A Right Royal Budget

Money Saving Madam has been pimping her writing wares.

So I thought I'd share with the bloggle readers the article I'd been asked to write about the financial perils of being a Princess, in light of that big event that is seemingly happening tomorrow.

Enjoy.

Kate Middleton is all set to marry into the British Royal Family, but what sort of financial worries does as a soon-to-be princess have? Do real-life princesses face budgets, money issues or financial stress? Rachel Brown ponders a few of the money challenges Kate Middleton might be facing as she prepares to be the future Queen.

Unless you have been hiding under a rock for the past few months, you cannot have failed to notice that in London, this Friday, a boy named Will is getting hitched to a girl named Kate, and the World will be glued to their television sets to witness it.

But Friday is just the beginning.  Although Kate has been dating Prince William for some time now, and will have some idea of what she is getting herself into; what can she expect her financial life to look like as Britain’s future Queen?

Will Kate be overwhelmed with the wealth of The Royals?

‘The Prince will marry the pauper’, or at least that’s what people are suggesting.  A Royal has fallen for a commoner – blue-blooded William and ‘just plain Kate.’

But the reality is quite far from this. Although a ‘commoner’, Kate Middleton's family are financially very well off. Kate’s parents have built up a comfortable nest egg from a successful online party business, Party Pieces - established in 1987.

The income has contributed to a lifestyle that includes a £1m house in a desirable part of England, and the funds to put their three children, Kate, Pippa and James, through some of the most expensive private schools in Britain, which for Kate alone would have cost an estimated £250,000. 

If and when William becomes King, then Kate’s income will take on a new dimension. The Queen's own assets are estimated at £290m, according to the Sunday Times Rich List. So in this respect, the wealth Kate has experienced in her formative years is a far cry of what is yet to come.

Who will pick up Kate’s wedding bill?

Formal etiquette dictates that the family of the bride should pay for the wedding, but matters are somewhat complicated when you are marrying the future King.

The Royal Family will pay for the wedding.  However, Kate’s family will make a private contribution to the day, and the Government and UK taxpayer will pay for all consequential costs.

Will Kate have her own money?

It is unlikely that Kate will have to sacrifice her own savings and bank account once married, and will most likely retain autonomy in this area. Indeed Kate’s future grandmother-in-law, the Queen herself, has her own funds and finances.

It has long been suggested that the Queen never carries cash or credit cards, as she has assistants who make all required purchases for her. However, if any member of the Royal Family finds themselves short of cash, there is always a handy ATM inside Buckingham Palace – for the exclusive Coutts Bank, of course! 

Will Kate have a job?

It is unlikely that Kate will undertake any paid employment once she and William marry. Until recently she was working for the family firm after a brief post-graduate foray into the outside world working for upmarket clothes store, Jigsaw. 

She is a clearly a bright lady, but at age of 29, the future Queen of England, has rather a thin CV for an A grade Marlborough educated pupil who gained a 2:1 in History of Art from St Andrew's University.

But now, she will be taking on the full-time job of being the wife of Prince William, which will probably occupy all of her time and energy. Catherine Oxenburgh, daughter of Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia, said of Kate working, “she most likely will not have a job. She will write a lot of thank-you notes, she will do a lot of ribbon cutting, she will receive dignitaries and appear on behalf of her selected charities. Basically, she will be a public servant with a lot of perks.”

Will Kate be free to spend money as she chooses?

The Royal Family must be very careful how they are seen to be spending money, as their public engagements are funded by UK taxpayer’s money. Their fund is called the Civil List and major royals get payments from it to cover their expenses.

Kate does of course enjoy shopping, and just last week was spotted on the fashionable Kings Road in London – no doubt stocking up her honeymoon wardrobe. The Queen-in-waiting wandered down the shopping street like any ordinary bride-to-be, with just one bodyguard for protection. She could not help but crack a smile as she saw dozens of shops adorned with her name and Union Jack flags in preparation for the big event.

Only time will tell if her public shopping trips continue post nuptials, but in the face of the recession Great Britain is suffering from, Kate would be wise to be seen being careful with money. The Queen herself has encouraged members of the Royal Family to show support to the people during this economic downturn. Through her reign she has been renowned for extolling the virtues of frugality, and stated she would avoid any public displays of extravagance amid growing unemployment and financial strife.  In fact, so frugal is the Queen, that she even collected coupons towards the cost of her own wedding dress.

In order to continue to hold the respect and affection of the British people, Kate would do well to learn lessons of thrift from her Grandmother-in-law.

Who on earth pays full price at Pizza Express?

Coupons are cool. Or at least that’s what I'm telling myself.

I had long embraced a ‘voucher’ even before the imposed ‘Saving Regime,’ but a pleasant side effect of the present economic climate is the increase of them. Thank you very much recession.

Do you remember going to Pizza Express without a voucher? No, me neither. But apparently it did happen in the dim and distant past. Probably just before the time people started incessantly saying that they ‘had an app for that.’

When Pizza Express approached a British marketing agency several years ago, they had just a few sacks of postbags with customer contact details on them.

By sending out some forward-able two-for-one vouchers that could be downloaded from the firm's website they attracted over 4.5 million diners (plus a database of 3m customers' details) keen to take them up on the offer.

With the economy slowing and unemployment soaring, it seems consumers are looking for ways to pinch pennies anywhere they can. Although this would suggest that they want to have their pizza and eat it.

Needless to say, other restaurant chains soon caught onto this idea. If any of this is news to you then sign up immediately at www.vouchercodes.co.uk for a weekly email of the best deals online and in stores. Click through, do it now. I don’t get any kick backs; although if vouchercodes would like to give me any, I accept cash or cheque.

When you book car hire, theatre tickets, flights, do your grocery shopping, or anything else online, you usually see a little box giving the option to input a loyalty, membership or special offer code. It's all too easy to ignore, but don't - typing the correct few letters can give a significant discount on the subsequent price. Thankfully, you don't need to actually be a loyal customer; you just need to google it. Open a new window right there and search for ‘discount code for ‘insert website here.’

There’s a widespread belief among the non-coupon set that ‘only poor people use coupons.’ Of course this is ridiculous, although some people are genuinely afraid of a stigma, as old fashioned paper coupons were once viewed as an embarrassing badge of stinginess.

Perhaps there is still a stigma surrounding these coupons saving you 20p off your milk or offering half price detergent; but new technologies like online voucher codes and club cards with automatic savings have pushed discounts into the mainstream.

Nowadays you just have to flash your phone screen to a staff member to get your money off. No ‘paper-coupon-possible-stigma’ in sight. Apparently, mobile coupons remove the stigma of discounting because your discount vouchers - delivered via sleek and expensive smartphones - are sexy and novel.

Frankly a discount is a discount, but if you would rather partake in ‘sexy and novel’ saving, then Vouchercloud is one such miracle saving app that will automatically find the best deals nearest to you and deliver a coupon straight to your ‘sleek’ (or otherwise) smartphone.

So be out and proud, become a coupon enthusiast. The real question is why you wouldn’t want to? Surely all it means is that you are a savvy shopper who knows the way to get the very best prices for the products you buy.

Sorry, backtrack - did I just say that there was an app for that?