A mum who was constantly battling a “mini crisis” when it came to her finances is now debt free and insists it’s all thanks to a simple habit.
Saving money between our expensive bills, shopping for essentials and social plans can be hard, but money savvy Vicky Smith insists that you can easily save £1,000 in a year without having to struggle or “give up the fun stuff”.
Vicky, who is on a mission to prove that being frugal “isn’t boring”, insists that putting away £2.76 per day is the “first step to financial freedom”.
The Berkshire mum took to her YouTube channel recently, where she boasts over 36,000 subscribers, to note that a lot of people focus on big milestones when it comes to saving.
But instead of trying to become a millionaire or retiring early, putting away just less than £3 a day means you can save around £20 a week, £83 a month, and £1,000 a year.
Vicky said that when you break down the daily saving trick, it equals what you are likely to spend on a treat for yourself.
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“That’s the cost of a few impulse purchases – a B&M haul or a monthly takeaway,” she pointed out in the video.
Vicky, who loves sharing her financial advice online, said: “After years of learning about how to be better with money I’ve realised that…saving your first £1,000 is realistic.
“If you’re not a runner, you don’t expect to buy a load of gear and run a marathon on day one. It’s probably going to end in disaster.”
She added: “For a lot of people who are new to saving, and maybe living pay check to pay check, setting out to save £100K on day one may end similarly; progress is going to feel frustratingly slow, especially if you earn a normal wage.”
Plus, putting away the £2.76 every day allows you to get into a good saving routine.
Vicky, who boats over 67,000 Instagram followers, explained: “By setting a budget and fixating on the amount of money you need to save every month, it becomes so much more manageable and when it’s realistic, you are not relying on motivation alone, which can burn out after a couple of weeks.”
The 42-year-old also insists that this easy method can really help you get into a good habit of saving.
“For me habits have really changed the game when it comes to my finances.
“Being better with money for me didn’t happen overnight, it came from small habits that I adopted overtime.
“I’m talking about looking at my monthly spending, setting a budget, revising it every single month, analysing what my monthly spending habits were, taking a look at what I was buying and when and what my spending triggers were.”
“Going forward you keep them [the habits] with you because you can see the success that you’ve already had.”
Vicky, who started to become more conscious of money after having kids, now spends a few days considering if she really needs and wants an item before jumping to buy it as she sees it in a shop.
The frugal mum, who admits she had to previously borrow money, also writes herself a list of things that she is “allowed” to buy and says seeing her daily saving habit like a bill has made all the difference.
She says her daily saving habit has allowed her to “stop living one more problem away from stress”.
Things were not always easy, as Vicky explains: “Before I had any money in savings, any unexpected cost felt like a mini crisis.”
“The stress of not having enough money to cover that essential cost was just horrible.”
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She continued: “If you live like that you start making decisions purely on survival and you stop doing things that are really important like looking at your bank account because it’s scary and stressful.
“That feeling of constantly being on edge of some financial disaster is horrible because it feels like you have no control whatsoever.”
“£1,000 doesn’t solve every problem but it does create a buffer – if something does go wrong it doesn’t derail you,” she added.
The method can stop you from going into your overdraft, using buy now pay later schemes and borrowing money.
Vicky concluded: “When it comes to saving money, a lot of people focus on the big milestones.
“But I think it’s the smaller steps that are so much more powerful!”
Money saving challenges
Here’s some of our favourite money saving challenges.
- Weather saving challenge – Save the amount equal to whatever the highest temperature was that week. £1 = 1C.
- 1p challenge – save 1p a day for everyday of the year, but it increase the amount by 1p each day. So day one you save 1p, 2p on day two and 3p on day three. When you reach 100 days you start adding a £1 coin each day too, while this increases to a £2 coin each day plus pennies at 200 days, and £3 each day on top of pennies at day 300.
- 20p a day challenge – Start by putting 20p in savings, then increase the amount by 20p every day. For example, the first week will look like this: 20p, 40p, 60p, 80p, £1, £1.20, £1.40.
- £5 a week challenge – Like the 20p challenge, put aside £5 a week and increase it by a fiver each week. Eg £5, £10, £15, £20
- Round-up challenge – Every time you buy something, round up the purchase to the nearest £1 and put the difference in a savings account. Eg. You pay £2.60, so you put 40p in savings. You can use an app such as Monzo or Starling to do this.
- Bingo challenge – Here you have a bingo card with different numbers on it and you tick them off when you’ve put that amount in your savings account. It can be ad hoc but you have to tick them all off by the end of the month.
- Monday to Sunday challenge – With this challenge, you simply save £1 on Monday, £2 on Tuesday and so on until the weekend where you don’t save on Saturday or Sunday.
- 365 day challenge – Every Sunday you put aside £1, followed by £2 on Monday, £3 on Wednesday and so on. On Saturday you’ll put away £7, and then the process repeats and you’ll put aside £1 on Sunday as the new week begins