I recently had great fun working with a group of women from Bump, Baby & Beyond in Dumfries. The group had applied to Santander Discovery Grants for funding, to help their members get a money makeover, through doing my online Your Money, Sorted challenge. 

Before we began, I asked the women to share with me their feelings around money.

The same words came up constantly.  They were scared, anxious, worried, ashamed, guilty, and stressed. Their biggest fears were being unable to pay bills and having no savings for unplanned events. 

They also feared being unable to support their children and passing on their own poor money habits to their children.

Expectations

The women were all a bit unsure of what to expect.  Most of them didn’t know me, had never completed an online challenge and had never thought about their feelings about money. It was with some trepidation that they started the 28 day money makeover.

“At first I was intimidated and really afraid it would just point out my failures in budgeting and money management”.

Easy to follow money makeover

The online course led them through a step-by-step money makeover, starting with looking at what their 10/10 financial situation would be and then setting powerful and exciting goals to help them to work towards this ideal situation.

We then moved onto looking at their feelings about money, which was an eye-opening process for a lot of the group, as they had never given this much thought before.

Attitudes, value and habits around money, were next to be tackled, all of which really helped the women to make massive shifts in their behaviour and began to make a real difference to their finances.

They were very enthusiastic, about both the process and the benefits that it brought to them, with one saying

“….thinking more deeply about things, than I otherwise would, was amazing.”

Changes afoot

After just the first week of the course, the women were already reporting that they felt “excited”, “enthusiastic”, “motivated” and “much more confident already”. “I found it very useful to identify how I felt about money at the start of the course and I had totally changed my attitude about it by the end.”

I just loved working with this group of women, because they were so enthusiastic and willing to get stuck into the money makeover. We spent time looking at various ways of increasing income and decreasing expenditure, learning about different ways of managing money and debt, and looking at how to plan more effectively for the future.

Spending you love

One of the main aims of the challenge is to help people to reduce spending on the areas that don’t matter to them, so that they can increase spending on the things that they really value. This is a wonderful way of helping women to find financial peace and happiness.

The women were asked before and after the course to rate themselves on a 5 point scale according to the following statements:

Fantastic progress was made during their course, as you can see from the results. The women are now feeling much more confident and in control of their financial situation. The hard work that they put in during the course will stand them in good stead for the rest of their lives.

The end result             

By the end of the challenge, the feelings of the women were completely different. 

Every single one had made fantastic progress and left the challenge feeling happy about their financial future, confident that they now have the tools and knowledge to help them to make good decisions in the future.

Many of them were excited that they were now better able to provide for their children. Many had started savings plans for their children and felt much better placed to bring their children up with a healthy attitude towards money.

Thanks

I would like to thank Bump, Baby and Beyond for giving me the opportunity of working with your members, as well as saying a massive thank you to all the women on the course for working so hard - it honestly was a pleasure working with you.

There are various funding sources available for charities and non-profit making organisations, to help their members to become more financially educated.

Organisations such as toddler groups, school PFAs, community groups, housing associations and other not-for-profit companies could offer their members an amazing opportunity to improve their lives.

My Your Money, Sorted courses offer a fun, interactive and proven way of making a real difference to your finances. I have a space for another group course, so if you, or a group you know, would like to find out more about a fully funded Your Money Sorted course, please get in touch for more information.

Eileen x

I am Eileen Adamson, a Your Money, Sorted coach, working online with UK based women, helping them to develop a better relationship with money. By gaining an understanding of how their personality affects the decisions they make, I can help them to implement changes which will allow them to feel calm, positive and confident that they are in control and making good financial decisions. I can then support them to put into place simple strategies that will allow them to manage their finances effectively on a daily basis and create a stable, secure and exciting future for themselves.