By Michael Odell, student children
Half of UK consumers recently told a Barclays survey that they were battling the cost of living crisis by cutting back on luxuries and “one-off treats”. Can having an adolescent child be considered a one-off treat?
I’ve thought about this while I have two of them home from university for the Easter holidays. On reflection I’d say the correct economic nomenclature for them is “resource-intensive lifetime albatross”. I say this because, try as I might, cutting back on treats is hard when you have children.
We are a blended family with five of them. That means when you make a promise you have to keep it. That’s how, despite strained family finances, I found myself last week indulging in the
