From 1p to £670 – how to save without feeling the pinch

Happy New Year to you all from the Student Advice team!

Many of you will have already committed to a new years resolution or still pondering what is achievable and sustainable for you this year. There is always a lot of coverage and attention on wellbeing, fitness, diet and giving things up in particular.

Hopefully those students who have been working over the holiday will have made positive steps to reduce the overdraft and feel prepared for the months ahead.  Others may be looking for work now term 1 is under the belt – the good news is that there are lots of opportunities around.

However, we have a savings suggestion which is accessible to almost everyone to help save in a sustainable and painless way. Its called the 1p challenge.

In a nutshell, you start making savings on a daily basis starting with 1p on day 1, 2p on day 2, 3p on day 3 and so on……. You can use a money bank, jar, tin for the first couple or few weeks then start to transfer to a separate account or if you use one of the online apps, you can adapt one of the additional ‘pots’. The secret is to make time to do this every day (less than 1 minute?) and obviously don’t cash in before the year is out.

It has been well publicised by users of the Money Saving Expert forums that it is one of the easiest and rewarding ways to save, but as with any challenge it does take effort and it is this effort that makes it so much more rewarding.

What are the cons?

It can be time consuming and easy to forget where you’re up to – it helps to keep a diary

It takes commitment, will power and dedication – its ok to forget a day or 2 here and there as long as you catch up.

You need a separate account which you won’t tap into or a penny jar which you can transfer each week/couple of weeks (we don’t recommend you keep a penny jar all year round)

You need access to real cash or be able to use a savings app/online account

What are the pros?

You’ll go from 1pm to £670 in 1 year – in real money that’s a month’s rent, holiday, deposit on a new house, new laptop or 20 driving lessons.

It won’t make a dent in your daily budget. The least you will spend is 1p on day 1 (or 5p if you are starting on 5th Jan!) and the most you have to part with is £3.65 on the last day

Watching the savings pot grow (whether it is real or virtual) gives you a great feelgood factor

It is something you can do collectively with others – your friends, housemates, partner, especially if you have a shared incentive.

Check out the Money Saving Expert chart to see how it works in action.

Happy saving! Let us know what your saving for and help motivate others!

Student Advice Service