How to deal with the grandparents…
Published April 27, 2012 | 
By Jodie Benveniste – Parent Wellbeing
I’ve been asked more than once about how to deal with the grandparents. (Not the grandparents who are estranged, live miles away or choose to not spend time with the grandkids. That’s a whole other topic.) I’m talking about the grandparents who are around and are involved. Here are a few thoughts…
The relationship between grandparents and grandchildren can be amazing. Grandparents can delight in your kids and give them back at the end of the day, and grandchildren can get spoiled, learn new things, and experience different activities with their extended family.
But unfortunately, grandparents can also be interfering, undermining and downright annoying if they question your parenting style or refuse to care for your kids in a consistent way.
And many of us depend on extra help from the grandparents so we can work, study or have some respite. So what can we do?
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Make one of these for mum this Mothers Day!
Published April 27, 2012 | 
Chocolate…for Breakfast?
Research suggests that people who eat chocolate frequently are slimmer, so go ahead, add a little to your morning meal.
By Lynn Andriani
Mix It into Granola
Could a little chocolate, eaten frequently, help keep you at a healthy weight? Yes, reports a new study published in Archives of Internal Medicine. Scientists found that people who eat chocolate often have lower body mass indexes than those who eat it less frequently. Although this doesn’t mean we should all start eating Cocoa Krispies daily, you won’t be sabotaging the health benefits of, say, granola if you add a dash of cocoa powder. You can also toss chocolate chips into the cereal once it’s out of the oven and cooled, but mixing in the powder before baking guarantees you’ll get the deep, dark chocolate flavour in every spoonful. Or, try Bear Naked’s just-chocolaty-enough Heavenly Chocolate granola.
Share on FacebookGet Ready for Tax Time
Published April 27, 2012 | 
30 June might seem far away, but if your life is anything like mine, time has a way of creeping up on us women and Tax Time will be here before we know it.
Here are some things for female tax filers to start thinking about, to help save you tax before the End of Financial Year (EFY – that’s 30 June if you’re not sure) and increase your wealth.
Before jumping into the Tax Tips, do you know how to calculate your income tax rate and how much tax you will pay?
Below is an easy summary of how your income is taxed in Australia. Nice and simple, just the way the ATO don’t like to make it.
2011/2012 income tax rates
Taxable income:
Share on Facebook5 Ways to Cut Your Grocery Bill (and Save the Planet)
Published April 16, 2012 | 
A $5 pint of strawberries left moulding and forgotten in the back of the fridge. Half the cantaloupe you bought for a smoothie, languishing in the crisper. Your famous lasagne, cooked on the eve of back-to-back after-work plans, half of it now destined for the trash. If cleaning out your fridge each week supplies a steady diet of frustration and guilt, consider this: A family of four can waste more than $1,940 worth of food each year. That includes roughly 15 gallons of milk, 12 dozen eggs, 160 pounds of chicken and beef, and 240 pounds of fresh produce.
As hard as that loss is for your budget to swallow, it’s even harder on the environment—consider the water and energy required to grow food, and the fuel used to transport it. But you can stop the flow from fridge to trash by simply buying things you’ll actually eat and enjoying them before they spoil. These tips will save you money, curb how much you toss, and quash that 5 o’clock what’s-for-dinner panic.
Strategise Before You Shop
Share on FacebookHow to beat exorbitant credit card interest rates
Published April 3, 2012 | 
If you’ve been scandalised by the banks’ treatment of mortgage holders, you might want to check your credit cards.
Gouging
While the average standard variable mortgage rate is now 0.45 of a percentage point lower than before the two rate cuts at the end of 2012, the average credit card rate has fallen just 0.08 points, according to an exclusive analysis of 200 credit cards by data house Mozo for Financial Review Investor.
And since the height of the global financial crisis, the gouging is worse still.
The cash rate stands 1 percentage point below Mozo’s launch date in November 2008 but the average mortgage rate is 0.66 of a point less and the average credit card a mere 0.18 of a point lower.
Predictably, it’s the big banks that are hoarding interest the most, although some smaller institutions actually increased them as rates fell.
Eye-watering
The average credit card interest rate is a ridiculous 17.73 per cent , which makes it the most expensive form of debt you can take on (leaving out the eye-watering revert rates if you don’t repay in the interest-free period money borrowed through store finance).
What’s more, the average credit card balance is $4757, based on December 20111 statistics from the Reserve Bank.
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