How to save £520 a year with the £10 a week money saving challenge
If starting to save money is your New Year’s resolution for 2019, here's one simple way to build up a pot in just 12 months
JANUARY is the perfect time to start a new routine, and in a really simple way you can save £520 in just a year.
By saving a tenner a week for all 52 weeks of the year, you'd have the sizeable savings pot at this time next year - and you can do it by simply cutting down on three coffees a week.
If you then decide to carry on for longer than a year, you'd have £1,040 after two years, £1,560 after three years or a whopping £2,600 after five years - and that's without including any interest.
Luckily, the money-saving challenge isn't difficult to take part in.
Simply set up a standing order for a day of the week that suits you - ideally in the beginning of the week as this way you won't be able to spend the money later in the week.
In fact, if you can you should treat it like a bill so you're not even tempted to spend it.
Or if you prefer to save using cash, set a weekly reminder on your phone to put another tenner in your piggy bank.
The challenge is great for those who struggle to commit to putting away money every day, such as the penny challenge and the 365 day challenge.
The penny challenge lets you turn your spare change into £670 in a year, simply by starting off with 1p on the first day and then increasing by another penny every day.
Meanwhile, the 365 day challenge will boost your bank account by almost £1,500 in the same amount of time.
How you can save £10 each week
SMALL sums quickly add up, so here are some things you can cut down on each week to save a tenner:
- Three lattes from Starbucks
- Two glasses of wine
- Two eat-out lunches (and that's optimistic)
- A (cheap) dinner out
- One pack of cigarettes
- One cinema ticket
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 £7, and then the process repeats and you’ll put aside £1 on Sunday as the new week begins.
Yet if you don't think your self discipline is good enough to stick to any of these challenges, one more option is to round up your purchases to the nearest pound and save that.
Customers can do this automatically with a number of banks including Halifax, Lloyds Bank and Revolut, and it could add up to hundreds of pounds without you even noticing.
More on ways to save money
Spending too much money on food? From the time to nab discounts to luxury items for less, savvy shoppers have shared their insider tricks to save hundreds on your grocery bills.
Bloggers have also revealed how they save hundreds on their energy bills every year by making a few small changes to their routine.
If overhauling your finances is your New Year’s resolution for 2019, we've rounded up the best budgeting apps to help you manage your money.
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