Using the internet to manage your family's finance

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The effectiveness of managing family finances has never been more significant, as parents struggle to find a balance between work and family life. A recent study by Mother and Baby magazine has found that new parents are getting less sleep than previous generations, with new mums struggling to manage their exhaustion.

Whilst there is no technological solution to sleepless nights as yet, it is possible to assign many tasks which were once only possible through physical movement, to the internet, such as shopping and banking. No longer do you have to worry about co-ordinating the demands of screaming children with your weekly shopping list or about missing the bank at 5:01pm. Whatever issues you may face with your child, there are plenty of websites collating advice from parents around the world, such as http://www.workingfamilies.org.uk/ and http://www.babycentre.co.uk/.

There are websites such as http://www.parentspenniespounds.co.uk/ offering financial advice and support, and financial comparison sites such as http://www.moneynet.co.uk/index.shtml, which ensure that parents can always find the best deal for their finances, including credit cards, loans, mortgage, life insurance, house insurance, car insurance and the children's savings accounts. Many personal finance sites including moneynet also offer "account aggregation" tools, which allow parents (and non parents!) to manage all of their finances online, including current accounts, savings accounts, loans and credit cards. If you think your household bills are too high, uSwitch.com can provide you with a comparison of providers for gas & electricity, water and household communications.

And= if that all seems a little too practical, take some time out for a little light relief with http://www.learnthenet.com/english/features/tenthings.htm. This website offers a wealth of information about how to extract useful information from the internet, as well as providing more random suggestions such as the science of online games, "design a structure of copper coins" and even the world's most calorific sandwich.

About Rachel: Rachel writes for the personal finance blog Cashzilla: http://www.cashzilla.co.uk Cashzilla is a personalfinanosaurus. "Rachel" means sheep in Hebrew: "little lamb" or "one with purity". Cashzilla means financially savvy with great fiery ferocity.