JANUARY is the perfect time to start a new habit, and with a simple trick you can boost your piggy bank by almost £1,500 in just 12 months.
Better yet, you don’t have to cut back too much of your spending to successfully take part in the challenge.
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The average Brit spends a whopping £727 on food and gifts over Christmas, according to Nationwide, so there’s no wonder many of us are feeling a financial hangover in January.
Luckily, website Apartment Therapy has come up with a pain-free saving plan, which sees participants put aside a small sum each day.
The concept is that every Sunday you put aside £1, followed by £2 on Monday, £3 on Wednesday and so on.
On Saturday you’ll put away £7, and then the process repeats and you’ll put aside £1 on Sunday as the new week begins.
THE 365 DAY CHALLENGE
HERE’s how to walk away with almost £1,500 at the end of this year.
Save the following amounts each day:
- Sunday – £1
- Monday – £2
- Tuesday – £3
- Wednesday – £4
- Thursday – £5
- Friday – £6
- Saturday – £7
- Weekly total – £28
- Yearly total – £1,456
The largest daily amount, £7, is around the cost of two coffees or pints of beer, so it shouldn’t be too much of a strain to factor into your budget.
Of course, if you don’t like putting away the bigger sums at the end of the week then simply switch things around yourself.
If you stick to the daily savings targets, you’ll put aside £28 a week, which works out as £1,456 by the end of the year.
Money can be saved in a jar if you tend to carry around cash, although bear in mind you won’t get this back if it’s lost or stolen.
To keep savings safe, they can be transferred into a Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) protected savings account each week to earn interest.
The current market-leading easy-access account with no minimum pay-in is Marcus by Goldman Sachs, which pays interest of 1.35 per cent.
You can earn slightly more if you go for an account with a larger minimum deposit. We’ve rounded-up the best accounts to stash your cash.
The savings technique is seen as a more realistic saving plan than other popular alternatives, such as the 52 Week Challenge.
This works by getting participants to put aside £1 for the first week, £2 for the second, £3 for the third and so forth, until the end of the year.
This may seem easier at first, but it means you’ll have to put away the largest sums around Christmas, with a whopping £202 in total required in the final four weeks of the year.
This isn’t suitable for everyone, as the festive season is already an expensive time of the year for many households.
But if the 365 day challenge still seems out of reach for you, you could consider the penny challenge.
This will help you save £668 by this time next year, starting off with as little as 1p a day, and rising by 1p every day of the year.
Other ways to save cash
SAVING money can seem like a slog, but it doesn’t have to be with our simple tips below:
- Cut down on your spending: An obvious way to save money is by cutting down on how much you spend each month. Go through your transaction history and set yourself a budget. Are there any bills that you don’t need or use that you can cancel?
- Haggle down your bills: You should also try and see if you can get a better deal on any regular bills you’re paying. Do your research, see if there are better deals available for new customers. Then call up customer services and explain you want to leave because you’ve found a better deal but is there anything they can do for you?
- Open a savings account: The first steps to actually saving is then opening an account that will give you the most benefits – you can find the best options here.
- Download apps: There are loads of apps you can download to your smartphone, which can help you budget properly and save a fortune over the next 12 months. You can find a round-up of the best apps to help you save money here.
- Plan your meals in advance: By making a list before you go grocery shopping and then sticking to it, you’ll avoid picking up products you don’t really need.
- Pay off debts: The interests on your debts is always higher than the interest earned on your savings, so you should consider paying off any debts with your savings to be better off.
Alternatively, by sticking to a simple savings plan you could save £5,200 and pay for next year’s holiday.
If overhauling your finances is your New Year’s resolution, we’ve rounded up the best budgeting apps to help you manage your money.
Bloggers have also told us their best ways to make cash in January.
