None of us are particularly great at saving money, often distracted by the lure of a new pair of trainers or a last minute getaway to Barcelona.
But what if we told you there was a straightforward, seemingly very doable way to save more than £650 in just a year?
We're talking about what's been dubbed the 1p Challenge, which can be started at any time of the year, but the beginning of 2020 seems like a significant time to kick things off.
Advert
The premise really is pretty simple, as you just put away a penny on the first day and then each day after add an extra penny to the amount you put aside.
So, on the first day (in this case, 1 January), you start with 1p. The next day you put aside 2p, and the day after that 3p.
Keep on going until day 100 (or 9 April if you're starting in the new year), which is when you get onto the heavy duty numbers by putting in £1. Continue on day 101 with £1.01, and so forth.
By the end, you'll have a not-too-shabby £667.95 ($876.28) to play with.
Advert
Day 1: £0.01
Day 100: £1.00
Day 200: £2.00
Day 300: £3.00
Advert
Day 365: £3.65
Total: £667.95
If you're really worried about having £3.65 spare just after the absolute fund-drainer that is Christmas, you can always work backwards and start with the big payments, counting down towards that sweet final payment of 1p at the end of the year.
Either way, it's an easy way to save a good bit of cash to take you into 2021, and as each daily payment never exceeds £3.65 ($4.79) in theory it should never feel like too much of a strain on your resources.
Advert
Money-saving blogger Skint Dad has even shared a downloadable spreadsheet that you can use to make things even simpler, while Monzo has a function to help you complete the challenge in its app.
Of course, you can always save even more if you're up the challenge, you can always try out the 365-Day Money Challenge, which will leave you with £1,456 ($1,910) at the end of it.
The plan involves saving £1 on a Sunday (or whichever day you like) £2 on Monday (or whichever the next day is) and so on, until it gets to Saturday (or the seventh day) where you put aside £7 - after that the whole thing starts again the following week.
Advert
Or, if all that messing about sounds too much, you could just have the amount for the month taken from your account and placed into a savings account every payday.
There's also the 52-Week Challenge, which involves saying £1 on the first week and then adding a quid on for every subsequent week - so, £2 in the second week, £3 in the third week, £4 in the fourth week etc - to get you to a tidy £1,378 ($1,808) when you finish.
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: World News, News, Money