Ever considered trying a ‘No Spend Month’? Or maybe you’re keen to put a penny in your piggy bank today, 2p tomorrow, 3p the day after…and so on?
Those who started the latter on 1 January – and are so far sticking to it – can expect to have £671.61 in their savings pot by the end of the year. Start inFebruary and you’ll still have well over £600 by December 31. Not bad, eh?
In our latest article here on the Knowledge Hub of our site, we share some of the best money saving challenges around. Read on…
The 1p Challenge
Martin Lewis, founder of moneysavingexpert.com, has given the UK a challenge of his very own.This money saving challenge is surely the challenge to beat all challenges! It sounds simple enough – and it is.
All you need to do is save a penny on the first day of the year, two pence the next, three pence the day after that…and on it goes. Slowly but surely, you’ll be saving bigger amounts as the year rolls on.
Of course, it will probably get harder to find the spare cash once we get closer to the festive season, but if you’ve followed the challenge from 1 January, you should have enough to pay for most – if not all – of your Christmas gifts and food. Find out more over on the Money Saving Expert site – and don’t forget to let us know how you get on.
Join the challenge now and you’ll still have hundreds of pounds towards your Christmas shopping by 31 December. Go on, give it a go. It’s a great step into forming health savings habits, that might inspire you onto bigger things, such as opening a savings product to contribute to monthly.
The 52-week Saving Challenge
How do you fancy saving well over £1,000 before the end of the year? The 52-week saving challenge is like the one above, in that you’re forced to save a set amount of money at regular intervals.
With this challenge, you’ll begin by saving a pound in the first week of the year. By the second week, you’re saving £2, and £3 the third week – and so on.
As outlined on the ‘Skint Dad’ website, this challenge allows you to save £1,378 by the end of the year if you started on January 1. Joining the challenge late? Don’t worry, just catch up by adding the first couple of payments for the first two weeks of the year into your piggy bank.
Again, it’ll be harder to save the funds needed to meet your goal in the latter weeks of the year; what you owe your money box will really ramp up as the challenge reaches its climax, but it’ll be worth it when you have over a grand in cash saved.
Don’t forget to check out the rest of the money saving ideas on the Skint Dad site – there are some great ones!
The Spare Change Challenge
Now this one really is as easy as it sounds…and it’s likely you already do this without realising. You may well be one of the people that never finds yourself wish any cash on you these days, if you’re not part of the cashless crowd, every time you have some loose coins in your pocket (or left over from a recent purchase), chuck them in a big tin or money box.
One day you might only have some coppers to spare, on others you could have a few quid. Whatever you have left in your purse (change only), pop it in your tin.
At the end of the year, give yourself the laborious but exciting task of totting up what you’ve got in your pot – you may well be surprised how much you’ve put aside.
If you don’t fancy saving your loose change, there are plenty of apps you can connect to your bank account that allow you to save automatically, rounding up your transactions to the nearest pound and putting aside your spare change. Make sure you use a reputable app, though; do your research online; the Which? site has some suggestions.
‘No Spend Month’
This is a simple enough challenge to set yourself, but do you have the willpower to stick to it? A ‘No Spend Month’ means setting yourself a list of things you can’t purchase over the course of the month.
You wouldn’t include your mortgage or rent in that, neither would you want to add essential bills like heating or electricity to the list. But you might decide to add luxury items or regular outgoings, such as beauty products, takeaways or even coffee shop coffees to your no-nos.
There’s no law in the challenge that says you have to give up your little treats and luxuries forever – just work a (thoughtfully priced) chunk into your budget and stick to it. Whether it be for a date-night, or a cup from your favourite coffee house. Whatever is important to you in your self-care. The premise of the challenge is to simply make us aware of all the unnecessary spending we do with each pay cheque.
Set yourself the challenge and you could well save a fortune.
The ‘Borrow Rather Than Buy’ Challenge
In a similar vein to the challenge above, the ‘Borrow Rather Than Buy’ challenge allows you to set the rules that work for you.
Perhaps your challenge will be to borrow or swap clothes from or with a pal, saving yourself your usual monthly splurge on clothes. Or maybe you’ll agree with a family member to share one another’s online movie streaming account (if you live in the same household, of course), books, or even tools and appliances – if you both plan to spend January doing DIY and would rather not go out and buy a new saw or jet wash, for example.
If you’re keen to make 2024 the year you make serious financial challenges, check out our range of products here on the site – and do not hesitate to contact the Unity Mutual team if you have any questions. You can also find us on Instagram and Facebook – join the conversation.
Until next time…
