5 savings challenges to try in 2024

Many Brits find it difficult to save, according to research by finder.com, with half of Brits having £1,000 or less in savings and almost a quarter with no savings at all.

If you want to boost your savings, here’s some challenges to kick-start your savings habit in 2024.

1. 365 day money saving challenge

If you’ve struggled to save before, start off small. The 365 day challenge is a good way to begin. And there are different versions, so you can pick one that suits you. The overall intention of this challenge is to try to save something each day.

The simplest version involves saving £1 each day, so by the end of the year you’ll have saved £365.

A step up would be to save 1p on your first day and then add a penny to the amount you save each day. By the end of the year you’ll have saved £667.95 – £302.95 more than the £1 version of the challenge.

If you want to be even more ambitious, you could try the £1,500 version of the challenge. With this you save £1 on Monday, £2 on Tuesday and so on, until you get to Sunday and save £7. Then you reset and return to £1 on Monday. By the end of the year, you’ll have saved almost £1,500 (£1,456 to be precise).

2. Monthly savings challenge

If you’re someone who prefers to deal with your finances on a monthly basis, then this challenge could be the one for you.

For the monthly savings challenge, you start the year saving £10 in January, increase it to £20 in February, £30 in March and so on. By the end of the year, you’ll have saved £780.

3. Lucky dip challenge

If you want to mix it up a little, why not try the lucky dip challenge?

For this challenge, you write down those incremental savings amounts across the 12 months or week days. So this could be 1p, £1 or £10 etc, depending on which method you’re using. Then put these in envelopes to be randomly opened. Pick a day to open an envelope each week or month, and then make sure to save your chosen amount that day. By the end of the year you’ll have built yourself a nice little savings pot, and by randomising the amounts it’ll feel less like an uphill climb.

4. No spend challenge

With this, you commit to not spending money on anything unnecessary for a set period – for example, 30 days. So during that time, you’ll spend only on your bills, groceries and toiletries, and you avoid spending on non-essentials like clothes shopping, eating out and entertainment. At the end of the period, you can put what you haven’t spent into a savings account. If you need a motivation boost, set yourself check-in dates before your no-spend period is up to see what you’ve saved so far. You may surprise yourself!

5. “Little vices” challenge

This challenge asks you to take a look at your lifestyle to work out what “little vices” you can do without. This could be your daily coffee out or your weekly takeaway.

You can either choose to cut out all vices together and see how much you save in a month, or you could pick just one and cut it out for a longer period.

You may just find that giving up your daily flat white could save you around £90 in a month.

About the author

Kate Steere is a deputy editor at Finder.com, specialising in banking and fintech. She has previously written for The Motley Fool UK and Fitch Solutions, where she covered a wide range of personal finance topics and kept a close eye on market trends. Kate is regularly quoted in the national media about banking, fintech and mortgages.

This article originally appeared on finder.com/uk and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org.