Are you looking for a creative way to up your savings this year? I’ve rounded up seven different saving challenges that you could try or use as inspiration for your personal savings goals.
Ultimately, savings are a fundamental aspect of financial stability and security. And as increased costs of living erode your disposable income, now is the time to make sure you’re working towards a good savings buffer.
Here are seven savings challenges you can start today to reap the rewards tomorrow.
[top_pitch]
1. 1p challenge
As the adage goes, “Take care of the pennies, and the pounds will take care of themselves.” This challenge aims to kick off your savings with 1p and increase them by 1p per day. So, on day one you save 1p, on day two you save 2p, and so on until day 365 when you save £3.65.
Completing the year-long challenge will result in a savings pot totalling £667.95. Not too bad for starting from a penny!
2. +£1 a week challenge
Like the 1p challenge that increases incrementally, the +£1 a week challenge starts with saving £1 and grows by £1 each week. So, you’ll save £1 in week one, £2 in week two, and continue through to week 52 when you’ll put away £52. Following this challenge, your total savings at the end of a year will be £1,378.
3. No-spend challenge
A no-spend option is perfect for those who want to challenge themselves to spend less on non-essentials. There’s no prescribed time frame, so you can decide whether you stick to it for a weekend, a week or a month. You can also decide whether it’s a one-off event or something you do regularly.
The basics are that you’re only allowed to spend money on basic living expenses like utilities, groceries and transport and avoid luxury or impulse purchases. Strictly speaking, you’re not putting anything into savings with this one. So you may want to look at your balance at the end of your no-spend period and decide what amount you can put into your savings pot.
[middle_pitch]
4. Save your change challenge
Consider this the digital equivalent of the outdated coin jar or piggy bank. It’s a great way to save without putting in much effort.
The concept for this challenge is that you round up your purchases to the nearest pound and put the change into savings. For example, if you spend £3.49 on something, round up to £4 and put 51p into your savings. If it’s an amount like £13.99, you could choose to round up to the nearest fiver, so you’d put away £1.01 on this purchase.
These days, many bank accounts offer this as an automated service, so you don’t need to think about it.
5. Weather Wednesday challenge
This challenge is a great one to get the kids involved! The idea is to look up the highest temperature in the country each Wednesday and pop the same value in pounds into your savings.
Let’s say you check the Met Office website and see that the highest UK temperature recorded for the Wednesday in question was a balmy 10.2°C. In this example, you’d then put £10.20 into your savings pot. Naturally, during the summer months, you’ll be adding a pretty penny each week. Winter contributions may be a bit lower, but each contribution adds up.
6. Coffee break challenge
If we estimate the average takeaway coffee costs £2.75, assume that you work 21 days a month and that coffee is a daily workday ritual, cutting the caffeine stop each day can amount to savings of £57.75 in a month. Buy a travel coffee mug, top-up at home, and you can save a whopping £693 in a year.
You could apply this challenge to any other unnecessary daily spend, such as takeaway lunches or one less pint at the pub.
7. Make your own challenge
This one is a free-for-all. You decide on the parameters for your challenge and your savings goals. What could you do without, or restrict, and instead put the money you’d spend towards savings?
Perhaps you want to link your savings challenge to your New Year’s resolutions. Are you losing weight? Put a few quid away for each milestone along the journey. Have you given up chocolate? Add £1 to the jar every time you resist the cocoa calling. Pop 50p in each time you hit the gym. The options are literally endless. Define your own savings challenge and savings!
