Five Reasons Why I Love The 1p Challenge, And Why You Should Do It In 2022

I’ve participated in a few different savings challenges before, but the 1p challenge is my favourite. I’ve completed it twice now, and it’s been one of the easiest ways to save £667.95 over a year. And I’ve barely noticed it coming out of my account. For me, the savings are used for Luke’s birthday both present wise and activity/ meal wise. Plus it gives me a bit extra so I can give myself an extra treat.

You can do the reverse 1p challenge which I will be setting up in 2022, it’s exactly the same but in reverse. If you’ve not heard of the challenge before or you’ve been tempted to do it but aren’t quite sure then please read on.

What is the 1p challenge?

The 1p challenge is a year-long savings challenge that starts on 1st January. If you do miss 1st January you can start at any time and begin on the amount for that day. It’s up to you if you back save the money you missed, or not.

On 1st January you save 1p, then on 2nd January you save 2p, and so on. This goes up to £3.65 on the last day of the year until you’ve fully saved. If you don’t like the idea of the most expensive savings being in December, you can do it in reverse and start on £3.65 on 1st January, £3.64 on 2nd January, and so on.

Why you should do the 1p challenge in 2022

You can do it effortlessly

It can sound like a bit of a faff, and when I was doing it with physical cash it really was. I ended up just adding change every time I had it and ticking off random numbers, even if they weren’t for that set day. But it doesn’t have to be tricky. If you have a Monzo account you can link it with IFITT and set it up to go automatically.

You can choose the 1p challenge, reverse 1p challenge, or a whole host of other savings challenges. For me, this means once it’s set up my banking does the saving automatically so I don’t need to do a thing.

The 1p challenge money quickly adds up

The money you’re saving each day isn’t that much, but it quickly adds up over the year. Especially when you get to the £1+ daily savings. When I do the normal challenge I do sometimes get to the end of January and wonder how I’ll ever save £660+, but the pennies quickly add up. You can easily make £3.65+ a day on survey sites like Prolific, for example, so you could choose to side hustle the money for the savings challenge.

You choose what you’re saving for

This isn’t a savings challenge specifically for any one thing, and you can set the rules. It’s totally up to you what you save it for, you could even save it so you’ve got spending money for the January Sales. Whatever is important to you. If y0u don’t have an emergency fund and don’t know how to save for one, then your 1p challenge pot can act as a good start for this.

As I mentioned I use mine to save for Luke’s birthday presents/ activities/ meal out etc, and then I have a bit extra to treat myself.

The 1p challenge gets you into the habit of regular saving

If you’re not that good with saving or new to it, or maybe you don’t think you can afford to save then this challenge is worth trying. Especially if you can set it up to work automatically. Doing this helps you form a habit of regular saving and this money could be used to pay for your Christmas, add to your emergency fund, for a holiday, or anything else you need to save for.

It’s an accessible savings challenge

There are loads of other challenges where you can save thousands over the year, but most people can’t afford to save £10 a day. Even if you have the best intentions this isn’t accessible. But the 1p challenge is something more accessible, even if you only do it for 10 months and pause it before it hits the £3+ numbers.

Do you do the 1p challenge or any other savings challenge?

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