2023 Savings Challenges
01/01/2023
Firstly, a very Happy New Year!
January inevitably sees many of us committing to New Year’s resolutions. The top five resolutions are almost always dominated by plans to lose weight, improve fitness, get a new job, save more and learn a new skill or hobby. Typically, between 30 – 40% of people resolve to save more during the year.
What’s disappointing to know is that the failure rate for our resolutions is around 80% with most losing their resolve by mid-February. According to the Money Advice Service, 17% of Brits have no savings and another 9% have less than £100 in savings. Given this, we've come up with some challenges to help give savers the best chance of achieving their savings resolutions. Here’s our top tips and savings challenges to help you save in 2023:
- The 1p savings challenge (save £667.95)
This is a really popular, cheap and simple way to save money through the year. It starts by saving 1p on 1st January, 2p on 2nd January, 3p on the third and so forth. Each day you save a penny more than the previous day. This will mean putting away £3.65 on 31st December giving you £667.95 at the end of the year. This is a really popular challenge as it costs very little in January, when people tend to have the least money spare to put away. It also means doing something every day so helps to reinforce the savings habit.
- The reverse 1p savings challenge (save £667.95)
For those wanting to start the New Year by putting a way more, simply reverse the 1p savings challenge and put away £3.65 on 1st January and reduce the amount you save by 1p per day so that on 31st December you will add just 1p to your savings. Reversing it also means those saving in an interest bearing account will earn more throughout the year because your balance will be higher for longer.
- The 52 week challenge (save from £52 - £1,378)
This is a weekly savings commitment which means either putting away a fixed amount each week or starting with a small amount and increasing this each week. A fixed amount challenge could be £1, £2, £5, £10 or any amount that works for you. Those saving £1 a week will have £52 at the end of the year with £5 savers having £260 and £10 weekly providing a pot of £520 at the end of the year. The beauty of this challenge is that it is easy to automate – savers can simply set up a regular payment to move the sum they decide into their savings account each week.
Those wanting to start small and increase their savings could go for £1 in the first week and increase this by £1 every week during the year, putting away £52 for the final week of 2021. This will yield £1,378 at the end of the year! Like the 1p savings challenge, this can also be reversed and started by putting away £52 in the first week of January and reducing throughout the year.
- The 365 day challenge (save from £182.50 - £730)
This is a daily savings version of the 52 week challenge which means putting away a fixed amount each day. The fixed amount could be 50p, £1, £2 or any amount that works for you. Those saving 50p a day will have £182.50 at the end of the year with £1 daily savers having £365. This is another challenge that is easy to automate.
Those wanting to start small and increase their savings could go for £1 in the first week and increase this by £1 every week during the year, putting away £52 for the final week of 2021. This will yield £1,378 at the end of the year! Like the 1p savings challenge, this can also be reversed and started by putting away £52 in the first week of January and reducing throughout the year.
- The £5 challenge (save £7,000)
This is by far the hardest savings challenge and involves saving £5 on week 1 and then increasing by £5 each week, so by the last week of 2021 you are saving £260. This creates a savings pot of almost £7,000 though! Even doing this for half the year will create a pot of £1755 by July.
Savers can increase the amount saved by earning interest on their challenge. Mobile app based bank, Zopa, offers an easy access savings account with a £1 minimum balance and pays a very competitive 2.86%. Coventry Building Society pay 2.85% on their Limited Access Account which can also be opened with £1 and is opened/managed online, by post, phone and in branch. It is increasing the rate to 3.20% on 6th January too!
Photo credit: Moritz Knöringer