I woke up this morning and wonder how my new found entry into the blogging world went and to my surprise there were 6 wonderful and supportive comments waiting for me. So thank you one and all for making me feel welcome.

A couple posed questions about how I put together my budget and my teenagers.

I have allocated $200 a month towards my budget. My husband pays for the major items ie utilities, furniture, car, etc. For the time being Food has not been included in any line items but that may change later on as the prices keep going up. As I have stated this is a work in progress. My current line items include 'Christmas, Personal, Holidays, Kids education, Health, Entertainment and Savings'. These are the ones that cause me the most grief throughout the year and felt it was important to keep track of these. Each month is broken down by 'month' and 'actual'. This hopefully will help me to keep track of my spending in particular areas such as the kids education and the other is to give me a good perspective on the spending such as once again the kids education. Something which I had never experienced before so my budget is mainly guess work. I previously stated the school fees were an unexpected expense this year as they jumped dramatically and then one week within the new school year I already had my hand in the pocket for a school 'conference' barbeque. I tried to calculate for school activities and there are quite a few incidentals that turn up through the year that needed to be accounted for 1) casual dress days; 2) day excursions and 3) school socials just to name a few. You never realise just how much these all add up.

As for the teenagers working to earn extra pocket money. They do that around the house $10 each. But that comes out of my husbands pocket. The oldest one has been looking very hard for after school/weekend work for the past 18months with no luck and believe me she has been trying very hard to the point that she is becoming quite depressed and taking it personally. My husband and I have been using all of our contacts to help but there is just nothing around. This is a small town of 5000 which may help others to understand the situation here. The youngest one has another couple of months before he is allowed to legally work afterschool.

I must admit though that the kids do save up their pocket money for those items which we refuse to pay for instance my son is a keen muso so he saved for his guitar. Mind you we did help with the postage and Xmas presents went along those lines which will further encourage him. My daughter saves for clothes, mobil phone & recharge cards and all those things which she enjoys. Both kids know the value of selling off their unwanted goods on ebay to earn extra cash and how to research items before they buy. So I cannot complain too much.

When the kids start work the pocket money will stop but we will still continue to pay for the essentials such as school expenses and etc. They will need to save and spend on those items which they and we consider to be luxuries.

So if you have any ideas on ways to help let me know. Just love the advice so keep that coming.