It can be hard to build good savings habits, however, with the right mindset, a clear savings goal and by adopting a consistent approach, you'll find you can effortlessly build up a sizeable savings pot.
Whether you're looking to save a deposit for a house, build an emergency fund or simply want to develop better money habits, saving small, regular amounts can help you chip away at your savings goal. Taking on a money-saving challenge can help you to build a consistent savings habit and turning money-saving into a game can even make the process of saving money enjoyable.
Top money-saving challenges in 2024
Below, we take a look at 11 different money-saving challenges, explaining how they work and roughly how much you can expect to save.
1 - £1 per day challenge
This is the easiest of all the money challenges on our list. Simply save £1 per day and you'll end up saving £365 over the full year. You could opt to put physical money in a pot, however, for ease, most people tend to move money into an online savings account. It also ensures you aren't tempted to spend the cash. While it is recommended to move £1 per day into your savings pot to help build a good savings habit, you could decide to move £7 per week into savings instead.
2 - Money every month challenge
Commit to putting away a certain amount into savings each month. One of the most popular saving methods with this challenge is to increase the amount you put away each month. So, in month one, you could put away £10, then in month two, you could save £20 and so on. Saving this way would ensure you save £780 over 12 months. If you are starting the challenge at the beginning of the year, you may want to do it in reverse, ensuring you are putting the smallest amount into savings when it is close to Christmas and the New Year.
3 - Days of the week challenge
Commit to putting away £1 on a Monday, £2 on a Tuesday, £3 on a Wednesday and so on, ending with £7 on a Sunday. The challenge then resets to £1 the following Monday. This ensures you save £28 per week and approximately £1,460 over a full year.
4 - Round up your spare change challenge
Rounding up your spending to the nearest £1 can help you to build up a sizeable savings pot. Many budgeting apps and digital online banks offer this feature for free, automating the process by moving the money to a savings account that pays interest.
For example, if you spend £3.20 on a coffee, the transaction is rounded up to the nearest £1, meaning £0.80p gets automatically transferred to a savings account. More information on round-up spending can be found in our article, 'The best savings apps in the UK'. Depending on your spending activity, you can expect to save anywhere from £25 to £500 per year.
5 - Give up your vices challenge
This one requires some willpower. It works by rewarding yourself for good behaviour. Every time you make a conscious decision to go without one of your vices, you move the money you would have spent into a savings account. Your "vice" could include buying clothes, coffee, takeaways, or whatever you spend your discretionary budget on.
Reward yourself when you go without by adding the money to your savings account. So, for example, if you would have spent £5 on a coffee, but decided not to, put £5 in your savings account instead. By giving up one coffee a week and one takeaway a month, you can easily save over £500 per year.
6 - Dinner money challenge
Similar to the vices challenge, this one requires you to make a change to your normal routine. Every time you make a conscious decision to make your own lunch (rather than eating out), you put the money you would have spent into savings. Even if you only spend around £5 on lunch two times a week, you'll end up saving over £500 in a year.
7 - 5p challenge
This challenge requires you to increase the amount you save by 5p each day. So on day 1, you save 5p, on day 2 you save 10p, on day 3 you save 15p and so on. By the end of this challenge, you will have saved £3,400 over the year. Keep in mind that the money you save each month on this challenge quickly ramps up and you'll end up needing to save almost £550 in the final month.
8 - Salary round-down challenge
Every time you get paid, round your salary down to either the nearest £10 or £100 and then move that money into savings. Those who are paid monthly may want to round down to the nearest £100 and those paid more frequently may wish to round down to the nearest £10. For example, if you are paid monthly and receive £1,580, you would put £80 into savings that month. As the amount you'll save each month is random, you could end up saving anywhere from £12 to £1,200 per year.
9 - Save the date challenge
This challenge requires you to do some simple maths each day by adding the numbers in the date together and saving the sum in pennies. So, on the 15th of September, 2024 you would add the day (15), to the month (9) and then finally the year (24). So 15+9+24 = 48p. Over a year you will end up saving just over £170. This is a good challenge for those who want to build a savings habit but who do not have the means to save big amounts each month.
10 - The rainy day challenge
This is a little bit quirky as this challenge requires you to save a set amount of money aside every time it rains. You decide on the amount that suits your budget. The bonus part of this challenge is that every time you feel yourself getting a little fed up with the bad weather, you'll be making a positive contribution to your savings goal.
On average, it rains approximately 100 days a year in London so if you decided to put £5 or £10 into savings each time, you could expect to save between £500 and £1,000 per year. Digital bank Monzo allows you to automate your savings using lots of weird and wonderful criteria using the third-party service IFTTT.COM. Make sure that you check it out if you are a Monzo customer.
11 - Weather Wednesday challenge
This is another quirky weather-related challenge where the money you add to your savings account every Wednesday is based on the temperature for that day. The beauty of this challenge is you can adapt it based on your budget. Those looking to save bigger amounts may choose Fahrenheit over Celcius and those who wish to dial down their savings a little may want to choose the predicted low temperature for that day rather than the predicted high. Based on the average maximum temperature of 15.67(°C) from 1991 to 2020, measured at Heathrow Airport, London, you would end up saving roughly £815 per year.
Saving challenge tips
If you are thinking of taking on a savings challenge you should try and make it as easy as possible for you to succeed. If you don't already have one, consider using a digital online bank as they allow you to easily move money into savings directly from your phone. There are budgeting apps such as Plum and Chip that can work out how much you can realistically afford to save each month. Finally, make sure that you are getting the best interest rate on your savings, check out our articles 'Best savings accounts in the UK' and 'How to get more than 5% on your savings'.
