Money management for young mums ….. by young mums

A group of young women from Sheffield have created a downloadable toolkit with money and budgeting advice for other young parents.

Supported by Youth Association South Yorkshire (YASY), the group of young mothers entered the Lloyds Banking Group Money for Life Challenge. The Challenge is a national competition that provides £500 grants to enable teams of 16 to 24 year olds to run a money management project in their community.

Recognising the challenges they face as young parents, the group decided to put together a ‘toolkit’ of information and resources that would help them and other young parents make the most of their money.

The result is a bespoke money management toolkit for young teenage mothers in Sheffield, which is now available for download on the YASY website. 

At the core of the ‘Mothers and Money Management (MAMM) Toolkit’ is a downloadable budget tracker, in the form of a spreadsheet. The tracker enables young parents to track weekly income and outgoings, helping them to make informed decisions about what they can afford and how they can save and/or manage their debt.

The MAMM budget tracker has been ‘road-tested’ and has already helped young mums in Sheffield to save money and to pay off debts. These comments from young people illustrate the impact of the budgeting tool:

• “The budget tracker made me realise how much I spent on takeaways, I stopped buying takeaways each week and went to Aldi.”
• “I learned to shop around and buy cheaper food and looking for offers to save money.”
• “The extra money I save each week has allowed me to open a saving account for my baby.”
• “It made me sit and think about stuff that you need to buy and what you don’t really need to buy.”
• “My shopping habits have changed. I write a list before I go shopping to stop me wasting money on rubbish.”
• “I stopped smoking and saved £100 a month, got myself out of debt and paid my rent on time.”