Childrens savings fun with Pigby and Friends

More images from the day are on my Flickr 

Heya everyone!
A few weeks ago me and Vee took a trip to London to learn about banks and savings and to help Natwest and Britmums tell the world how children see banks, savings and money and what their thoughts were on essential questions like what is a bank, what does a bank look like and who looks after your money inside a bank. This was filmed by an amazing film crew and here's how it came out. So, so proud of Vee!

VoxPops by NatWest are a short series of videos where children are asked about money and finances to tie in with the bank's aim of both teaching more children to save money and to bring back saving ideas with Natwest's new First Account by going back to the old school to bring an entirely new generation of savers the epitome of awesome with Pigby, the latest NatWest Piggybank.

I hear you people. I know your casting you're minds back around 30 years ago now to remember the Piggybanks from NatWest. They were something special indeed, I remember getting upset Mum or Dad wouldn't get me one. 

Image credit - PiggybankPage.co.uk 

For the more nostalgic people who read my blog I'm going to disappoint you, the Westminster Piggy family are not being bought back,
But this time NatWest made the epic decision to ask children in 2012 to help design the piggybank in the competition 'Pigs By Kids'. After 2000 designs and 25,000 votes from around the UK. Finally the winning design by 13 year old Kwamina was chosen, then to the Aardman animation studio, the creators of Wallace and Gromit and her design soon came to life and was called Pigby. However that's not where it stops. Pigby decided to bring his friends to the party too. If you look at the video below you'll see what I mean.

Pigby and Friends are par of NatWest's new First Saver accounts, accounts designed for children aged three and upwards. In an 80's throwback they utilise the Pigby bank as an incentive for your children to learn how to save money. That way the kids can have money saved for the moment they want Dinosaurs, cheesy pop music the band's hoodie or even a games console.
On top of this Natwest with Aardman have created an interactive smartphone app to help children learn about saving money and have fun at the same time (of course parent's load it onto your phones for the kids but I bet it'll be fun! Kids get permission before installing or going online!) And for those who prefer their children not to pinch your smartphone there is also a Pigby's savings zone web portal too which comes in your child's welcome pack

I dropped Natwest a line and Aardman Animations to get their thoughts on Pigby and the first saver account and they said the following

David Crawford, Head of Savings at NatWest, says:
“Many parents may fondly remember the NatWest pigs from their childhood, and we hope this new generation of pigs can help teach children that saving can be fun as well as beneficial in later life. 

“By working with Aardman, who already excite and inspire children across the world with their animation, we’ve created a more modern set of characters to teach kids about the benefits of saving to buy the things they want.”

Heather Wright, Executive Producer at Aardman Animations adds:

“We have had a huge amount of fun developing these characters, especially Pigby, who although he is the youngest of the group and wants to be just like them in terms of their activities and escapades, is the one they all rely on when it comes to planning ahead!” 

Personally I think this is a great way to help children save money. They see more and more toys and gadgets on television they want and to give them a way to save money to get that one thing they want will be a great incentive for them to look after it and be proud they've bought and saved for it with their own money from their bank account.

The NatWest First Saver account is open to children under 16 and they’ll earn 1% on balances under £25,000 and 0.5% for balances over this amount. It’s an instant access account which means that savings are not locked in – helping children to balance saving versus spending.

For more information on Pigby and the Natwest First saver account please click here or pop into your local branch and get the kids saving.

Do you encourage the children to save money if so tell me how the kids save their pennies?
Paul

Disclosure: This post was written in association with Natwest and Britmums.

Britmumslive 2013 the epitome of epic.

Hi all.

Last weekend i embarked on an epic weekend of education, awesomeness, scooby doo, hedwig the owl from harry potter and a laptop.

That's right people. I'm talking about BritMums Live Baby.

Ok. i got here late. I think today was the oppertunity to say hi to many amazing people. Some of whom know the darker side of me. As a concequence of my poor planning and the fact i'd got my daughters picnic time mixed up the day was a chance to soak it all while bilssfully off my tits on morphine. it is at this moment i would like to mention that i am not a drug abusing loonybin, but they supress spinal pain. Trust me, i'd come fully loaded just in case. (Paracetamol for the saturday hangovers was useful)

I won't lie i felt a tad awkward, a feeling i also experienced at Cybermummy and Cybher, but that soon passed as i met friends and people i'd talked to over the interwebs. very quickly we entered party mode for the BIBS. Everyone who wan was fantastic. especially the amazing ladies heading #TeamHonk who won an award for this awesome effort. Everyone who won was flipping amazing. I eventually got the naughty table and soaked in the rucus. Such a good day.

Getting back to the travelodge in kings cross, I spent most of the evening soaking up the tube trains clattering past, the laughs from the bar over the road and some good music. It didn't help I was missing theJess. Knowing she was about to embark on a trip to Chessington with the kids while struggling with mobility i was a bit worried she would panic or worse. 3am came and i fell asleep to the drones of some classic tunes from Pearl Jam, and an engineering crew train.

On rolled Saturday and by Jove I ran late again, filming on the tube for my daughters as they love the tube so i film every time i get a chance. Even if I nearly get arrested on "security concerns" Only a moose like me can cock it up both days. Thankfully I didn't miss Katie Hall's talk on what happened to her, how she got through it and how she set up a charity. Throughout the talk you could hear a pin drop, literally. She is a monumentally strong woman with an epic attitude towards life. An inspiration to many. She mentioned ever scar is special. I childishly thought of Tow Mater in Cars 2, every dent to him is special as it's a memory be it good or bad.

After this i visited lots of sessions, including a youtube session run by three network partners, sadly the advice given here was awful sorry but. It truly was. Next time I suggest you get tubers like Dibber, Little rich or StevieJacko. People who actually support the community, are partners and willing to offer advice to people. Not tell them to "work hard at it" as it's not always going to work out that way. More on that in another post.
 Many other sessions i attended were really good. I learnt a lot, I won't know if it'll all be put to use. But none the less it's a positive thing.

After that it became a blur, of fun friends, butterflies and 'molesting' Scooby Doo, Alex the lion hi fives and lots of banter. Oh and something else to make someones weekend. I kid you not awesome fun.

The brands i met with were extremely friendly, happy to discus all aspects of what they want from blogger relationships, how they want it and if we want to work with them on the future.

The final keynotes were fantastic, but very emotional at the same time. I cried, then helped a few special people. I hope they are ok x.
I had to leave early to meet my partner for 6.40 at kings cross. (I got there early) but this did mean I missed the tribute to Kerry, multiple mummy. Which would have made me cry more. So maybe a good thing. I hear it's on ustream. I'll link to it later.

I leave you on a good note. BritmumsLive. See you next year.
Thank you to the person who gave me a ticket. You're full of win and you rock. I owe you one xx

Paul.

rechargeablebatteries.co.uk Review

Evening all.

I've been in a bit of a tizz recently. The batteries in my camera were becoming useless. Although at a year old I know they had taken a beating from both me and the kids. As sad as it was I knew it was time to replace them. after buying duds on ebay a friend suggested I try rechargeablebatteries.co.uk, an online store for all types of batteries from the standard AAA and AA to huge sealed lead acid batteries.  , chargers, USB power banks and testing tools.

I was not too sure what type to choose, last time I had to do this I walked out of a local store with a very light wallet and low par performance as a result. I called their land-line number (no 0845 rubbish here) and spent around ten minutes on the phone with a member of their team. They were extremely friendly, understanding my needs. we ended up agreeing on a set of Energizer batteries with smart charger. I'll tell you what I think of the package after BritMums.

One thing they also mentioned on the phone to me was to look through the FAQ's and Charge time information as they had all the information there in one place for everyone. Especially moose's who fail to read instructions

I'll update the post on Monday on how good the batteries and charger are.
While we wait for that I'll ask do you use rechargeable batteries and are you happy with them?

Paul

Disclosure
This post was written for rechargeablebatteries.co.uk, but the views in the post are from my experiences through purchasing with them.