Many might be considering saving more money as a New Year’s resolution, especially with the ongoing cost-of-living crisis making financial planning more important than ever.
A content creator has come forward with a method to save up for the 52 weeks of 2025 that could help resist the urge to dip into savings prematurely.
Michelle Donnelly revealed she’s undertaking the 52-week money-saving challenge, confessing she had attempted it previously through online banking but found it “too easy” to transfer funds out when money was tight. To combat this, she opted for a more tangible approach by buying a money tin from B&M, making it harder to access the saved cash.
“I thought I’d go to B&M, pick up one of the money tins, along with A3 paper and write out the money-saving chart myself and add the money into this tin so it’s not as easy to take the money out; we’ll just have to wait until the end of the challenge,” explained Michelle, as she meticulously prepared her savings chart.
She then detailed the challenge for those unfamiliar: “Each week, so week one, you put £1, week two, £2, and so on”, indicating that by the final week, you’ll be adding £52 to your tin, culminating in a substantial sum saved over the year.
“By the end of it, you’ll actually have £1,378,” Michelle shared, inspiring others to consider saving. Yet, a commenter highlighted a potential issue with the plan: “Better to work this backwards and start with £52. That way, the nearer Christmas, the less you need to put in. I am going to do this”.
Another individual noted the difficulty of saving in January when funds are low, regardless of the savings strategy used. A different approach was mentioned by someone who saved pennies instead: “I did this but the penny a day challenge, so day one, 1p, day two, 2p, day three, 3p, and so on, at the end of the year, I had £667 saved”.
A TikToker suggested an alternative method: “I would rather take the total amount of £1,300 and divide it by 52, for an even £25 per week.”
Another person mentioned the temptation to cheat by opening the tin, to which Michelle responded that it would be “pointless” as the key is self-restraint, especially when dealing with physical cash over online banking.