The internet is full of challenges you can participate in if you fancy testing yourself. Some of them are brilliant, others you should never attempt under any circumstances. For example, the ice bucket challenge was a great success and a fantastic idea. The tide pod challenge, on the other hand, was dangerous and may have even resulted in a few fatalities.
There are plenty of tasks when it comes to saving money as well. Similar to the challenges mentioned above though, some are great while others are just impractical. To save you some time – and hopefully money – we’ve detailed three of our favourites:
The one penny challenge
If you’re struggling with money, putting anything away can seem an impossible task. However, you should hopefully be able to save one penny. This challenge works by saving a small amount daily. On the first day, you put one penny away. On the second, you increase this to two pennies. The pattern continues until you reach a year when, on the 365th day, you put £3.65 into your total.
This means, all goes well, within 12 months you should have saved almost £670.
This challenge is a good one because it’s quite simple and easy to do. However, you may get some odd looks at the bank if you try to add £670 worth of pennies into your account.
The Monday to Sunday challenge
We’re ramping up the difficultly with this one. Taking place over a week, Monday starts by saving £1. On Tuesday, this increases to £2. When you reach Sunday, you will put £7 into your savings. If you do this repeatedly, you’ll save £28 a week. Manage to keep this up for a year, and you’ll save more than £1,300.
Best thing of all, you only need one pound to get started.
The 52-week challenge
We’re making things slightly harder again. This is similar to the Monday to Sunday challenge but the amount you pay in doesn’t reset every week. Running for 52 weeks, you’ll start the first week by paying in £1. On the second week, this increases to two. The pattern continues until, on the 52nd week, you make a payment of £52.
With the Monday to Sunday challenge, you’re saving £28 a week. The 52-week challenge starts slower but can become more difficult once you get past the 29th week. Still, you manage to keep this up, and you’ll be saving quite a bit of cash – just short of £1,400 a year.
