Jess Hardiman
One mum has an incredible money-saving hack that will let you save up £5,000 in just half a year, using a pack of numbered envelopes to create a systemised way to stash some cash away.
With an expensive Christmas period now over and the cost-of-living crisis continuing to hit people hard, many of us are on the lookout for ways to help ease the financial strain - whether it’s the odd quid while doing the weekly shop or tricks to help us save larger amounts for the future.
Back in 2020, a savvy mum went viral after posting about the ‘envelope challenge’, which allowed her to save thousands in less than six months.
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That amount of cash could obviously help you prepare for Christmas next year, go towards a house or cover an incredible family holiday.
The hack, which works in any currency, involves getting a pack of 100 envelopes and numbering them 1-100, before mixing them up and putting them in a box.
You then pick an envelope every day and fill it with the amount on the envelope in pounds, dollars, or whichever currency you use.
For example, if you pull out the envelope that says ‘24’ on it, you simply pop £24 inside.
If you grab the envelope that has a ‘6’ on it, you put in £6 - and so on.
Then over the next 25 weeks, which is less than half a year, you pull out two envelopes at random twice per week (or four per week) and deposit cash to the value on the front inside.
“At the end you will have $5050,” the mum wrote on Facebook.
She added: “Repeat this process twice a year and you will save $10,100 a year.
“So if you have a 3 year plan to buy a house you could have a little over $30,000 for a down payment doing this!!”
The woman also said you could also save weekly instead of daily, which may be a more achievable approach for some people but would obviously take longer.
One person commented: "We should do this! It would help me save."
Another added: "I love this idea. It would be a fun way for us to save up for something special."
A third person pointed out that you’d need a decent chunk of cash each week, writing: "Okay but you gotta have that extra money first."