4 easy savings challenges to start in 2024

Imagine if saving money felt more like a game than a chore. Here, we explore four easy money-saving challenges you can try to make saving more enjoyable in 2024. 

What are money-saving challenges? 

Money-saving challenges are structured plans designed to make the task of saving fun. They often involve following specific rules about how much to save and when.

This could be a set amount that you save daily, weekly, or monthly. Alternatively, in some challenges the amount you save increases or decreases over time.  By the end, you'll hopefully have saved up a sum of money and developed a habit of regularly putting cash aside. 

When should I start a money saving challenge?

Most saving challenges last a year and begin in January. But it’s possible to adapt them to start at any time in the year. If you’ve missed the original start by a small period, it may be easy to catch up to the plan. Otherwise, simply push the start and finish dates to suit your timetable. 

What are the benefits of money saving challenges: 

Taking on a money saving challenge can be a great way to kickstart a saving habit. This is because they ‘gamify’ saving, which means adding game-like elements (like points and levels) to this routine task. Turning the task of saving into a game like this can invigorate your efforts. 

Here are three advantages to trying a challenge:

Clear path to success

By showing you exactly what to save and when, savings challenges map out a clear path to reach a goal. This can remove the stress of creating your own plan from scratch and allow you to get started right away. 

Increased motivation

Having a specific goal can help boost motivation. Following a set plan helps you see your progress and celebrate how far you’ve come. In this way, saving challenges break big goals into smaller tasks, making it easier to stay motivated.

Adaptable

If the traditional structure of a challenge doesn’t work for you, they’re easily adaptable. For example, you could increase the length of the challenge if your goal is to save a larger amount. Or some challenges can be reversed so that you’ll face the ‘most difficult’ section first or last.

Are savings challenges worth it? 

While trying a challenge may be an easy way to get started saving, here are some factors you might want to consider first:

Prioritise paying off debts

If you have high-interest debts, it may be worth paying these off first. Compare the interest rate that you’ll be charged on your debt against the interest rate that you’ll earn from your savings. If the rate your charged from debt is higher, it may be worth paying the debt off first.

Consider where you’ll keep your savings

It’s worth thinking about where you’ll put the money you save. Some challenges are designed for saving cash. However, this may mean you miss out on interest that you could earn if you put the money into a dedicated savings account.

Read more about different types of savings accounts in our guide to setting and reaching savings goals.

Round up challenge

Here’s a simple challenge: round up every purchase to the nearest pound and keep the change. For example, if your coffee costs £3.20, save the £0.80 change. If you use cash, you can save the change in a piggy bank. 

If you prefer digital banking, many banks including Monzo, NatWest, Starling Bank, Lloyds and Nationwide have round-up features. These automatically put the change for your debit card spending into your savings account or a chosen separate sub-account.

This easy challenge can help you save small amounts without you having to change how you usually spend. You get to decide how long you want to do the round-up challenge for, but it’s worth remembering, those small amounts can add up over time.

How much you’ll save: Depends on your spending 

Reverse 52-week challenge 

This challenge flips the script on the classic 52-week saving challenge. 

In the original challenge, you start by saving £1 in week one, then increase the amount you save by £1 every week. So, in week 2 you save £2 and so on. By the end of the year, in week 52, you’d put away £52. Stick with this challenge for the full 52 weeks and you’ll save a total of £1,378.

However, the classic challenge requires you to save large sums of money at the end of the year, when budgets are often stretched due to holiday spending.

So, consider reversing the 52-week challenge: 

Start by saving £52 in week 1 
Decrease the amount saved by £1 each week. So, in week 2, save £51
Continue this pattern till week 52, where you’d put away just £1

Choosing to do the challenge in this order is a good option if you’re eager to start saving a lot at the beginning of the year. The reverse order may also help you stay motivated, as the challenge gets easier towards the end. 

How much you’ll save: £1,378 if you complete the full 52 weeks  

% saving challenge

In this challenge you save a percentage of your take-home income each month.

First, you’ll need to know your monthly take-home income. This is the amount of earnings you receive after deductions such as taxes, pension contributions and student loan repayments. You should be able to find this on your payslip.

Here’s how to do this challenge:

In January, work out what 1% of your take-home income is, and move this into your savings account
Increase by 1% each month, so in February save 2% and so on
Continue this way until December, where you’d save 12%

In this challenge, the amount you save depends on how much you earn. For example, if your take-home salary is £2000, you’d save £1720 over the course of the year.

Your savings schedule would look like this:

Jan: £20	Feb: £40	Mar: £60	Apr: £80	May: £100	Jun: £120
Jul: £140	Aug: £160	Sep: £180	Oct: £200	Nov: £220	Dec: £240

A benefit of this challenge is it is tailored specifically to your income. As with the 52-week challenge, you could also complete it in reverse, if you think it would be easier to have the amounts decreasing over time.

How much you’ll save: It depends on how much you earn

The no spend challenge 

In this challenge you commit to not spending any money on non-essentials for a set period of time. So, you’ll only spend money on necessities, such as bills, rent/mortgage, transport and groceries.

You’ll stop all spending on non-essentials. For example:

Takeaway coffees 
Clothing
Eating out
Alcoholic drinks
Cinema tickets

You can decide the timeframe for your no-spend period. For example, you could try a no-spend weekend or set a no-spend day each week. If you’re looking for a serious challenge, you could try a full no-spend month too.

How much you’ll save: Depends on how much you usually spend on non-essentials

How to stick to your saving challenge

The results of your money saving challenge will depend on your consistency and ability to stick to the plan. Here are some tools you could use to help you stay on track:

Visual aids

Use visual aids like posters or habit trackers to help you stay motivated with your savings challenge. You can make these yourself or buy one from sites like Etsy. Just put your visual aid where you’ll see it every day to remind yourself to stay on track.

Automate it

Make things simpler by planning ahead and automating moving the money to your savings account. You can do it by setting up Direct Debits to move the amounts automatically. This way, you can ‘set it and forget it’, which can help you consistently save.