New year, new me, new savings goals!

With the cost-of-living crisis as prominent as ever, now is the perfect time to reevaluate your personal savings goals and make the most of your 2024 savings opportunities. It is no secret that saving can be challenging for many households, so we have compiled some of our favourite savings' tips to help you kick start the year and achieve your goals for 2024. 

Start a New Year savings challenge 

Why not try a fun new year's savings challenge to help you reach your new goals. Here are our favourite three challenges to start this January, helping you potentially save up to £1,378 in a year. 

£1 a day 

Saving £1 a day is as simple as it sounds. By putting £1 a day into your savings, it will help you save £365 (£366 this year!) by December 31st. Although this method is slower than others, it could be done alongside other savings efforts to give you an additional £365 towards your end goal. 

The 52 Week challenge 

This challenge involves putting aside the same amount of money as the number of weeks we are through the year. This means in the first week you will save £1, second week will be £2, and third week will be £3 until you eventually reach £52 in the final week of the year. This will help you save a grand total of £1,378 by the end of December.  

Monthly saving challenge 

This 12-month savings challenge involves starting with £10 and then gradually increasing over the year. You will multiply the number of the month by £10 and that is the amount you will set aside. For example, January - £10, February - £20 and you keep going until December when it equals £120. Doing this challenge will help you save £780 by the end of the year.  

Audit your subscriptions 

The beginning of a new year provides the perfect opportunity to conduct an audit on all your current subscriptions. This means taking the time to identify which subscription services you are currently paying for, and then identifying the ones you still require and the ones you no longer use.  

Once you’ve listed all your subscriptions, it is a good idea to take note of how much each one is costing, when/ how frequently the payments are due and when the subscription renews. When taking note of your renewal date, it is good practice to look at how long the notice period is, often for annual contracts you must give 30 days' warning if you plan to cancel your subscription.  

 

Keep your eyes on the prize and name your goals 

One of the leading tips for setting savings goals is to identify why you are saving. Give your savings goal a name, so you have something specifically in mind to be saving towards, for example a new car, a holiday or even if you are just building a rainy-day fund. For more information on how to set your savings goals, please visit this article by Money Helper.

There are also some amazing free tools that you can use to help calculate how much you should be saving. 

Free savings calculators 

• Money Helper savings calculator
• Money Saving Expert savings calculator

Organise your savings 

Now that you have identified your savings goals and worked out your budget, it's time to put this plan into action and get saving. Organising your savings can take many forms, from stashing loose cash in a piggy bank to opening a savings account online.  

This guide by Money Helper can help you decide on the savings account best suited to you.

Determining your ideal savings amount 

Finding the balance between saving and spending can be tough, but luckily there are many online tools to do the hard work for you. Money Helper provides great information on budgeting and offers a free budgeting tool, you can see their budgeting tool here.

Rising cost of living – additional help  

If you are worried about the high energy costs, rising rents, or need urgent financial help, Money Helper has some detailed guides that you might find useful.

You can also find useful resources on Citizens Advice and Gov.uk for urgent financial help.