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Savings challenges aren’t a new concept but the ones that you can do seem to change year by year. There are a few which I’ve decided to do this year to make things fun and I’m going to detail them all below for you and how much you can save with each one in total too! Around this time in 2022, I wrote a post about how I was going to save £1000 and what I was going to do to get there. Let’s just say that post didn’t go too well but I think 2023 will be the year that I manage the savings challenges I’ve set for myself.
Reading Challenge – if I meet my goal £75
Every year I track how many books I read using the Goodreads app (use this link and you can follow me). This year my reading challenge is set to 25 books as I set it at 50 last year and struggled to make it before the New Year’s Eve deadline. For every 5 books read I am saving the value of the number of books read. I’ll be writing an update post in December for how much I’ve saved and read this year.
- 5 books read – £5 saved
- 10 books read – £10 saved
- 15 books read – £15 saved
- 20 books read – £20 saved
- 25 books read – £25 saved
I think you can figure out how this would go if I manage to read more than 25 books this year. I’m hopeful that I can but I won’t punish myself if I don’t manage it.
£1 a Day Challenge – Total £365
This challenge is where you save £1 a day for every day of the year. As I get paid on a random day of the month trying to pay this into a savings account in bulk is tricky so I’ve set up a scheduled payment in my Monzo account to pay this into a savings account. This is with a different bank and an account I don’t use very often so I won’t be tempted to dip into the account (unless I need to for necessary spending).
1p Challenge – Total £667.95
This challenge is a bit harder to explain but I’ll pop my maths below for anyone that wants to do this challenge the way I am this year.
To take part in this challenge you can save 1p on the first day of the month, 2p on the second and so on. You can also do this in reverse and save £3.65 on the first day and £3.64 on the second etc. I’m actually doing this as a monthly payment to my savings account when I get paid and paying £60.73 per month starting in February. Yes, this is starting in February as this has been a high-spend month.
11 months of payments – £667.95/11 = £60.73 = £668.03 over 11 months
12 months of payments – £667.95/12 = £55.67 = £668.04 over 12 months
52-week Challenge – Total £1,378
This is similar to the challenge above but in this one you’re paying the value of the number of the week. By the end of the 52 weeks, you’ll have saved £1,378. Again I’m doing this in 11 monthly instalments of £125 per month (I’ll be out by £3 but I like the fact it’s a round number). If you get paid in January you could start this at the end of the month and I’ll pop the sums below to make it easy for you.
11 months of payments – £1378/11 = £125 = £1375 over 11 months
12 months of payments – £1378/12 = £115 = £1380 over 12 months
Total saving per month (excluding books read) = £217 (yes I’ve rounded up)
Above is the figure I’m saving per month which I’ve added to my budget and I feel is more than manageable with the salary I am now on. I wanted to be able to have savings available should I need them for any emergencies but also for being able to buy gifts for the family throughout the year.
Savings challenges totals = £2,410.95 (not including books read)
I’m also planning to add extra to my savings if my budget is lower than what I earn that month. I feel by putting the savings into an account I don’t look at very often is going to make saving easier as it won’t be visible and taunting me!
