[HelenaP_EONNext]

Hello Community 👋

Our team recently attended a fascinating webinar on Financial Wellbeing. We found it offered valuable insights into managing personal finances and supporting overall wellbeing in relation to money matters.

Given that financial concerns are universal, we felt this information would be beneficial to share. Understanding these concepts can be helpful for both navigating current situations and planning for the future!

Understanding Your Financial Wellbeing

The way we view money can be influenced by our upbringing, surroundings, current financial standing, and societal norms. Therefore, it's worth considering: what does financial wellbeing mean specifically to you?

While wealth is often linked to happiness, it's important to remember that they don't always align. 💜

To guide your current financial choices, consider your aspirations for the future. When thinking about spending or saving, identify what truly matters to you. Ask yourself:

• What are you aiming to build for yourself?
• What purchases genuinely bring you happiness?
• If you are saving, what is the specific goal?

Once you've set your goals, create a plan with a realistic timeline. Setting goals with achievable deadlines can help you stay focused and on track with your finances.

Supporting Your Financial Wellbeing

Maintaining good financial wellbeing starts with self-awareness. Pay attention to how you react, both physically and emotionally when dealing with your finances or making spending decisions. Recognising your spending patterns and focusing on what you can actually control is key.

Consider the following strategies:

• Avoid comparison: In the age of social media, it's easy to compare your financial situation to others online. Consciously limit this comparison to protect your own wellbeing.
• Set goals: Instead of overwhelming yourself with huge, long-term goals, focus on achievable short-term steps. Success with smaller actions can boost your motivation and mental health, setting you up for success with bigger aspirations.
• Implement a 'Cool-Down' period: Many purchases are driven by immediate emotional responses. To reduce impulsive spending, take a day or even a week to decide if you truly need an item before buying it.
• Make instant purchases harder: The convenience of online shopping makes 'click to buy' too easy. To curb instant purchases, avoid saving your card details on websites and shopping apps.

Managing your spending

Managing finances can be stressful, but with the help of modern technology like Google Sheets and banking apps, you can simplify the process.

• Create a Budget: List all income and expenses to ensure you are not spending more than you earn, you could use the Free budget planner to help get you started.
• Track Spending: Monitor bank statements to identify patterns and areas to cut back.
• Reduce Expenses: Cancel unused subscriptions, switch providers for better deals on bills, and shop with a list to avoid impulse buys.

Financial guidance and support sites

• Money saving expert
• Citizen advice
• Turn2us

With energy prices set to drop slightly in April, does this change how you're feeling about your budget for the spring? you can check out the latest price cap news here 👉 Ofgem Energy Price Cap April 2026: What does this mean for E.ON Next Customers?

We'd love to hear your thoughts! Do you have any tips, such as budgeting apps, that help you manage both your finances and your overall wellbeing? What’s one small 'money win' you’ve had this week?

This week before buying myself a new console game I decided to take a moment and play something I own that I haven't given much attention to! I found this to be a nice little win as I can be quite impulsive 😅

[rwh202]

For anyone interested in Financial Wellbeing, I can recommend 'Rebel Finance School' - https://rebeldonegans.com/finance/rfs/ - and their free resources for understanding and planning your financial future.

They cover all the aspects raised in @HelenaP_EONNext 's excellent post and develop them towards Financial Independence.

I've always been fairly frugal and savings orientated, but completing the course in 2024 together with my wife has really changed our behaviour and outlook regarding money.

Basically, you don't have to banish all spending, but just make conscious choices and spend according to your values.

[meldrewreborn]

@HelenaP_EONNext

my little win will be revealed if you can answer this question. If you buy something from the supermarket and the weight has an e symbol after it, what does the e relate to and how can we use this to our advantage?

OK that’s really 2 questions!

[HelenaP_EONNext]

@meldrewreborn I won't lie, shopping and the financial side around shopping is a big thing I need to work on, so I have no idea! but i'd love to know 👀

Thank you for sharing @rwh202 I will certainly take a look into that, a personal one for me is certainly making more conscious choices, another is starting to work on goals for myself to work out what I want for the future 😊

[meldrewreborn]

@HelenaP_EONNext

the “e” next to a weight means that the product conforms to the rules of the machine packaging regulations. Sometimes the product might be fractionally under weight, but also might be considerably over weight. Think of steaks or cuts of salmon and you’ll appreciate that they can’t be cut to exact weights. Sometimes meat products are sold in boxes like lamb shanks. If you grab a number and take them to a scale you’ll see that the weights vary quite considerably, and as all will be the same price the win is by buying the heaviest - so you get the best value for money!

bunches of grapes are another one to look out for. The labelling is quite extensive in supermarkets - now you know more than the average shopper!

[doverboy]

@meldrewreborn ... and cheese 🤤

[meldrewreborn]

@doverboy

indeed - Parmesan is an exception, as I think the triangular pieces have the tips grated away to get them very close to the declared weight, and produces grated Parmesan, a win win for the producers!

[rwh202]

One philosophy I follow is the time/money equivalence - if you're in employment, you are effectively trading your time and effort for money. If you can use your time/effort to save more money than you can earn, concentrate on that. Alternatively, if your earnings are high, it's fine to focus on that.

Apologies if this example is out of touch, but I've not been in the normal job market for a while, so just guessed some numbers:

40 hours a week for 45 weeks a year on 40k sounds like a 'good' position to be in - so ~34k take-home and £19 per hour. This excludes commuting time, costs and marginal taxation to give a simple number for time/money (or rather money/time).

So, spending £20 to get the car cleaned when I can do it in 30 minutes (or not at all...) seems like bad value.

Spending 2 hours on spreadsheets and google to find the best energy tariff to save £300 - good value!

(spending an extra 30 minutes in supermarket to save 12p, less good 😉) In fact, spending any time in a supermarket is bad value for us - 30 minutes and 13 miles of tyres and electricity means the 50p delivery charge is better value!

[DebF_EONNext]

Great post @HelenaP_EONNext and some great advice there @rwh202

I was given a tip recently - when looking at large purchases, work out how many hours you would have worked to pay for it and think will I spend more hours than I have worked actually using it and if not is it really worth my time 🤔

It's easy to be blindsided by a good deal when you look at something and there's a big discount, but if you start valuing it as your time rather than your money you get a different perspective. Everyone that knows me knows I'm a fan of ninja kitchen gadgets and I'm a sucker for the latest product but using this method has stopped me from buying anymore spontaneous slushie machines or new blenders just because the colour is prettier than the one I own (yes I have done this 😏)

[meldrewreborn]

@rwh202

when you have time to kill in the supermarket while the better half does the real shopping, any beneficial effort is worthwhile. With 60% of customers on the pants (price) cap tariffs, it seems that getting good value for moneys is not at the forefront of people’s minds. My little win feels good when it delivers.