Painless Ways to Save a Bit of Money this Year

There are so many ways to save a bit of money. That's not a whole lot - like enough to buy a car or put deposit on a house - but enough to enjoy a treat at the end of the year, perhaps a weekend away at a romantic B&B or a nice family day out or a totally paid for Christmas.

One of my favourite ways to save a bit of money is with the 50 Box. We've used this for at least 20 years (the children were all really small, now they're all grown up!) and it is a variation on saving loose change, We, as a family these days, never spend a 50 cent coin. They are always put straight into the 50 Box (and yes, it's a real box I made to keep the kids interested all those years ago) and at the end of the year we take it to the bank and convert the contents to cash. Then we use that cash for a treat. The first year we did this it paid for our family farm stay holiday for a week. We've used the money for a family treat every year since. This year we're waiting until Thomas is home so he can share the fun.

Another way is to match the week to the dollar amount you save. So, this being the first week of 2018, you'd save $1. Next week is week 2 so you'd save two dollars and so on, until the last week of the year when you'll add $52 to your savings. Over the year you'll end up with $1,283.

If that sounds too much, you can do the same thing with saving 1c a day. So day 1, 1c; day 2, add 2c for a 3c total - at the end of the first week you'll have 28 cents in your jar. As we don't have 1c coins in circulation anymore, some week's you'll be rounding up. That's OK, you'll have a little extra saved at the end of the year. Oh, and if you're wondering how much you'll have in your jar at the end of the year, it will be at least $667.95 (more if you round up occasionally).

Wayne and Hannah like to empty their purse/wallet/pocket every night into a money box, adding all silver coins. There's no guaranteed amount at the end of the year but during 2017 Hannah emptied her money box every month and averaged $86. Thank goodness for her bank having a coin counter and for not charging to count and cash coins.

Another idea is to save every $5 note you come across this year. Just pretend $5 notes don't exist and put them away till the end of the year when you should have a nice cash lump sum to enjoy!

My Mother would save $1 coins and at the end of the year she would share them between the grandkids as a part of their Christmas gift. She didn't miss the $1, and the children loved getting money to spend during the holidays.

There are so many ways to save a bit of money, without it being a struggle or painful.

Do you have any other fun, painless, simple ways to save a bit of money this year?