Summer is almost here, which can mean holidays, festivals, day trips, park picnics, weddings (so many weddings), BBQs, and hopefully some time off to just relax.
If your holiday budget is looking more sparse than you’d hoped by now, don’t fret.
Being smart about how you manage your money – by gamifying your savings and outsmarting your own tendencies, for example – makes it possible to boost your holiday savings with minimal effort. Without having to live off toast for the next few weeks.
Read on for seven ways to give yourself more wiggle room in the spending department this summer.
1. Add fun custom images to your Pots
Creating a Pot is the obvious first step when you’re saving for something. To motivate yourself to keep putting money into it consistently, add a custom image that means something to you.
That might be a photo from your last holiday, a screenshot of your dream hotel from Instagram, or a photo from your last group picnic. Whatever captures your imagination enough to keep you on track.
To add a custom Pot image, select your chosen Pot and tap Change image.
2. Hide your Pots to remove temptation
Out of sight is often out of mind when it comes to money. When your holiday savings are hidden, you’ll be less likely to be tempted to dip into them.
Before hiding your Pot, set up a regular Scheduled Payment so your fund keeps building in the background.
Then hide it.
Tap the Home icon in the menu bar
Tap the Profile icon (top left)
Tap Edit (top left)
Tap the eye (👁️) icon next to a Pot to hide it
Tap Done in the top right to confirm your changes
3. Lock your Pots to keep you on track
Like hiding your Pots, locking them for a set amount of time can also help you save if you’re prone to dipping into your savings each month.
Tap the Home icon in the menu bar
Tap the Edit button on the Pot you want to lock (or create a new Pot)
Tap Lock this Pot and choose how long to lock it for
You'll be able to add money to the Pot as normal, but you won't be able to withdraw any.
If you need to unlock it for whatever reason, tap on the Pot, scroll down, then tap Unlock Pot and Withdraw.
4. Turn on round-ups
Enable round-ups to automatically round up your purchase to the nearest pound and save the spare change into one of your Pots.
For example, if you bought a pastry for £2.30, we’ll round up this amount to £3 and put 70p into your chosen Pot.
It’s true that if you look after the pennies, the pounds will look after themselves – people save an extra £129 on average every year with round-ups.
To turn on round-ups, create a new Pot and select Round up transactions. Or if you've already got a Pot you want to add round ups to, go to your Pot's settings and tap Round up transactions from there.
5. Do the 1p Saving Challenge
The 1p Saving Challenge involves saving a little money every day, starting with 1p on 1st January, 2p on 2nd January, 3p on the 3rd, etcetera.
You can start at any point in the year, but you'd start saving from that date onwards. So if you join on the 12th May, you’d start by saving £1.32 on day one, £1.33 the next day and so on.
You’ll need an app called IFTTT (which stands for ‘If This, Then That’). IFTTT lets you link your Monzo account to other apps and sets up rules to move your money around automatically.
Head to the 1p Saving Challenge and tap Get Started
Log into Monzo and agree to some terms
Choose which Pot you’d like to put your savings in
Tap Save to get started!
We’ll move the money into the Pot you chose every day automatically.
6. Gamify your savings with IFTTT
Making saving fun can make it more motivating to stick to. There are many ways to save automatically using Monzo and IFTTT, which lets you connect all sorts of internet services together in useful and fun ways.
Build up your holiday budget by telling Monzo to put money away every time you do something you’d do anyway (like hitting your step goal), or if something happens that’s beyond your control (like rain).
Some ways to save using Monzo and IFTTT include:
7. Earn interest on the money you’ve already saved
Open an Instant Access Savings Pot and earn up to 3.40% AER interest (variable)*, paid monthly into your Pot. Set one up in seconds – head to Create Pot and tap Savings when choosing the type of Pot you’d like to open.
There’s no minimum deposit and you can access your money immediately. To boost your summer savings, why not put the interest you earn each month straight into your dedicated Pot?
*This is the rate on 16/05/23. See the latest rates in the Monzo app. Ts&Cs apply
These are just a few ways to build up your savings budget to allow for maximum enjoyment this summer, while not having to make huge sacrifices.
Let us know how you bolster your summer savings fund.
To apply for a Monzo current account you must be a UK resident, Ts&Cs apply