10 Easy Tips To Become a Savvy Saver

The following blog was written by our Intern from Liverpool John Moores University, Cerys Evans.

Whether you are saving for that summer holiday or if you just want some pocket money each month, the best way to get your finances in check is by making sure you're putting some money aside to save. We've rounded up the best 10 tips to use to become a savvy saver. 

1. Track your spending

Keeping track of your spending will help you stay within your budget. Set a budget for how much you can spend and then track it. Whether you want to keep track of your spending in a notebook or on your phone, make sure that you’re consistent and stick to your budget. There are now a lot of apps that will help you track your spends with the most popular being Monzo!

2. Find things to do for free

There are plenty of activities that you can do for free! Look at tourist centered sites to find out about museums, exhibitions, events and festivals happening in your local area. One of our favourites is Visit Liverpool and Day out With The Kids where they’ll gather all the information in one place, simple!

3. Leave debit/credit cards at home

This may seem a little strange… but leaving your debit/credit card at home and only taking the money you absolutely need is a simple way of making sure you don’t overspend! Tempted as you will be to purchase an item, you will have no choice but to walk away 

4. Avoid temptation - don’t go shopping if you don't need to

If you don’t go to the shops, you can’t be lured by nice things.

5. Decrease the amount of eating and drinking out

Try to leave eating out for a special occasion and start making your own food at home. It can save you a lot of money, but it can also be a chance to learn a new skill! Not convinced? Here’s some quick math for you…

£2.50 (one coffee a day in the week) x 5 coffees a week = £12.50

£12.50 x 4 weeks = £50

£50 x 12 months = £600 a year.

Making a coffee at home is a fraction of the price of that!!

6. Look on discount sites

If you do decide that you will go out for food or drinks, then you can take advantage of discount sites such as Groupon that will offer some great deals on food prices. There is always a discount code for stores when you buy anything online and a lot of the time you will be able to at least find 10% off which will make a big difference long term!

7. Cheaper supermarkets 

Make sure to always go for the supermarkets that offer you the best value for your money. It can be easy to opt for the supermarket that is closer and more convenient but by making sensible swap and choosing none-branded items you could save a good amount of money. A great way of finding out where best to shop is by using a supermarket price comparison tool, we've found a great one you can use here 

8. Plan your food shop

You know what they say: never go food shopping on an empty stomach. Work out prior to the supermarket trip what you need to buy and try to stick to just buying those items, but if there’s something that you use weekly you could stock up when prices are reduced. 

9. Switch energy suppliers

It's said by switching energy supplier each household could save up to £400 a year! It's an easy way to save money and it takes a couple of minutes to do. 

10. Sell your unused items online

Just because you're not using it anymore doesn't mean that somebody else won't! a great way to earn some extra money to put away is by selling your unused clothes, CD's, Books etc online! There is truly money to be made by items you probably haven't thought about in years. Some of the most popular sites to sell on include eBay, Music Magpie and Depop!

About us:

Better Off Finance is offering residents of the Liverpool City Region who are currently unemployed (although don't have to be claiming benefits), a bespoke programme of support. 

This support will be provided at a local community venue or at home if a participant prefers.
Each participant will be linked up with their own key worker who will support them to:
Improve their financial capability through 1-2-1 support and group work

Access employability sessions within the programme
Access a Level 2 Accredited ‘Money Mentor’ opportunity
Progress into training and education opportunities
Prepare and progress into sustainable employment.

Please contact us via our Facebook or Twitter pages to make a referral or for further information.

Better Off Finance is a program jointly funded by The Big Lottery Fund and European Social Fund as part of the Building Better Opportunities Initiative

My Turn is Back with New Dates Available

Early in the year we introduced you to our new course ‘My Turn’. The 2-day personal development journey that is helping residents in the Liverpool City Region say hello to their confidence and help them knock down those barriers to change and now were happy to announce that we’re back!

We’ve just released new dates in various locations around the Liverpool City Region, we have a location that will be available for you!

📍 Citizens Advice Wirral - 3rd & 19th December 2018

    237-243 Liscard Rd, Wallasey CH44 5TH

📍 Citizens Advice St Helens - 14th & 18th December 2018
    Millennium Centre, Corporation St, Saint Helens WA10 1HJ

📍 Citizens Advice Wavertree - 30th November & 5th December 2018
    242 Picton Rd, Liverpool L15 4LP

📍 Citizens Advice Garston - 20th & 27th November 2018
    2 Speke Rd, Garston, Liverpool L19 2PA

📍 Citizens Advice Sefton - 4th & 5th December 2018
    297 Knowsley Rd, Bootle L20 5DF

📍 Citizens Advice Halton - 15th & 22nd November 2018
    Grosvenor House, Halton Lea, Runcorn WA7 2HF

📍 Citizens Advice Knowsley - 5th & 12th December 2018
    Kirkby Job Centre Plus, St. Chads House, L32 8RW

If you’re new to ‘My Turn’ let me tell you what it’s all about. Across 2 sessions, the course will have you looking at various factors in your life that will give you the best boost for the future. You will receive support to:

✅ Build your confidence

✅ Overcome your barriers

✅ Build Your Skills and Qualities

✅ Drive your assertiveness

Each session will focus on the different steps to take for a positive future:

Day 1 – Think, Believe and Achieve will look at strategies that you can use to help you become more confident and assertive

Day 2 – Positive Next Steps will help you to identify barriers hindering your goals and give you the tools to help with future employment searches.

We recently went behind the scenes with our trainer Victoria, to get an insiders peek on the sessions, you can take a look here!

And that’s not all! By attending the programme, you could get access to a specialist key worker who can help with taking your goals even further. Key workers are specialists in financial capability, helping people understand more about their finances and personal needs.

You will also get the opportunity attend accredited training through our Money Mentor programme. The programme offers guidance and training to go out and help others with financial advice and support.

Dates are available in various locations around the Liverpool City Region (Liverpool, Knowsley, Sefton, Wirral, Halton, St Helens). This programme is open to men and women who are currently out of work. 

To book onto the programme or for more information call us on 0151 706 8111 or email us hello@thewo.org.uk

About us: 

Better Off Finance is offering residents of the Liverpool City Region who are currently unemployed (although don't have to be claiming benefits), a bespoke programme of support. This support will be provided at a local community venue or at home if a participant prefers.

Each participant will be linked up with their own key worker who will support them to:

• Improve their financial capability through 1-2-1 support and group work
• Access employability sessions within the programme
• Access a Level 2 Accredited ‘Money Mentor’ opportunity
• Progress into training and education opportunities
• Prepare and progress into sustainable employment.

Better Off Finance is a program jointly funded by The Big Lottery Fund and European Social Fund as part of the Building Better Opportunities Initiative 

Better Off Finance Inspires Catharine to Pursue Business Dream

Feeling overwhelmed with the complexity of the benefits system, Catharine used to avoid looking into her finances alone. Now, with support from Better Off Finance Catharine has become financially savvy and confident to start her own business. It seems that for Catharine, the only way is up! 

Having left her teaching job due to illness in 2011, Catharine was unemployed for 7 years and receiving job seekers allowance, feeling unable to progress with her business dream. Joining the Better Off Finance programme gave Catharine the time, space and advice to assess her monthly outgoings and work out where she could become more money-smart.

Better Off Finance programme supports people to improve their financial capability and prepare and progress into sustainable employment, or access training opportunities. Feeling anxious whenever she tried to look in to her finances alone, Better Off Finance ensured Catharine was utilising the support she was eligible for.

With her key worker’s support, Catharine managed to save £100 a month; “I really feel like he has given me tools for life to maximise my income and minimise my outgoings, I always tended to bury my head when it came to this stuff – now I have the confidence to find and negotiate better deals for monthly necessities”.

Regaining control of her personal finances, Catharine felt empowered to begin thinking about employment opportunities and the next step forward. Often the scariest thing about pursing a business-dream is the reality of becoming a business-owner. Catharine knew her passion but didn’t believe she had the enterprise skills or experience to turn that passion into a business – and that’s where Enterprise Hub came in.

Head over to The Women's Organisation blog to hear more of Catharine's story.

If you’d like to find out more about Better Off Finance or Enterprise Hub, contact us on 0151 706 8111 and speak to a member of our Engagement Team.

Could You Become A Money Mentor?

It’s always great to see people putting themselves forward to support others in changing their lives, and that’s exactly what’s happening on our Money Mentors course! Educating yourself to use the skills for greater good is always a rewarding feeling and that’s what our recent Money Mentors graduates at Halton Citizens Advice & 54 St James Street have been doing.

The Level 2 accredited training will encourage participants to go out into their communities and share what they’ve learned, and it’s also something great to add onto your CV!  We asked our recent graduates what they thought of the 2 days they spent learning to become Money Mentors

“I really enjoyed the course because every aspect that was covered was explained well with examples for clarity.  The course facilitator, Jose, was very knowledgeable and presented information in an easy to understand manner. I now have a better understanding of some of the methods of recovering debt and the process of debt recovery.”

Paula and Jennifer recently completed their Level 2 Money Mentors training in 'Being a Savvy Consumer' at 54 St James Street and had some great feedback about the course

“The course has been very valuable, I am more knowledgeable about consumer rights. There is so much I wasn’t aware of” 

“I feel more confident as a consumer now. The course was easy to understand and broke down the jargon. The handouts have been useful for me to refer back to after the course. Getting this certificate will help me with my volunteer application to support job seekers in my local job centre” 

What an amazing achievement, well done everyone and we can't wait to see how you use your new found skills to support and guide your community!

Do you think you could be a Money Mentor?

Money Mentors will be two days training at a local venue and will provide Level 2 accreditation in the following subjects:

• Being a community-based mentor
• Being a savvy consumer
• Supporting Universal Credit Claimants

The subjects will cover topics such as:

• Understand the causes of personal debt
• Understand different attitudes to spending money
• Understand how Universal Credit is made up and which benefits it replaces

We will even pay the travel expenses to get there and provide lunch!

If you think you could become a Money Mentor, then get in touch! to book or for more information you can contact us on 0151 706 8111 or hello@thewo.org.uk

About us: 

Better Off Finance is offering residents of the Liverpool City Region who are currently unemployed (although don't have to be claiming benefits), a bespoke programme of support. This support will be provided at a local community venue or at home if a participant prefers.

Each participant will be linked up with their own key worker who will support them to:
Improve their financial capability through 1-2-1 support and group work

·         Access employability sessions within the programme
·         Access a Level 2 Accredited ‘Money Mentor’ opportunity
·         Progress into training and education opportunities
·         Prepare and progress into sustainable employment.

Please contact us via our Facebook or Twitter pages to make a referral or for further information.

Better Off Finance is a program jointly funded by The Big Lottery Fund and European Social Fund as part of the Building Better Opportunities Initiative

Journey Through The My Turn Programme

Since the launch of our My Turn Programme in April 2018, our trainers have been travelling around the Liverpool City Region helping people just like you Think, Believe & Achieve! We were lucky enough to hear from our trainer Victoria Hart who gave us a taster of what My Turn covers. 

Let’s hand over to Victoria as she takes us through the MyTurn journey during her Wirral Citizens Advice sessions…

Starting off the "Think, Believe & Achieve" session with 10 participants, we start with an icebreaker session, which is always a brilliant way to allow a group to get to know each other and meet the people they are going to be spending the programme with. We found out about hobbies and achievements which produced some brilliant discussions, including finding out one member of the group had abseiled down Devils Gorge in Mold, and another had met Amanda Holden! It was a fantastic way for everyone to introduce themselves.

We moved on to an important discussion of confidence and what the group thought confidence was. From this discussion, some great suggestions were put forward

“Being comfortable with yourself” and “being able to say no”

From the points raised, the group then identified situations where they would need to feel confident. Throughout the morning, we focused on the practical strategies for improving confidence on a day to day basis, from visualisation to power stances.

Before breaking for lunch, we also delved into barriers that the group through they needed to overcome and were able to help each other thing about the ways in which they could overcome them. The group found hearing other people’s stories useful, as it made them realise that others are going through the same thing, something that made them feel less isolated.

We recommenced with assertiveness. In a group, we identified the differences between aggressive, passive, passive-aggressive and assertive behaviour. Using celebrities, the group identified that assertive behaviour can sometimes be seem as a negative thing and that there are many derogatory words related to being assertive. We discussed how assertiveness can be used in different situations and how confidence has a link to assertiveness.

The group reflected on what they found the most useful during the session

“Understanding how confidence and the relation to wellbeing”

“Meeting new people and learning new things about other people’s issues”

“It’s good information with useful practical advice”

Thanks Victoria! Sounds like some great things were covered, and big congratulations to our My Turn participants! 

New dates available below!

About us:

Working as part of the Better off Finance Programme My Turn is a 2-day Programme of personal development. The My Turn Programme will provide the opportunity for you to take time out for yourself and think about ‘What’s next?’

The programme offers you the opportunity to attend both days or just one day. You can find out more information about the programme here 

Please contact us by calling 0151 706 8111 or email hello@thewo.org.uk to book onto the programme or for further information.

Better Off Finance is a program jointly funded by The Big Lottery Fund and European Social Fund as part of the Building Better Opportunities Initiative 

Helping Adam To Adjust

You may have heard about Universal Credit and how it's affecting people in the benefit system. With 1.42 million unemployed people in the UK, the welfare state is becoming more relied on than ever. It's predicted that by 2022, more than seven million households will be scheduled to receive Universal Credit, and with many people talking about the underlying problems with the new system, it's vital that people can properly understand the changes they will be going through. 

People like Adam, who came to get support from our Better Off Finance Knowsley team after recently having been switched from ESA (a health related benefit) and moved to Universal Credit. Like many others, he wasn't completely clear about what these changed meant and we were able to help. 

Struggling to manage day to day living costs was hard, especially on his newly reduced income but with the support from his key worker, Adam is now able to understand his benefits more and can manage the money he has coming in.

“I didn’t understand the changes to my benefits, particularly Universal Credit. I got a lot of advice and information on what it means as well as help applying for further support”

Here at Better Off Finance we want to help our participants understand the benefits system,  and be able to take the pressure off understanding the important stuff when it comes to claiming what you’re entitled to. As well as being experts around the benefits system, our key workers are also able to advise people on grants and awards to help them out of hardship and enable them to start thinking about a more positive future. This is exactly how they helped Adam with his debt.

“My key worker helped me access a charitable trust award of £220 towards clothes which has enabled me to buy smart clean clothes to be prepared for potential interviews”

Adam really benefited from having the constant financial support to help him make more sense of his money and his future options. When asked about what he would say about anyone looking for help he said: “I would really recommend Better Off Finance. Before this support I felt very down and didn’t know where to turn for advice, but I feel much more positive now”

Feeling more confident and able to take on new challenges, Adam is ready to move on towards a positive future and raves about the free support he went into not knowing what to expect 

“On signing up I expected one or two appointments, but I’ve be able to return multiple times across the last few months and have gotten help with issues I didn’t even know I could get help with!”

Good luck to you on your journey Adam and thank you for sharing your story!

About us: 

Better Off Finance is offering residents of the Liverpool City Region who are currently unemployed (although don't have to be claiming benefits), a bespoke programme of support. This support will be provided at a local community venue or at home if a participant prefers.

Each participant will be linked up with their own key worker who will support them to:

• Improve their financial capability through 1-2-1 support and group work

• Access employability sessions within the programme

• Access a Level 2 Accredited ‘Money Mentor’ opportunity

• Progress into training and education opportunities

• Prepare and progress into sustainable employment.

Please contact us via our Facebook or Twitter pages to make a referral or for further information.

Better Off Finance is a program jointly funded by The Big Lottery Fund and European Social Fund as part of the Building Better Opportunities Initiative 

Lets talk about the link between Debt and Mental Health

Opening up about personal finances can be a sore subject, especially when facing money issues or finding yourself spiralling into debt. 6 million Britons believe that they will never be debt free, with the average person in the UK owing up to a whopping £8,000! 

Ok, debt is a financial issue. But it can often lead to someone losing their home, relationship, family, and can pote ntially affect absolutely anyone. Whether you're employed or claiming benefits, falling behind on bills or being unable to pay back loans can bring you down. And whilst your income may just cover those ‘essential things’ in life, money doesn’t always stretch as far as covering built up debt from payday loans or credit cards.

Whilst worrying about the lack of money has effects on your social life and your ability to splash out on the finer things, it can also cause a fundamental change in your mental health, knocking your confidence and leaving you with the inability to think about your future or set goals and aspirations. One in two adults with debts has mental health problems, leaving people with long term effects such as depression and anxiety.

Research has shown that consumers with mental health problems believe their behaviour changes dramatically during periods of poor mental health. 93% say they spend more when unwell, 71% have put off dealing with creditors and 59% have taken out a loan they wouldn’t have taken out otherwise. The link between mental health and debt isn't something we can ignore.

The Better Off Finance program is here to help. We want to change the taboo of talking about money, support people in making their money go further and be a guiding hand to those who are ready to face their issues head on. So if you or anyone you know is out of work (don't have to be claiming benefits) and needs support, then get in touch and see if we can help.

About us: 

Better Off Finance is offering residents of the Liverpool City Region who are currently unemployed (although don't have to be claiming benefits), a bespoke programme of support. This support will be provided at a local community venue or at home if a participant prefers.

Each participant will be linked up with their own key worker who will support them to:

• Improve their financial capability through 1-2-1 support and group work

• Access employability sessions within the programme

• Access a Level 2 Accredited ‘Money Mentor’ opportunity

• Progress into training and education opportunities

• Prepare and progress into sustainable employment.

Please contact us via our Facebook or Twitter pages to make a referral or for further information.

Better Off Finance is a program jointly funded by The Big Lottery Fund and European Social Fund as part of the Building Better Opportunities Initiative 

Drop-In And See Our Money Saving Experts At 54 St James Street!

Starting on Thursday 31st August, for one day each month a team of money saving experts will be at Liverpool city centre location, 54 St James Street, running a drop-in session to help you get the most for your money!

Money saving experts from the Better Off Finance project will be holding a drop-in morning once a month and you are invited to come along and speak to them about anything money related, or job related, that may be on your mind!

The drop-in sessions will be happening on the following dates…

Thursday 31st August
Thursday 28th September 
Thursday 26th October
Thursday 23rd November

All from 9am-1pm, at 54 St James Street, Liverpool, L1 0AB

About us: 

Better Off Finance is offering residents of the Liverpool City Region who are currently unemployed (although don't have to be claiming benefits), a bespoke programme of support. This support will be provided at a local community venue or at home if a participant prefers.

Each participant will be linked up with their own key worker who will support them to:

• Improve their financial capability through 1-2-1 support and group work

• Access employability sessions within the programme

• Access a Level 2 Accredited ‘Money Mentor’ opportunity

• Progress into training and education opportunities

• Prepare and progress into sustainable employment.

Please contact us via our Facebook or Twitter pages to make a referral or for further information.

Better Off Finance is a program jointly funded by The Big Lottery Fund and European Social Fund as part of the Building Better Opportunities Initiative