Sophie Maria Lord wins shopping vouchers

Sophie Maria Lord receiving her vouchers from Andrea Fallon, Rochdale Borough Council’s director of public health

Sophie Maria Lord, 21, from College Bank Way in Rochdale, won Love2shop vouchers by sharing her top healthy money-saving tips.

Sophie’s helpful hints to save money included doing weekly food inventories at home and planning meals around it, making shopping lists and sticking to them, shopping around for the best deals and cutting out takeaways.

The money-savings tips received the most votes from the council’s public health team.

Sophie also shared that by using these tips she’s able to spend around £25 a week on food for herself and her fiancé.

She said: “It was a very nice surprise to hear that I’d won the Get Money Smart competition, I didn’t expect it at all and the vouchers will really help us out. Me and my partner Jamie recently got engaged so I’m going to use some of the vouchers to buy food for our engagement party. I’m also excited to buy a new iron.”

The Get Moneysmart campaign raises awareness about the savings and health benefits that can be made by making just a few small changes to everyday lifestyles.

Rochdale Borough Council teamed up with more than 200 local partners across the borough to promote the benefits that cutting down on smoking, drinking, takeaways, using shisha and gambling can have on people’s health, wellbeing and finances.

Andrea Fallon, director of public health at Rochdale Borough Council, said: “Supporting our communities to lead healthy lives while saving money is really important to us, so it is great to see what some shining examples are doing to lead the way to a healthier and happier borough. Well done to Sophie, keep up the good work.”