Bec Oakes
With the cost of living crisis seemingly getting worse and worse, the financial strain of the festive period feels tougher than ever.
With soaring food and energy prices cutting deep into our budgets, a lot of us are looking for new ways to save a bit of cash wherever possible.
One mum has shared an incredible money-saving hack that could see you save thousands of pounds in just six months.
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Back in 2020, a savvy mum went viral after sharing the ‘envelope challenge’ on Facebook, which allowed her to save more than $5,000 in half a year.
That incredible amount of cash could help you prepare for next Christmas, go towards a house or cover an amazing family holiday.
The hack, which works in any currency, involves getting a pack of 100 envelopes and numbering them one to 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 $5,050,” 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 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."
If putting up to £100 away multiple times a week feels like too much, other money saving challenges offer a less intimidating way to save a little extra cash.
The 1p challenge involves putting a penny away on the first day of the challenge, and adding 1p to the amount saved each day for an entire year.
So, on the first day you put away 1p, then 2p on the second day, 3p on the third and so on.
By the end of the challenge, you'll have saved £667.95, a perfect stash to spend on Christmas presents.