With a fresh new year here, you may have decided on your financial goals for the year ahead. If not than you may find my post from last January about making S.M.A.R.T goals helpful. Savings are something that we all should have, but isn't always possible. In fact alot of us have no savings at all!
There is always a good reason to put a little money aside each month. Maybe you are wanting to save for a holiday, for next Christmas or start an emergency fund. To get you motivated I'm sharing some of the money saving challenges that are around that can get you started on your saving journey.
The 1p Challenge
This is one of the simplest challenges the idea is that you start with saving a penny and increase this every day throughout the year. The simplest way to explain this challenge is that on day 1 you add 1p, day 2 you add 2p and so on until day 365 you add in £3.65. By doing this you end up saving £667.95 over a year. This basic tracker for this challenge is sure to be handy.
52 week challenge
With this challenge you'll probably want to plan in advance. You start off small and work your way up. In the first week, you just have to save £1, the second week £2 and so on, until the last week when you save £52. Do this and you should have £1,378 saved.
365 day challenge
If you like the idea of the 52 week challenge however find it a bit of a struggle with the amount being higher each week, than the 365 day challenge may work out a better option for you. This works on a similar basis but you save £1 each Monday, £2 on a Tuesday up to £7 on a Sunday. This brings the weekly total to £28, so you could just make that a standing order once a week. Over the year you should have saved £1,456.
1% at a time challenge
This challenge is one I've come across recently thanks to Emma Drew. The trick is to divide your goal by 100 and try to get one percent at a time. So for example if you want to save £500, 1% is £5 and so you focus on ways to make or save £5 100 times. You can sign up to get the free tracker here.
The 100 Envelopes challenge
Another challenge I've only recently come across.
The concept is you take 100 envelopes and mark them 1 to 100. Then every week pick two envelopes at random to put away the amount written on it in cash. You can find out more info on this challenge over at Skint Dad.
The round up challenge
If you find saving difficult than the round up challenge maybe a good place to start. The idea is for example, if you spend £12.20 at the supermarket, round it up to £13 and put the 80p into a savings pot. There are some great apps that can really help you with this such as chip, plum, Monzo.
