The 7 best savings challenges that are easy, REALLY work & could bank you £2k… from ‘roll the dice’ to treat trick

THEY’RE all over TikTok, but can they bank you serious cash? Savings challenges make saving money seem more like a game than a chore, but don’t waste your time following one that’s impossible to stick to. Top money experts give their verdict on which ones are actually worth it – you could save up to £2,200 each. Savings challenges can be a great way to build up a cash cushion worth over £2,000 – but which ones are best? Credit: Getty The future you will thank you if you find yourself with unexpected costs and an empty wallet Credit: Alamy While social media makes these trends look like quick fixes, many people fail as soon as life gets busy. Most challenges start off easy, but quickly demand massive cash injections at the worst possible times – like right before Christmas. We break down the pros and cons of each one and reveal how automation can do the hard work for you. Here is how the top viral challenges stack up, and how much you could really save in 12 months’ time. Roll the dice – save up to £2,190 Imagine you’re in a casino and roll a dice – but unlike gambling, you’re not losing any cash Credit: Alamy One fun way to save is to pretend you’re in a casino – but there’s no chance of losing any cash. Take a dice and roll it every day, and whatever number comes up is the amount to transfer into your savings account. If you roll one, that’s £1 to transfer, but six would mean £6. You could save anywhere between £365 or £2,190 (if you always got sixes). Wealth firm Fidelity describes it as a “quick and easy ritual”, but requires a daily commitment. HOW MUCH SAVED? Between £365 or £2,190 a year 1p savings challenge – save up to £679 Monzo users can take part in the 1p savings challenge automatically Credit: Alamy The famous 1p challenge involves saving a penny on day one and then one additional penny every single day. By day 365, you put away exactly £3.65 for that day, resulting in £667.95 saved in total over the course of a year. If you’re doing this manually it can be a total bore, and it’s likely to be forgotten amid other admin. Instead, automate it with the help of your banking app. Monzo customers, for example, can take part in the challenge automatically through its app. Those with Monzo’s premium services, which costs from £3 a month, will also earn five per cent interest throughout the challenge, amounting to roughly £11 in interest over a year, bringing the total to £679. Rhys Jones, expert at Go.Compare Money, said: “The 1p challenge is one of the most popular savings trends because it starts with an amount so small that almost anyone can afford to take part. “The challenge works because it turns saving into a daily habit and gives people a clear sense of progress, which can be more motivating than setting an ambitious target from the outset.” HOW MUCH SAVED? £667.95, or £679 with 5 per cent interest added in 52-week challenge – save up to £1,392 The 52-week challenge helps you develop a savings habit Credit: Getty The 52-week challenge involves setting aside £1 in week one and then an additional pound each week, saving £1,378 in a year. It means stashing around £10 in January (£1 + £2 + £3 + £4), £26 in February, £55 in March all the way down to £250 in December. Tim Grimsditch, managing director at financial advice platform Unbiased, said: “For many people, it’s an effective way to develop the habit of saving regularly while gradually increasing contributions over time.” But December is normally an expensive month, so it may be easier to do it backwards by saving £52 in the first week of January and reducing the weekly saving by £1 throughout the year. Savings app Plum offers the challenge as part of its £3.99 a month Plus package. It said if cash built up through the 52-week challenge savings were moved automatically into its 3.10 per cent Easy Access Account, you would have £1,391.75 after a year. Will Bryant, of Plum, said: “These sorts of challenges are nothing new, but technology has made it much easier to automate the actual saving part of the challenge. “Automation takes away the regular and time-consuming admin of deciding how much and when to put money aside.” HOW MUCH SAVED? £1,391.75 after a year with 3.10 interest included Put your bank app to work – save up to £1,600 Your banking app may be able to help automate the savings for you Credit: Getty Banking apps can make saving effortless. NatWest’s “Round Ups” feature round your debit card purchases to the nearest pound, and the difference is sent to a savings account. Rhys Jones said: “These challenges can be a great starting point, but they shouldn’t be the only way you save. “The sums involved are often relatively modest and the accounts attached to these features don’t always offer the most competitive interest rates.” Alternatively, Starling Bank’s “Last Digit Widget” encourages customers to check their balance daily and manually move the final digit (in pounds or pence) into a dedicated savings “space”. It reckons users could save £1,600 a year – but it’s a habit you’ll need to stick to. HOW MUCH SAVED? £1,600 a year ‘Say no’ savings challenge – save up to £1,279 Swap your takeaway pizza at the weekend for a home-cooked one – then put away the difference Credit: Getty Instead of putting money away, focus on not spending it. So if you usually get a takeaway at the weekend, swap it for a home-cooked meal or a supermarket offer, and put away the difference. Do this for a limited period of time to encourage you to stick with it. So when the kids go back to school after the summer holidays, September could be a month of spending only on essentials, with no luxuries like coffees or takeaways. Or cut out just one luxury over a longer period, like not buying coffee for a year. The savings can quickly add up – a Costa Coffee drink can be as much as £4.80, meaning one every weekday over a year would cost £1,248. Tembo says you would save up to £1,279 including interest by stashing the money in its 4.55 per cent Homesaver account by ditching coffee. HOW MUCH SAVED? £1,279 by not having a weekday coffee Turn your treats into savings – save £120 Match any spending on treats or luxuries with cash into savings too Credit: Alamy Not ready to give up your treats? Match the purchase with an equal deposit into savings instead. So, if you spend £10 on an unplanned coffee and cake, takeaway, or online purchase, you save £10 into a savings account. Emma Furlonger, of pensions provider Standard Life, said this challenge “can change the way you think about spending”. She added: “When every £10 treat effectively becomes a £20 decision, you may find yourself questioning the purchases you don’t really want, while still enjoying the ones you do. “Regular contributions, even relatively modest ones, can build over time, so turning today’s impulse purchases into an opportunity to save could leave future you with far more to spend on the things you love.” HOW MUCH SAVED? It depends how often you treat yourself, but saving £10 a month alongside spending £10 on a treat would make a cashpot of £120 a year, with the potential to gain an extra £3 of interest from a 4.5 per cent interest rate account. 1% challenge – save up to £61.50 with a fiver a month Not able to save anything? Then you may want to try the 1 per cent challenge Credit: Getty Struggling to save anything? Try the one per cent challenge. That means taking one per cent from your monthly paycheck and putting it into a savings account. So if get £1,500 a month, you would save £15. To save more, take one per cent of your annual salary before tax every month. For example if you’re on £25,000, put £250 away every payday. Saving this way is more boring than other challenges, but is more likely to actually work, according to advice group Money Wellness. Its spokesman Thomas Gibbons recommends setting up a standing order on payday so the money’s gone before you see it. Make sure your savings go into an account with a decent interest rate, like Tembo’s or First’s Active, which pay 4.55 per cent in the first year. Comparison sites like moneyfactscompare.co.uk show the top-paying accounts. HOW MUCH SAVED? Saving £5 monthly into Tembo’s top-rated HomeSaver account paying 4.55 per cent would amount to £61.50.