How to Save Money Without Saving
Everytime I received a promotion at work, I’d say that I’d save the extra pay that I earned, I wanted to save money without saving. I wanted to have a pot of cash that magically grew with little effort. Unfortunately, as good an idea as that is, it never happened quite the way I wanted and my savings never grew as much as they could have.
Enter the modern day, smart phones and technology. It’s been a whirlwind of activity that’s highlighted the easy way to do things, automatically. There’s a few apps that I’ve been making use of to do just that. After installing them and connecting them to my bank, they can almost just sit there as you go about your normal day to day spending.
Oval – Save Money Without Saving
I remember going out shopping with a wad of cash, or on a night out, only to come home with a pocket full of coins because it was easier to break another note than to count the change. That mixture of circular metal would go into my extra large Smirnoff bottle that my Dad got from the pub years ago when I got home. I still have the bottle, but it’s looking a little lacking in it’s contents these days. Oval has taken on this in a digital way!
On dowloading and setting up the app, you’re asked to connected it to your bank account. It’s all a straight forward process that’s completed reletavely quickly.
Oval’s aim is to monitor your spending and in doing so, it rounds up your nearest purchases to the nearest pound. In a weekly direct debit, it adds up the remainder of all those purchases and transfers the money into the Oval app. Meanwhile, you can go about your business while a small fortune builds up little by little.
£5 is also on offer to new customers of Oval if you sign up with the code DWER2MNU
As well as the above, Oval also offer features to make a saving every time you post to Facebook and have recently opened up the option to earn interest on your savings.
Chip – Saving without Saving
Chip promises that you wont notice the money leaving your bank. Instead of a weekly Direct Debit like Oval, it takes a chunk of cash every few days based on it’s own algorithms. With this in place, it suggests that your savings grow quicker as it takes more than just a few pennies on each transaction.
I’ve already been pretty shocked how much I’ve managed to put away.
It’s definately one to try out especially when new customers can get a £10 bonus (30 days after 2 autosaves) if they use this kickstart code on the day they sign up : NGXR4FZ2
Monzo – Saving without Saving
Similar to the above, Monzo allows it’s customers to round up the cost of a purchase to the nearest pound and siphon a bit off into a “pot”. A pot is a small space in your account where you can store money away from your main balance.
I use my Monzo account for my “fun” money. The majority of the money spent from there will be in liquid refreshment establishements or eateries. This helps because I’m even setting money aside on a night out into a rainy day pot.
Because I don’t make full use of the whole balance each month, I created a WIDGO pot, for “When I Didn’t Go Out”. It’s not automated unfortunately, but at the end of the month, I move the remaining balance into that pot ready for a rainy day.
I’m really liking my Monzo account and it’s high on my list of banks to potentially switch to.
I’m not sure it’s a great idea to have all these tools working together on the same accounts, as you might end up moving more money than intended, but they are definately worth checking out!
