Money Box Life: Blended Family Finances

Money Box

BBC

Business

4.2 • 825 Ratings

🗓️ 14 January 2026

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Life can sometimes get very complicated and messy so can our finances, so we're doing something a bit different to our usual Money Box Live.

Introducing Money Box Life where we're looking at the finances of blended families. What we mean is family groups with some children from one parent, some from another and maybe a child or children together thrown into the mix as well.

The number of families living this way is on the increase with some reports suggesting as many as 1 in 3 are blended. So how do people manage it? From birthday presents to who goes on holidays with whom to making a will. And how do the children feel about it all?

Joining Felicity Hannha is Jo Thurston, a parenting coach and advisor for Parent Talk, which is the free online support service from the charity Action for Children and Liz Wyatt, Family Lawyer and Partner at Anthony Collins Solicitors.

Presenter: Felicity Hannah Producers: Sarah Rogers and Helen Ledwick Editor: Jess Quayle Senior Editor: Sara Wadeson

This episode was first broadcast of Wednesday the 17th of December 2025.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts.
0:05.7	Hello, you're about to listen to a BBC podcast, and I'm Ed Gamble, host of another BBC podcast, The Traitors Uncloaked.
0:12.7	But my show is available only on BBC Sounds, just like Ellis and John's Saturday bonus episodes,
0:18.2	The Pop Top Ten podcast with Scott Mills and Rylan, and comedy specials
0:22.2	from the likes of Harriet Kemsley, Susie Ruffle and Rommashranganathan. However, and maybe I'm biased,
0:27.9	it's really all about the traitors uncoaked. So for a whole bunch of exclusive scoops and podcasts,
0:33.4	listen only on BBC Sounds. Hello, today we're doing something a bit different to our usual Moneybox Live podcast.
0:40.6	We're calling this kind of episode Moneybox Life, because money, like life, can be really
0:46.2	complicated and we want to get people talking about it. So in this first Moneybox Life podcast,
0:51.7	we're looking at the finances of blended families. It's probably quite a
0:56.2	timely one for Christmas. We mean family groups with some children from one parent, some from
1:00.6	another, and maybe a child or children together thrown into the mix as well. You know, we were
1:05.5	navigating through blended life. I was a widower and people had opinions on the fact that I was then remarried and
1:13.0	all of a sudden had gone from being a single dad with two kids to being a father of four
1:18.0	children. And I think we'd never want any of them to feel like there was any sense of favouritism.
1:24.1	We are going to hear more from Sam and some more blended families very shortly. But first, let's talk to Joe Thurston, who's a parenting coach and advisor for parent talk, which is the free online support service from the charity action for children. Joe, before we even get to the money, there can be a lot of emotions, can't there, when it comes to blending a family? Yes, they can.
1:45.1	And we know this is a massive thing for a family to take that step and to blend together.
1:50.7	It can cause anxiety worry, but also some brilliant things of new connections, new relationships,
1:56.9	and a little bit more support as well.
1:59.6	But it's a mixture and a roller coaster.
2:02.5	And a healthy dollop of that chaos that is family life.
2:06.5	You support blended families, and that can mean step-parents, grandparents, biological parents.
	...

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