Whitby mum’s Penniless Parent blog to help families save money

My partner, the children’s father, worked away from home providing for us, keeping the roof over our heads and food on the table.

Everything we spent had a consequence and cabin fever was setting in.

I felt trapped, I couldn’t work, it would cost more in childcare than my salary, so I began blog writing as a way of boosting my morale and let’s face-it, I wanted attention.

The life of a housewife can be lonely.

The more I shared with people about how I was feeling, the less alone I felt and I soon realised that watching the pennies was something all my friends were doing to varying degrees.

Rich or poor it didn’t seem to matter, once they became a parent life became less about spending money and more about getting value for money.

Since this epiphany I have focused the blog on reviewing places, services, products and past-times that create memorable moments in my little ones’ childhood without emptying the bank.

I want my children, as adults without the safety of a financial nest-egg to have a head full of happy memories and hence go forth with confidence. I am a true believer that kids don’t need expensive toys and Disney holidays.

What they do need is time invested in them, attention and adventure.

If I think back to my own childhood I don’t necessarily remember where we were or what I had with me, but I remember who I was with and how I felt.

I remember feelings, sounds, smells and sights.

The feeling of jumping into a cold swimming pool in on a hot summer day, the smell of the pine needles when playing in a forest with my sister.

The sound of rain on the tent as we lay there at night, and the time dad took us caving and turned the head-torch off to show us how dark it was.

In June this year I launched a website titled The Penniless Parent with the aim of creating a resource full of money-savvy things to do with kids, that is simple to access and easy to use.

I love it when readers share with me a day out that they’ve recently enjoyed and it’s the best feeling when someone tells me they had a great time somewhere and went because they had read my blog.

One of my favourite days out was fundraising for Cancer Research with my six-year-old, another was hiking down to see the Seal Colony at Ravenscar, or the day we invited friends over to build a box-town with old moving boxes.

If you know of somewhere you want to share, feel free to write a review and send it to me with any pictures you’ve taken, I’m always on the look-out for our next adventure!

Visit:

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