Time to Get Your $$$$ Together

Did you know that it’s National Savings Month? Um, nice thought, but who has money to save, right? Ahem. Well, 22seven think pretty much most people do. And we want to challenge you to find it.

22 days, seven ways to Get Your $ Together.

We’ve compiled a collection of challenges that we think will help you find more money. We’d like you to choose seven of them and complete them in 22days. We want you to share your successes and failures, thoughts and observations as you go. Let us know how much money you find (or lose) on each challenge, and how much $ you got together at the end of them all.

Have a look at some of the ways you can save below let me know if you’re game. I’m sure we could do with more (or less) money used more intelligently. I’ve already started this exercise when after using 22seven for a month or two it made me realise how much of my money goes to waste. Over the next few weeks I’m going to put the work in to get more out of my monthly budget yet again. Why not join me? Here’s to saving more and wasting less.

Challenges

1. Go carless. Walk/cycle/bus/train/Uber to work for a week instead of driving. Compare that to the cost of driving (including car insurance, maintenance, petrol, repayments) (easy if you use 22seven). If you’re going to use Uber for the first time use the promo code ‘pb5r4’ to get a free ride worth R150! With the money you’ll save you can get these top car accessories.
2. Bust your bank fees. Calculate what you’re actually paying in bank fees (including ATM fees, interest, various charges, etc.) (also really easy if you’re on 22seven). See what you can do to bring it down a different account, or bank and maybe bitcoin?)
3. Put the “sure” into insurance. Get competitive insurance quotes and see how much less you could pay.
4. Subscription subtraction. Cancel or reduce a subscription (or three): DSTV, gym, magazines, online stuff, data (e.g. go from uncapped to capped) etc.
5. Decellerate. For your cell phone airtime and data, compare what you’d be paying if you changed from contract to Pay as you Go, or vice versa.
6. Lunch deloaded. Eat packed lunches for a week instead of buying them. Compare that with what you normally spend on food (easy if you use 22seven). Or, make coffee at home and work instead of buying it.
7. Happy snaps. Take a pic of the thing that made you happiest today/this week, and the thing that was most expensive. Tomorrow/next week, do more of the happy and less of the expensive.
8. Spring clean. Sell stuff you don’t use anymore, or give it away. (Or find another additional income, regular or once off.)
9. Find something free. Do something free (or cheap) for entertainment and compare that to what a meal or night out would have cost.
10. Have a no-spend Sunday. Cook from your pantry, read a book, go for a hike… and compare that with what you might have spent on a normal Sunday (also easy if you use 22seven)
11. Pay yourself first on payday. Put a few hundred bucks into a loan or savings account or investment and see if you even miss the money later in the month.
12. Coin jar. Put every coin and any spare change that comes your way into a jar for 22 days and see how much it comes to at the end.
13. Cash it to cap it. On a night out, decide what you want to spend and only take that much cash (no cards – which allow you to keep spending).
14. Groovy gift. Make a gift for someone rather than buying it. (If there’s no gifty occasion this month, bank it.)

The final result of my #GYST challenge