It can be difficult to talk about money. That’s why during the first week of November, the Money and Pension Service encourages everyone to have more open conversations about their personal finance. Talk Money Week is a great chance to kickstart money conversations with your fellow students, your colleagues as well as your family and friends.
Discussing money in our everyday lives can help us build the financial confidence and resilience needed to face whatever the future has in store for us.
This year’s Talk Money Week theme is ‘do one thing’. What one thing could you do to improve your financial wellbeing? Our OU staff and students in Wales have some ideas to get you started:
Sign up to the Money Saving Expert Newsletter. It’s a game changer. I also recommend MSE’s Academy of Money, a free course from The Open University and Money Saving Expert (available in both English and Welsh.)
Look out for charities and trusts that can offer grant money for people facing hardships. See Family Action and Turn2us.”
Look out for free or cheap food apps such as Olio and Too good to go.
Money Helper has great calculators and other tools that could help you get to grips with common money problems or situations.
It’s worth buying pet food in bulk as it saves in the long run. If you’re really struggling, there are pet food banks too.
I write down all my outgoings and essential bills and have these payments leave my account when I get paid so that I know how much I'm left with for the rest of the month.
Buy large multipacks of food you can chop up and freeze in portions which can be defrosted when needed (or cook from frozen for veg). The best ingredients are those that go across a range of recipes such as onions, peppers, mushrooms, chicken, spinach and leeks! This helps save money and reduce waste by only using what you need as you need it. See this guide to freezing food from BBC Good Food.
If you struggle with saving or don’t know where to start, autosaving apps may be a good tool for you. See this article from Money Saving Expert for a rundown of how they work and which ones to go with.
Children grow out of clothes so quickly, so buy second hand. There are lots of websites and apps like Vinted where you can buy kids clothes bundles. Saves a fortune. Also check if your children's school or PTA does a uniform swap shop.
Making your own pizza dough is really easy and one bag of strong flour can make eight pizzas!
I find it useful to have different 'accounts' or 'pots' for different which can really help keep track of spending on things like food and petrol.
Plan your meals for the week and make a shopping list before you go to the shop and try and keep to the list.
Our Senior Manager for Fees and Funding in Wales, Einir England, has six things that could help you with your financial wellbeing.
Explore our qualifications and courses by requesting one of our prospectuses today.
A report published by The Open University today shows that young people in Wales are more likely to be dissatisfied with democracy and less likely to participate in formal politics.
The Welsh Government has announced that modern foreign languages will be offered as a new secondary subject on its post-graduate certificate in education (PGCE), delivered by The Open University in Wales.
Rhodri Davies
Senior Communications Manager,
Telephone: 029 2167 4532
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