Why start your Christmas shopping early

It may feel like Christmas is ages away, but I hate to break it to you: there are only 10 weeks to go.

Best apps for organising your money

Building up savings, starting up an investment account and organising your money can all seem like a massive faff and big time-sucker when you have zero free time thanks to small humans, work, cooking for what feels like 27 meals each day. 

But a bunch of apps make it really easy to sort out your finances, cut your debts, and/or build up a nest egg, all with one thumb, via your phone. 

How I'm getting my money management back on track

It’s taken almost a month, but I finally feel as though I’m back into some sort of routine after the summer break. 

It’s been a long slog in my house. Renegotiating bedtimes (move over Boris, I’ve got proper skills), getting homework done, remembering swimming kit. But I think we’re (getting) there.

Where should I put savings for my children?

Savings? Ha! Our own cash might mainly be taken up by mortgages, rent, Asos orders and food shopping, but sometimes you might have a bit that you'd like to snaffle away for the Kids' Future. Maybe grandparents or other relatives want to give money instead of yet more plastic crap toys for a birthday. But where to put it? 

If you go into your local high street bank (if you can find one, that is) the rates are likely to be thinner than a discount supermarket's nappy wipe. For some reason, some institutions think that adding a cartoon pig and a kids' label to a bank account means they can get away with almost-zero interest. So here are the best options around - because children are never too young to know the benefits of having money in the bank to pay for a rainy day! 

How to survive shared parental leave on a budget

National levels of blokes taking up shared parental leave appear to remain low since it arrived in April 2015. But, anecdotally, more and more friends in London are grabbing the opportunity to take off an extended time with their child(ren). Here, Alex Lawson, a journalist colleague of Show Me the Mummy's Lucy, tells us about his three months of paternity leave with his son Finn (three) and daughter Lina (who was nine months when he took over the home front) - with his tips on how dads can spend time with their kids without over-spending cash because, as Alex puts it, "in statutory terms, you are only entitled to what your partner would be earning (I took the last three months of my wife’s leave, so was unpaid), so it’s wise to keep an eye on the pennies. Plus my family are from Sheffield so the Yorkshireman in me came out..." Over to Alex with his fantastic tips for parental leave fellas (and mums) keen to do it on a budget:

Spend less on your supermarket shop

It's the place that sucks up the bulk of our weekly spending. Nope, not easyJet's website or a luxury spa but... Tesco. And Saino's. And Ocado. etc. So we were serious about finding ways to cut the cost of our weekly food shop. Not by dieting (well, not on our website) - but being savvy. Here are our tips to slash your supermarket bills (but not the contents - those kids sure eat a lot of food)...

How your home can make you money

Your home is probably your most expensive outgoing. Mortgage/rent payments, utility bills, that insta-famous monochrome rug you couldn’t resist.