STRUGGLING to get into a savings habit? Then you may want to do the envelope savings challenge to give your bank balance a sweet boost.
With the simple trick, you’ll save £1,378 in just one year’s time.
1
The challenge, which was shared by NetVoucherCodes.co.uk, helps you keep accountable for saving money throughout the year.
To take part, you’ll need to get 52 different envelopes and fill each one with a number from one to 52.
Each week, you then choose an envelope and put the amount of money that corresponds to the number in there.
For example, if you choose an envelope with the number ten, you need to put £10 in there.
The best savings challenges
A SAVINGS challenge helps you put small sums of money aside each day or week so you have a larger pot by the end of the year. Here are some of the most popular.
- Weather saving challenge – Save potentially hundreds by putting aside an amount equal to whatever the highest temperature was that week. £1 = 1C.
- 20p a day challenge – Start by putting 20p in savings, then increase the amount by 20p every day. For example, the first week will look like this: 20p, 40p, 60p, 80p, £1, £1.20, £1.40.
- £5 a week challenge – Like the 20p challenge, put aside £5 a week and increase it by a fiver each week. Eg £5, £10, £15, £20
- Round-up challenge – Every time you buy something, round up the purchase to the nearest £1 and put the difference in a savings account. Eg. You pay £2.60, so you put 40p in savings. You can use an app such as Monzo or Starling to do this.
- Bingo challenge – Here you have a bingo card with different numbers on it and you tick them off when you’ve put that amount in your savings account. It can be ad hoc but you have to tick them all off by the end of the month.
- Monday to Sunday challenge – With this challenge, you simply save £1 on Monday, £2 on Tuesday and so on until the weekend where you don’t save on Saturday or Sunday.
- 365 day challenge – 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.
Or if the envelope has the number 52, you’ll need to put away £52 that week.
Once you have done this for a year, you’ll have £1,378 saved.
We’re already in week four of 2021, so if you’re looking to finish the challenge by the end of this year, you’ll have to put cash in more than one envelope some weeks to catch up.
It could be worth doing to make next January a little bit easier to handle financially.
If you don’t have any envelopes, these can typically be bought in any major supermarket or stationary retailer for pennies.
Meanwhile, Things4craft is selling a 50-pack for just 99p, including free delivery.
You could of course also do the challenge digitally and transfer the cash to a separate account each week.
If you pop the cash into a savings account which pays interest, your savings will go even further.
However, comparison website Moneyfacts has warned that some of the top savings rates have halved over the past year.
Just 157 savings deals now beat the rate of inflation since it rose to 0.6%, compared with 496 last month.
We’ve rounded up a list of the best paying savings accounts on the market.
SECOND CHANCE
Fines scrapped for workers who miss self assessment tax return deadline
DIY DEALS
B&Q launches clearance sale with paint and tools up to half price off
LOVIN’ IT
Get a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder with cheese for 99p instead of £3.29
RETAIL CHANGE
Debenhams to close all stores and 12,000 jobs lost as Boohoo buys website
BONUS TIME
Will I get a £1,000 one-off Universal Credit payment?
CASH ONLY
Morrisons shoppers unable to pay for food with card due to payment issues
If you want to use an app instead, check out these top ones we’ve spotted that are free to use and are available on iPhone and Android devices.
We recently tried six savings challenges that saved us hundreds of pounds – here’s how you could too.
Plus, we explain how to save almost £655 this year with the 1p savings challenge.
Mum who saved £25,000 with a no-buy year reveals the things you SHOULD purchase to save money next year
