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The Penny Challenge

 Tinkering about with various things, as one tends to do on wafty, no direction days like New Year’s Day, I found this...


It’s the One Penny Savings Challenge! Today, 1st January, you save a penny. Tomorrow, you add 2 pennies to the pot, the following day, 3 pennies, and so on, adding a penny extra every day until 31st December when you add £3.65 because it will be Day 365 of the year. And when you add that £3.65, you will have saved, over the course of the year £667.95! How good is that? Just by adding a penny extra each day, every day. 

Well, I thought I’d give it a go. See how far I progress before it becomes a bit of a faff. Of course, what with the development of our increasingly cashless society, the practicalities of using cold hard coinage is immediately causing impracticalities, so what I thought I’d do is, instead of using actual pennies, use something like grains of rice or beads instead, and then when I get to 100, I’d swap them into a pound coin, or 1000, into a tenner. 

Am I leaning towards the insane with this adaptation of a theme? Probably. Will I enjoy having £667.95 this time next year to spend on goodness knows what? Yes! Saving by stealth, that’s the key. I think it might prove to be most satisfying. 











Comments

aileen g said…
I've seen this way of saving before but it isn't for me as I often don't know what day of the week it is, alone whether it is day 24 so I have to "find" 24 pennies or whatever. Another thing to have to think about and fulfil in my opinion. I don't really save by putting money away - more by not spending it as I currrently only have my company pension anyway. Having looked at my spreadsheets for last 2020 (I love spreadsheets!) I did see that I spent quite a lot on hobbies (crafting supplies and books mainly), and the car (which is 16 years old) did need quite a bit of work, and then of course I adopted 2 cats which entailed a bit of expense in December. However, I probably have anough craft supplies now to last me for a couple of years, the car will (fingers crossed) not need anything major done this year, and the cats are now vaccinated and insured, so hopefully the only expense will be food and flea treatment. As for books - well, one book group is pretty much defunct now but the other is still "meeting" via zoom so there may be a few purchases - although not so much chance for a day spent going round the charity shops either - but those apart I actually have quite a stack of unread books. I do need a few small jobs doing on the house and garden which are a bit beyond my abilities now so there will be a bit of outlay but I am going to try to cut my spending as much as possible this year and see how much I can save that way.
4 January 2021 at 13:30
Athene said…
Trouble is, in November/December when expenses are usually rising, you’re having to find £3+ every day - not the sort of thing you discover down the back of the sofa. Well, not my sofa. Let us know how you get on.
6 January 2021 at 20:14
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