2024 is starting to rush by, and before we know it it will be Christmas and New Year all over again! Perhaps your New Year resolutions for this year included building up some savings. If so, how is that going?
If you have not got as far as you’d hoped – perhaps not anywhere at all in fact – the good news is that there is still time to make a difference.
For example, it could be possible to save £1000 by the end of this year if you start working on it now. And whether you use some of that money for Christmas, or perhaps a winter holiday, it will seem well worth any sacrifices you have to make to achieve it.
So in this article, we share ten ideas to help you save £1000 by the end of 2024.
£1000 is a lot of money and the prospect of being able to find it is very daunting. But if you break it into manageable chunks it begins to look a little bit more realistic.
The first thing to do is to work out how much time there is before the end of the year. So, for example, if you are reading this on Easter Sunday, Sunday 31st March, there are exactly 9 months until the end of 2024. If you could save, on average, £111 per month, you would have £1000 by New Year’s Eve.
If that still sounds impossible, another way of looking at it is that in those 9 months there are 275 days. And if you could manage to save £3.67 every day, you would still achieve your goal. Which perhaps sounds a bit more achievable?
We reckon it’s essential to set up a separate account for your savings for three reasons:
Interest rates are high for savers at the moment, so look around for a good deal. Even if you only pay in for a few months you should end up with a little bit extra from the interest on the account. And if you decide to leave your savings in the account longer, this will gradually grow.
One very easy way to save a few pounds is to check your bank account for any payments you are still making but no longer need. This may feel like a bit of a boring task to do but could be well worth it. Look particularly at any subscriptions, memberships and insurance payments you are currently paying for. Check carefully, because some of these may be taken annually or quarterly; not every month.
If you find that you are paying for things that you no longer want or use, then cancel them. Then immediately set up a new standing order for the same amount(s) of money to go into your savings account instead.
As well as cancelling payments that you no longer need to make, it’s also worth going through your necessary payments to see if you can get a better deal. For example domestic bills such as energy, phone, broadband, TV and various insurances.
Start by contacting your current provider to explain that you are thinking of switching to get a better deal. They will often offer you better value to keep you as a customer.
If this doesn’t work, or if you think you could still be paying less, start checking out other potential providers. Websites such as Compare the Market, USwitch or Money Supermarket can help with this.
And, just as with your cancelled payments, set up a new standing order to pay the amount(s) of money you have saved straight into your savings account every month.
Many of us spend far more money than we need on food, and can often end up wasting some of what we buy. It’s usually possible to eat just as well but with a smaller price tag. For example:
If you still eat meat most days, you can save money by skipping it for a day or two a week. Check out the website Meat Free Monday for information and meal ideas that can help reduce your food shopping bill.
Cooking meals from scratch instead of buying processed food is a great way to save money on food bills. This is even more the case if you get into the habit of making double quantities of every meal and freezing what you don’t use. You will soon build up a good supply of healthy meals that only need reheating – and that you’ve already paid for.
It is worth taking time before you go food shopping to plan your shop carefully. Try to plan meals that use ingredients that you already have in your cupboards, fridge and freezer. There are many apps and websites – such as Love Food Hate Waste and Big Oven – that can help you plan nutritious meals based on what you already have. Which means that your food shop will only include extra items that you really need and will use rather than waste.
We all love it when some unexpected money comes our way! Whether it’s a work bonus, a gift, or a little win, it’s exciting to get something you weren’t expecting. But it’s so easy to fritter away that money on nothing in particular. So if the unexpected does happen, why not put the money straight into your savings account instead?
You can operate a similar concept with gift vouchers. If you are given a voucher, you could use it for everyday expenditure, and put the equivalent amount of money into your savings account, as you won’t now need to spend it on that everyday expenditure.
If setting aside all your unexpected money seems a bit too difficult, a compromise would be to put half the money into your savings account and spend the rest.
Another good way to build savings is to set yourself some kind of daily savings challenge. For example, the penny jar challenge starts by saving 1p the first day, 2p the second day and so on. If you did that for 9 months, you would be saving £2.74 by the last day, and would have saved a total of £376.75 overall.
Or you may prefer to choose a specific sum of money to save each day. This doesn’t have to be the £3.67 we mentioned earlier in this article : you can choose a lower amount if you are also taking on board some of the other ideas we’ve been looking at. So, for example, if you can just put aside £2 per day this would amount to £550 in your savings pot by the end of the year, to supplement savings from other sources.
Each month, why not plan a few days when you decide not to spend money on something that you might usually do? This doesn’t have to be the same thing every time, so if you plan carefully you will hopefully hardly notice.
For example a typical week could be not buying coffee one day, a Meal Deal lunch another day, and one less pub drink another day. Between those three small sacrifices you could easily save around £10 that week, which can go straight into your savings account.
If you like the no-spend idea, another option is to aim to do an overall no-spend challenge for a month. This is becoming an increasingly popular option – just check out the hashtag #nospendchallenge on social media.
The idea is that whilst you still pay for essentials, such as bills, food, basic toiletries and medicines, you cut out all unnecessary spending, such as going out, takeaway food or drinks, clothes, cosmetics, hairdressers or any kind of impulse buy. And you can put all the money you save into your savings account.
You may find it tough going, particularly at first. But interestingly, as well as saving money, many people doing no-spend challenges find that they also have more time to devote to other things such as fitness, creative activities, self-care, and finding new hobbies.
As well as limiting your spending, another great way to build savings is to sell everything you don’t need. There are many ways to do this, including:
Keep a record of the money you make from this – taking out any costs (for example posting items or car boot entry fees) – and put it all into your savings account.
We hope that this article has given you a few ideas as to how to build savings during 2024, and achieve £1000 by the end of the year if this is your goal.
Check back here soon for more lifestyle and financial tips from Munzee Loans.
Starting a new job? Five tips to make it work for your finances