A mum has shared a simple money hack that helped her save upwards of £650 for her family’s Christmas presents – and she saved as little as a penny one day.
Kate Richards, 33, from Huddersfield in West Yorkshire, has been undertaking the Simple Savings Challenge for the past three years to help control her spending.
She starts by putting aside 1p on January 1, then 2p on January 2 and so on – with the total reaching £3.65 on December 31.
In a year this adds up to a total of £667.95 – enough for Mrs Richards to buy Christmas presents for her entire family.
Richards said she uses an app to automatically take the payments — so she doesn’t even notice the money being moved aside.
Kate Richards, 33, from Huddersfield in West Yorkshire, has been undertaking the Simple Savings Challenge for the past three years to help control her spending. Pictured: Kate with husband Iain and son Fred
She starts by adding 1p on January 1, then 2p on January 2 and so on – with the total reaching £3.65 on December 31. Pictured: Kate’s Christmas presents
She added: “I’ve been doing it since 2019 and use it every year for Christmas shopping.
“They also do it in reverse and start at £3.65 and go down. It connects to the bank and you get a notification every day, you don’t have to think about it and it’s great.
‘I’ve already wrapped all my presents and everything, everything’s done.’
Ms Richards uses the app IFTTT – which automatically saves an increasing amount of money each day – to help control her spending.
The teacher says she has also used another idea put forward by money-saving expert Martin Lewis – a secret Santa with her relatives instead of buying a present for each person.
Where she previously spent £20 per person on seven people, totaling £140, the group of them now have a £50 limit in a Secret Santa game where they only have one person to buy for – cutting costs by almost a third.
The scheme starts with you saving one kroner on the first day, before adding one kroner every day for 365 days
In a year this adds up to a total of £667.95 – enough for Mrs Richards to buy Christmas presents for her entire family. Pictured: The Richards family
The mum said: “I bought for seven people at £20 each and instead this year we have done a Secret Santa with a £50 limit so you only spend £50 instead of £140.
“It’s more fun because you have to think about one person and what they really want – with one person you can think a little bit more.
“I use a website called thingstogetme.com – you put in your Christmas list and send it to everyone and they can reserve an item ticking off so there are no duplicates.
“You find the item on Amazon, plug in the link and any extra information like color or size, and people can just check it off, buy it, and it’s sorted.
“You can do a good range of prices – some gifts were £4 and some were £40 – and I had loads at the lower end so people could pick and choose what they could afford and reserve it.”
