If I said to you, that I can give you 8 easy ways to save over £1000 in a year, without making any dramatic changes to your lifestyle or real sacrifices, would you believe me?
I know that if somebody had said that to me a year ago, I most certainly would not have believed them! I wouldn’t have thought it would be possible for me to find that amount of money just going ‘spare’.
But is it possible?
It was about a year ago now, that I read an article somewhere discussing the cost of takeaway coffee, and how the small cost of a daily coffee can soon add up to a significant amount. I work from home, so buying coffee isn’t something I do, but it got me thinking. If a cup of nice takeaway coffee costs £3 a day, and you decided to save that money, you’d have £1068 at the end of the year!
It struck me that this was a pretty painless way of saving a considerable sum of money. A chunk of cash like that could clear some debt, overpay the mortgage, pay for a holiday, Christmas, lots of days out in the summer holidays… Let’s put it this way, I’m sure you could find a use for it!
Everybody has something they love that they wish they could spend more time and money doing. I love travelling. I like nothing more than exploring somewhere new. So, I am always looking for ways of making or saving money to help me realise my travelling dreams. But my problem is that I don’t want to have to sacrifice anything to realise those dreams! Sound familiar?
An idea!
I thought £3 a day was a realistic amount of money to save on a daily basis. It’s the kind of amount that is easy to spend without thinking. So I was hoping it would be as easy to save without thinking! So that’s exactly what I started doing.
I set up an internet savings account and started transferring £3 a day from my current account to my savings account, and then promptly forgot about it. ( I bank with Lloyds, it’s super easy to set up, and I’m sure other banks offer similar accounts.)
What I saved went towards spending money for a holiday, and when my car died was a handy bit of cash towards a new one. This year I’m using my £3 a day to pay off my interest free credit card.
Maybe you can’t give up the coffee, but I promise you, there are probably lots of other ways you can save £3 a day, that you just don’t realise!
How to save over £1000 in a year
Here are my 8 easy ways to save over £1000 in a year. (All of which I’ve used to make up my £3 a day savings!)
- Ditch the takeaway coffee – £3 x 365 = £1068
- Make packed lunches/take leftovers – £3.50 x 230 = £805 (price of a meal deal x 46 weeks, 5 days a week)
- The weekly takeaway – £20 x 52 = £1040
- Wine o’clock – £21 x 52 = £1092 (based on three bottles a week, c’mon it’s easily done!!)
- Unused gym membership – £40 x 12 = £480
- Swap your energy supplier – Average saving around £300 annually (MSE switching energy supliers)
- Cancel unnecessary subscription services – Average saving £56 x 12 = £672 (MAS)
- Eating out – £45 x 52 = £2340 (average spend based on statistics from ons.gov.uk)
If you did all of these you could potentially save a whopping £7797!
Claire at Stapo’s Thrifty Life Hacks looks at how swapping from a contract phone to a SIM only deal can give you a similar saving here. If you did this too, you’d be headed to almost £9000 of savings!
It’s true what my Grandma said… ‘Take care of the pennies and the pounds take care of themselves.’
But what about fun?!
I firmly believe that life is for living, and we all need our treats. But, a coffee, here, a bottle of wine there, some juggling of household finances and before you know it £3 a day is a realistic target.
I think the real key here, is to make sure that you actually ‘put it away’! Which is where an internet savings account is a really useful tool. I promise once you see it growing you will be hooked!
More money saving tips and ideas
For more money savings tips and advice on how to complete a ‘money makeover’ I would suggest checking out Money Saving Expert https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/money-help. This is my go to resource when I am looking for tweaks on how to make pain free savings.
What savings could you make to get you to your saving goals?
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[…] on the latest handset isn’t for you, then Challenge Claire has written about other ways to save £1000 over the year and Emma Drew explains how you can make free money. […]