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Good evening all, I hope this week is treating you all well 🌞

21st-27th March 2022 marks the national debt awareness week; let's talk about it!

Debt is a scary thing sometimes, and nobody ever has the intention of falling into debt and we can often sink our heads into the sand and pretend everything is okay…😕 But through this community we always strive to help one another and make sure we are there for each other.🌍

Debt can seem like the big scary monster and as soon as we tackle it the sooner we can get things back on track and looking positive again and there is absolutely nothing to be ashamed of.

We believe that our community is something special and you all need to know where to go, these are not just energy debt charities but will help you out in your everyday life with all of those everyday expenses. With that here are some sources that can help you out massively:

Step Change -https://www.stepchange.org/.

• Step change offers independent specialist debt advice and will help to identify the routes that will be best needed for your personal experiences. With Step Change, you will complete an income and expenditure form; this is where you will go through all your financial commitments with them that will determine what and where your money needs to go.

National Debt Line -https://www.nationaldebtline.org/

• Similarly to Step Change, National Debt Line offers expert advice to help you get a hold of all the expenses that life brings. They will help you to understand where and what to do with your money.

Turn2us -https://www.turn2us.org.uk/Other-help/Debt

• Turn2us are a great tool for those in receipt of benefits. They will work with you to understand the benefits system and apply for different things accordingly. Turn2us provide a calculator tool online which will work out what benefits you qualify for and how to go about getting those.

Citizens Advice -https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/co...energy-supply/

• Citizens advice are here for you in regards to almost everything that life brings. They will help you to understand your bills, how to approach topics such as energy debt with suppliers and what to do next.

These are all debt related charities and services that will help you get back on your feet and work towards solving those money problems. We understand that the need for financial stability is needed more now than it has ever been before. The rising cost of living and household bills is something that has had an effect on each and every one of us; and in today's climate we need each other more than ever.

Please do reach out to us or each other here on the community if you have any questions or would like to talk to us about your energy bills or if you just need a listening ear one of our friendly advisors will do whatever they can to help. Or perhaps you have a story to tell? we would love to hear. You never know much you could help someone to reach out and make that step to try and get back on track. Together we can get through this! 💪.

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The struggle is real whether you are a single mum, a couple working full time on benefits or a full time wage.For two years we’ve been riddled with Covid jobs and lives have been lost, mental health has took a huge hit, lockdown has made some couples stronger but others may not have survived.

Parents have had to home school it’s been hard! During this time we’ve shopped online perhaps costing us more than if we’d been able to pop to the shop, we have also perhaps spent more than we would normally on ourselves or children to compensate for the loss of freedom, I know I have! And we get into a pattern and don’t realised for example I brought my daughter who was 3 at the start of the pandemic lots of educational books and toys to keep her busy, toys to cheer her up as she couldn’t see her friends or family activities we can do together.

I had extra money because I wasn’t paying £100 a month on a bus pass to work but slowly things got back to semi normal my daughter started school and we had school uniform to buy and more advanced learning materials for her and school trips to pay for, the world was opening back up she was invited to parties and there were gifts to buy her friends, soft play centres opening up, going out for family meals again BUT I was still buying her treats and activities to do because that’s what she and I had become use to it was part of our mummy and me time and that was ok for a while you want the best for them but we then start another new year 2022 where the world has really opened up and bills have slowly increased!

So I created a mummy and me planner/chart we have green stickers, yellow stickers and purple stickers.💛 Yellow stickers for all the activities we can do together that don’t cost a penny!

For example: last year we went for lots of lovely works to help save the bumblebees and we rescued quite a few with a little sugar water and it taught my little one more about nature and how to look after our bees 🐝We also made little heart seed bombs and planted them 🌸 Planted sunflowers 🌻and even had rainy days where we stomped in muddy puddles and got wet! 💦 Green stickers 💚 for play dates with friends 💜 Purple stickers for a go to the range treat! My little girl loves a trip to the range to fill up on crafting supplies and a little toy treat - we do this once a month and she has a budget to spend she knows how many items she can put in the trolley but still feel that she’s in control and getting lots of treats! It’s a win win!

We’re budgeting much better and not sacrificing anything and when the chart fills up with lots of colourful stickers it shows us all the things we have to look forward to and have done and my little one can see she has a fun filled week/month as it’s easy for little ones to forget when they have been treated - here is the planner we designed, if this is helpful to anyone I'd love to see your planner designs and all the fun FREE activities that fill your month or perhaps you have another story tell? I'd love to hear!