Mum shares simple envelope hack for saving £5,050 in six months

A woman has gone viral after sharing an ‘envelope challenge’ money tip that shows how to save more than £5,000 in under six months.

To do the saving challenge, which originally went viral back in 2020, you’ll need to grab 100 envelopes and then write an amount between £1 and £100 on the front - it also works if you want to do it in dollars or any other denomination of your choosing.

And then over the next 25 weeks, which is less than half a year, you pull out two envelopes at random twice per week (or four per week) and deposit cash to the value on the front inside.

Facebook

So, for example, if you pull out the 24 envelope you’ll need to put £24 inside the envelope, if you grab 6, you put in £6, and so on.

Obviously, this whole thing requires you to have the kind of disposable income to put away a sum of anywhere between £10 and £394 a week, but if you're the kind of person who has that, and is maybe guilty of splashing the cash rather than sticking it away for a rainy day, this could be the trick for you to save some dough.

That's because, by the time you reach week 25 - provided you've not cheated or cut any corners - there will be £5,050 - or whatever denomination, remember - sitting in those envelopes ready for you to collect.

Realimage/Alamy Stock Photo

Of course, you probably don't have to do this over 25 weeks, unless you need to save a load of money really quickly, that's just a suggestion.

Equally, you could do it in 25 days by choosing four envelopes per day if you're feeling really flush.

The mum who shared the trick on Facebook said: "If you have a three-year plan to buy a house, you could have a little over $30,000 for a down payment by doing this."

The post went viral with loads of people praising the idea and keen to give it a go themselves.

One told a friend: "We should do this! It would help me save."

Another commented: "I love this idea. It would be a fun way for us to save up for something special."

However, a third person pointed out that you’d need a decent chunk of cash each week, writing: "Okay but you gotta have that extra money first."