other debt, but even if it doesn’t you can save by refinancing it to a much lower interest rate.

That will help you pay out less every month, so you can save more money or use that savings for other things. A car refinancing is also good, because lower interest rates mean more money in your pocket at the end of the month – and that’s good news. There are other things you can also consider, like moving to lower-cost plans on your TV and cell phone, limiting the number of times you go out to dinner each month, and saving big by packing your lunch instead of buying lunch out each day.

Look around your house and keep track of how much you’re spending. There are probably many places you can cut back without creating a hardship.

Filed Under: Parenting Tips Tagged With: Bankruptcy, Debt, Debt consolidation

Do You Need a Larger Refrigerator?

February 17, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

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When most people think about stocking up on food and buying in bulk during seasonal sales, they think of dried foods or canned goods. However, you can also take advantage of low prices for fresh produce and meats. When you see a sale at a grocery store for vegetables or meat or other foods that you know you will be using soon, don’t you wish you had a bigger refrigerator? If so, commercial refrigeration may be an option for you.

If you’re like most people, your fridge is filled with foods and leftovers and there is not much space for new foods. Sometimes it feels so cluttered that you can’t find what you’re looking for.

The first thing you should do is take an assessment of your household. How many people live in your house? How often do you go to the grocery store? How much do you spend each week? When there is a sale for fresh produce or meat, how much could you have saved by buying in bulk?

If you have a family of four or more, then commercial refrigeration may be worthwhile for you. Since these units are larger than regular household refrigerators, you will need to check and see if you have enough space in your kitchen for one. Purchasing an energy efficient unit can cut down on your annual electricity costs.

If you don’t have space for such a unit, think about purchasing a freezer to put in your garage or basement. Although the freezer may not be useful for storing bulk fresh produce, it will definitely come in handy when storing large quantities of meat products.

You may have not considered it before, but many families have already taken steps to reduce their grocery bills through commercial refrigeration. It’s an ideal solution for families who wish they had a larger refrigerator and are concerned about saving money on groceries.

Filed Under: Parenting Tips Tagged With: Food, Grocery store, Refrigerator

Making Those Childcare Expenses Work for You

February 5, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Childcare costs can be very expensive. For many families it takes up a large portion of the family budget to pay for the various forms of childcare. While some families have the luxury of reducing the cost of childcare by having a parent stay home, or only work on a part-time basis, other families need to depend on childcare to allow them to be a two income family and pay all their bills. Paying for childcare can be difficult on a weekly basis, but there is a way to actually take advantage of at least a portion of those costs during the year and help your financial situation. That help arrives in the form of declaring childcare expenses as a deduction on your tax return.

According to the latest federal tax laws, a family can declare childcare expenses for a child that is 13 years of age or younger and is considered a dependent. The term childcare can cover any costs paid to any daycare center, babysitter, day camp or nanny that you had to hire in order to take care of your kids while you worked. Families are able to declare about 20 to 30 percent of their childcare costs on their taxes. This deduction means that families are able to get a small portion of the money that they invested into childcare back.

The best way to make this type of deduction on your taxes is to take advantage of some of the great free tax tips that are available to parents about tax filing systems. These systems will walk you through the steps on how to declare your childcare costs as an expense. In fact, if you use a tax filing system you might be able to find out about other great tax deductions you can get for being a parent such as declaring your child as a dependent or getting money back for donating old children’s clothing to charity.

Filed Under: Parenting Tips Tagged With: Childcare, Family, Parent

Keep Your Finances Afloat

January 29, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

We’ve all hit hard times financially. If you find that your family is having a hard time staying afloat, you may want to take a look at how you are dealing with your financial situation. There are some things that you should be doing and keeping in mind, whether your financial situation is stable or on the rocks.

Keep a Budget: This is something that is very difficult for many people. If you have never really had to worry about money before, making and sticking to a budget can be extremely challenging. Even people who have been making budgets their whole lives will tell you that sometimes they can be very difficult to stick to. Make sure that you keep track of where your money is going each month, so that your budget can accurately reflect this. Along with making a budget, you will want to look at where you can cut back, such as going out to eat less frequently or shopping at secondhand stores to save a little money.

Talk about It: Make sure that everyone who needs to be in the loop is. If you are married, for example, make sure that both partners understand the financial situation, and where the money is going. It is important to make sure that these things are communicated on a regular basis. Also, do research on how to financially plan with places like the Wall Street Journal.

Have a Backup Plan: For many families, the backup plan is a savings account. If you are able to put some money into savings, you will be ready if an emergency happens. If you do not have a savings account, another option is a short term loan company. Sometimes things come up that require more money than you have on hand. For example, your car may break down or a medical emergency may arise. If this happens, companies like GreatPlainsLending can help you get the money you need.

Filed Under: Parenting Tips Tagged With: Budget, Finance, Money

Benefits of High Quality Child Care

January 27, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Many mothers do not have a choice whether or not they must work outside of the home. Due to our economy and the fact that it is almost impossible to live off of one income anymore, mothers are forced to enter the workforce. Working mothers deal with feelings of guilt over leaving their children. However, finding quality child care can not only reduce those feelings of guilt but may be an added benefit to a child’s life.

One of the benefits of having a child in day care is the fact that children are able to interact with other children on a daily basis. This allows them to learn to interact on a social level at a much younger age than might have been possible if the child was at home. Child care centers and some home-based child care situations are structured with specific times for play, sleep, quiet time, etc. Children thrive on structure, which most child care situations provide.

Finding a good child care situation can not only affect your child in their preschool years but may have lasting effects well into the teen years. In a long-term study done which looked at quality child care provided in a child care center, non-relative child care done in the child’s home, and home-based child care a definite difference was seen. It was found that adolescents who had quality child care growing up scored higher on academic and cognitive testing than their peers who had been in lower quality care situations. With some time and research you can find the perfect child care situation for your child.

Filed Under: Parenting Tips Tagged With: Childcare, Family

Do Working Mothers Equal Heavy Kids?

January 25, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

We have all heard the statistics about the rising numbers of overweight children over the years. There have been many differing opinions about what is causing the childhood obesity epidemic. One of the most recent discussions pertains to the idea that moms working outside of the home can be linked to overweight children. This idea has been around for awhile but has recently been brought back into the light when CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta aired a segment pertaining to this subject.

Some researchers have attributed this train of thought to the idea that if the mother is not in the home these children are more likely to sit around watching television and eating junk food. Healthy meals are not fixed due to lack of time or motivation. Children’s physical activities are not being monitored as closely, and therefore children are becoming too inactive. There is also a consideration that this has more to do with getting a proper balance in the family rather than pointing a finger directly at working mothers.

In a household where both parents work, little time is left for proper grocery shopping and food preparation. This leads to pre-packaged meals, fast dinners, eating out, or other forms of higher calorie, higher fat foods. Older children many times are left to their own devices for several hours after school, and of course they are going to turn to munching on junk food whenever possible.

There is a lot of controversy over this idea, as many people feel that there is not enough research done on the actual causes. Not only has the obesity issue in children skyrocketed since the 1980s, but obesity in adults has increased drastically as well. Some people feel that the introduction of high fructose corn syrup is the bigger culprit here with evidence linking it to obesity.

Filed Under: Parenting Tips Tagged With: CNN, Obesity