Piggy bank savings incentive

Bimbly

I was feeling rough yesterday and stopped off via the shop on my way home where I bought some snacks for a night in front of the telly.

Firstly, the snacks are unhealthy and, secondly, they cost a couple of quid. Not much in the grand scheme of things, but can add up if I do this too often (I do! :eek:)

I was thinking of starting a piggy bank. Every day, I could put £1 into the piggy bank if I have avoided snacks and diet coke (the other thing that sends me to the shop in the middle of the day). At the end of the month, I will take out the money to buy something nice (eg, pub meal with friend). Perhaps if I succumb to a snack, I will not only forego putting in my pound, I will have to take that money out of the piggy bank (would need to be careful I don't start seeing this as a snack saving fund, however. :eek:).

Has anyone done this and has some tips?

Most of my spending these days would be on a card/online so would need to work out best way to shift money across (cash in a pub ok, buying something online not so much). So I could credit an account in a similar way, but I'm thinking that the advantage of using physical cash would be lost. Maybe there's an app...? But, again, wouldn't pound coins feel more "real"?.

I would also need to get hold of some pound coins and invest in a piggy bank. :rotfl:

bambilegs

Heya. I think this is a great idea, I do something similar myself. I invest £1 per day into a S&S ISA, and £1 into my emergency fund each day that I have a no spend day. I also put an additional £1.50 into my EF daily (it’s over £1500 from saving large amounts). I do this all through bank accounts and they are interest-bearing. So I feel bank accounts it’s best. I rarely carry cash but the rare times I do, anything left over I put in a piggy bank and cash when full or when going on holiday I’ve also got a separate piggy bank which is massive where I put spare cash also and hope to use it towards a house so go for it! Although I do like the idea of using it at the end of the month for something nice might steal that

ColdIron

bambilegs wrote: »

Heya. I think this is a great idea

Heya, you are sweetcake and I claim my £5

justme111

I think depriving yourself of treats is not a great way to go - my advice would be to replace those unhealthy more expensive ones with healthy ( and hopefully not so expensive) others. Home baked instead of bought , crackers grapes and cheese, fruit ( organic proper one - there was an article somewhere in press that cheap fruit bought by schools was actually putting children off fruit as it did not taste nice) , veggies. Good quality bread , good brand not butter virgin olive oil, tomato pure , mozzarella and spinach sandwich tastes great , does not cost much and does not take time to do. Nuts are expensive though but at least healthy. Local / organic apples. Buy a juicer and make your own juice - will avoid coke. That's is if the aim is health.
If the aim is not to spend that money than you could put the whole amount that you did not spend in the pot - that would be logical, would not it? Then spend it on something worthwhile . I have stopped myself from buying sweets at some point by having mental tally of what I would have spent and did not during the month and at the end of it sending that amount to charity against hunger.

bowlhead99

Bimbly wrote: »

I was thinking of starting a piggy bank. Every day, I could put £1 into the piggy bank if I have avoided snacks and diet coke (the other thing that sends me to the shop in the middle of the day). At the end of the month, I will take out the money to buy something nice (eg, pub meal with friend). Perhaps if I succumb to a snack, I will not only forego putting in my pound, I will have to take that money out of the piggy bank (would need to be careful I don't start seeing this as a snack saving fund, however. :eek:).

Putting money away for a longer term 'reward' like a monthly pub meal or annual weekend away - because you have spare money from day to day that you didn't spend on snacks - is a good thing to do.

However if you are going to take money out of the piggy bank on a day you buy a snack, that's silly. You are basically using your long-term reward fund as a savings scheme to buy day to day treats.

The more sensible way to work it is to separate the two goals. If you avoid snacks, you can add to the piggy bank. If you don't avoid snacks, you won't add to the piggy bank, because you spent the savings money on snacks instead. But don't raid the piggy bank to pay for those snacks. If you need money for snacks, use your normal wages.

Piggy banks are good because they are a visual reminder of your objective and how you're making progress. But you're right, we're all increasingly cashless these days. One way to handle it is just to have automatic standing orders move money from your current account to separate savings accounts on pay day - one of those accounts could be for meals out, another for other longer term objectives like Christmas presents and holidays, building up an emergency fund, a car fund, home improvements etc.

If you are separating out those essentials for savings and pub meals automatically from your current account at the start of the month or on payday, then whatever you have left in the current account at a point in time is yours to spend on snacks and treats, and if it runs out, no more snacks and treats The key is to make slightly bigger savings standing orders as the months go on and leave yourself a bit less for snacks than you would naturally buy if you had been left unchecked.

badger09

ColdIron wrote: »

Heya, you are sweetcake and I claim my £5

Deja vue all over again :rotfl:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5956648/saving-money-and-enjoying-life