Knowledge is Power

Cutting back on expenses? Most families are.

Asking children to share the burden of spending less is a reasonable course of action.

If you’ve lost your job and cuts need to be made, it’s reasonable to explain to children that the family will be making major cutbacks. The key is to reassure them that your family is safe, that you’re in control of the family finances and that their basic needs will be met. Luxury items will be put on hold.

Even if no one has lost a job, you can still communicate to your children that your family will be spending less each month, therefore, some of the privileges that they are used to having are being scaled back.

In either case, your child is likely to have questions, “Will we lose our house?” “Are we poor now?” “Why can’t I have these shoes?”

Reassuring your children that their basic needs will be met is important. Pointing out that your family is a team and as a team each person has a contribution s/he can make on how to spend less money is a great way to approach the issue, too.

When framed in a positive way this is an opportunity to teach your children how to save money and spend wisely which are critical life skills to have. Listed below are 10 practical solutions you can use with your kids.

10 Tips for Teaching Kids to Spend Less:

1) Shop from a list. Before you go into any store, make a list of what you need. Don’t stray from your list and don’t let your children stray from their list. This is a key strategy for reducing impulse buying. It takes discipline and discipline is essential for reining in spending. When your child asks for an item while you’re at a store ask: “Is it on our list?” If not, don’t buy it.

2) Do product comparisons. Before you and your children go shopping, have your child do some research on a product you’ll be buying. My children wanted a bean bag chair for their tree house. They made a list of three stores and called each store to inquire about the size, color and cost of the chair. (Before the calls began we wrote a script for them to follow with proper phone etiquette.) Not only did they save money, they also learned about customer service. Online research can also be done.

3) Clearance aisles. Most stores have a clearance area. Teach your children to shop there first.

4) Make marketing strategies transparent. Point out that the expensive items are placed at eye level while the cheaper goods in a grocery store are on the bottom shelf. Show them how impulse items are displayed near the check out lane.

5) Have a family meeting. At your family meeting, have a discussion about wants vs. needs. See what your children come up with. Then show them the reality. Teach your children about the cost of necessary items such as electricity, food, insurance and house payments. Budget money that can then be used for “wants” to contain unnecessary spending.

6) Brainstorm ways to save money together. Kids are very creative. Let them use their creative juices on how to save money. For instance, you could brainstorm on how to save money on DVD rentals. Ideas might be: trading movies with other families; using the $1.00 kiosks at retailer outlets; and checking out DVDs at the library.

7) Shop garage sales. Most kids love a treasure hunt. If you have items you need, have them scrounge through piles at garage sales. Or, have a garage sale yourself to make money and let the kids keep money from toys they contribute to the sale.

Use coupon sites. Some popular sites are: http://www.coupons.com ; http://www.CurrentCodes.com http://www.couponmountain.com ; http://www.coolsavings.com; http://www.retailmenot.com ; http://www.couponcabin.com. Give your kids half of the money saved from the coupons they find.

9) Set limits on the number of times to eat out. Planning a weekly menu can help cut down these costs. Involve your children in menu planning and find ways for them to help cook the meal they selected.

10) Set a budget for kids’ activities. Most children are overscheduled. Take this opportunity to talk with your child about what cuts can be made and have your child prioritize the activities they want to do.

Helping your child to learn how to manage money wisely can save your family money in the short-term and can help them be wise consumers in the long-term.

By Toni Schutta, Parent Coach, M.A., L.P. Visit www.getparentinghelpnow.com to receive the free mini-course

If you want to make money writing for children, then becoming a children’s author is a great place to start.

Children’s books are quick to write and very easy to market. You can write a manuscript for a children’s book in as little as 2 weeks. And because the market for children’s books is so huge right now, it’s easy to get an agent or publisher interested in your book in less than a month.

Let me explain.

Unlike some adult books, children’s books aren’t huge tomes and are not full of long complicated words or difficult-to-follow plots.

This makes them easier, and therefore faster, to write.

If you sat down and wrote for only 2 hours a day, you could get your work to final manuscript in 2 weeks or less.

And working this quickly doesn’t mean that your book won’t be good. On the contrary; you’ll find it’s plenty of time to write a future best-seller.

And because the children’s book market is constantly growing, there are plenty of agents and publishers looking for the next Terry Pratchett, Dr Seuss or J K Rowling.

So once your manuscript is written you only need to write a great synopsis and query letter, and send it to every children’s literary agent and publisher to quickly get your work snapped up and under contract in a short time.

Or, because it’s so simple to market a children’s book, you might want to self publish the book yourself.

One of the easiest and most profitable places to market your children’s book is to the library supply companies.

Libraries stock thousands of children’s books and with so many libraries in the world, the supply companies have to buy in bulk to keep up with demand.

Children’s books are the most borrowed type of book from the public libraries. In Australia (where I live) in 2007, ninety seven of the top one hundred most-borrowed library books were all children’s books. So knowing just how popular they are, you can imagine the enormous number of children’s books that are sold to the libraries every year.

For instance; there are over 14,000 libraries in Australia, so if only half of them bought a copy of your book (and when it comes to children’s books they usually want to buy more than one copy each), you’d still sell over 7,000 books. And the USA has over 10-times the number of libraries that Australia has. So you can imagine how massive their library sales can be.

There are also hundreds of children’s book clubs and they buy in even bigger bulk than the library supply companies. Just one order from a book club could be a single sale of 20,000 copies of your book, or more.

And we haven’t even begun to look at the sales from book stores, online book stores, children’s stores, play groups and more.

Once you know the age group that your book is intended for, you’ll probably come up with dozens more targeted places to market your book such as children’s web sites and children’s magazines.

But there’s one thing for certain; children are reading more. Even parents of very young children are introducing them to books at a very young age.

And all this has created a significant rise in the demand for new children’s book.

So if you want to make money as a children’s author, there’s never been a better time to start.

Read more about becoming a children’s author at http://writeaholics.net/14chbook.html

The Internet has become an indispensable part of our lives. Most people have taken advantage of online technology in doing various transactions like shopping, banking, playing games or online chatting. Making online transactions requires you to enter passwords or information which you probably want to remain a secret.

Unfortunately, whenever you indulge in anonymous surfing, you provide personal information which is being recorded and can be easily monitored. Your IP address and personal data is being maintained by the service provider and can be easily marketed to a third party. Surfing anonymously provides you the option to consider free anonymous web surfing or looking for good, reliable and cheap anonymous surfing software. Now the question that comes to mind is which is the better option when it comes to maintaining the security of your identity is concerned.

With free anonymous web surfing, tools known as web anonymizers or proxies are commonly used to protect the identity of the user. They are free of charge and the procedure involved is very easy. Just go to the proxy site and type the website address you intend to browse. From there, you will be redirected to your target site.

Although using proxy sites would seem to be the solution to your problem, the truth of the matter is these sites are not helpful as many thought they would be. In fact, looking for a legitimate proxy website can be disappointing. If you do find one, chances are the site would bombard you with a lot of spam.

In addition, if you do find an honest and legal proxy site, you would end up giving up on free anonymous web surfing because the site is either too slow or highly undependable. Web anonymizers are only suitable for occasional surfers but if you are a regular browser, going back to the proxy site can be cumbersome.

Another dilemma with free anonymous web surfing is that majority of proxy sites are not compatible with SSL or SSH encryption. This means that you would not be able to access the most secured connections and conduct online transactions such as Internet shopping or banking.

On the other hand, considering anonymous surfing software to browse the Internet guarantees complete anonymity and security of your identity. Anonymous surfing software can be installed on your computer and can keep your personal information completely concealed.

Moreover, anonymous surfing software is capable of effortlessly switching from one proxy site to another while keeping web traffic secured from the client and back. They provide a guarantee that all your surfing activities will be unavailable to third party organizations.

Another advantage of anonymous surfing software is that they are not only compatible with SSL or SSH encryption but it also keeps your web-based applications secured.

When choosing between free anonymous web surfing and a reliable anonymous surfing software, the first thing you need to consider is the amount of online confidentiality and security you will need. If you are only an occasional user who browses the Internet for enjoyment, availing of free service may be the way to go.

However, if surfing the Internet is a regular part of your routine, then the best option is to purchase anonymous surfing software.

Kim Hald is writing Web Surfing articles for both Anonymous Surfing and Unlock MySpace web sites.