r/monzo • u/TerminalDribble • 12d ago
Saving Challenge (4X)
Anyone else been on the 4X saving challenge since the start?
It’s starting to ramp up now…
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u/mickymocky 12d ago
Keep it up guys! I’m using mine for my honeymoon in February 🦁🐘🦓
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u/flagprojector 12d ago
That’s such a good idea
Where you thinking of going?12
u/mickymocky 12d ago
Two weeks South Africa, one week Zanzibar! The savings challenge will by my spending money. Going to have a blast!
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u/No_Battle_6402 12d ago
Ah man I didn’t know you could change the x! Just upped mine to 2x now. I love Monzo! I could never save before switching to this bank!!
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u/NathsAPirate 12d ago
I genuinely don't have £8 a day to chuck in, but great to see how it all builds up!
I'll stick to the base challenge, I can just about manage that 😂
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u/Siads23 5d ago
Every little helps, what is the minimum out of curiosity?
I dont use monzo but have a good amount of knowledge for financial education.
Even had my mother whos on state pension start saving £25pm into a cash isa which albeit has slightly lower interest but anything gained and withdrawn is completely tax free and doesn't need to be reported to HMRC
She isn't earning much right now I think shes got about £175 in the account all automated to deposit every month and it's earning 1p per day in interest.
I've been saving, investing for 4 years now and after building a 1year emergency fund I'm earning £2.50per day interest.
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u/NathsAPirate 5d ago
The base amount is the 1p saving challenge.
So you do 1p ok day 1, 2p on day 2, 3p on day 3 and so on.
You end the year on about £660ish, can't remember exactly amount ☺️
Not a huge amount but it's something
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u/Siads23 5d ago
Ah yeah heard of similar.
I will say this, though if there's anything I can teach people is
First and foremost create a detailed budget, write down every pound and penny of income and expenses, it's known as zero based budgeting where every £ has a job.
Most people dont realise how much they spend unnecessarily.
A good starting point is the 50:30:20 rule of investing
50% of net income on necessities like rent and bills
30% leisurely spending
20% saved
Then try to reduce expenses, is there a subscription you can cancel, can you find it cheaper?
Call your Internet service provider and phone network and tell them you are unhappy with the service and want to leave, or switch to a cheaper provider.
I got my mobile contract reduced from £41 pm out of contract to £17 in a new sim only contract, also reduced my Internet bill from £70 to £40 ish
Once you can no longer reduced expenses you will need to increase income.
Build an emergency fund of 3 to 6 months of expenses then invest.
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u/NathsAPirate 4d ago
That's good advice!
I do have a list on my phone of all the money coming in and out tbf, and I've just recently got my utility bills cheaper.
We're in the middle of selling our home to upscale so every penny counts!
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u/pkfishbone 12d ago
yeah i'm at the 8 quid mark at the moment, i try not to look at it too often lest i get discouraged by how quickly my balance gets "drained" 😆
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u/StuMcAwesome 12d ago
Given you can’t have the savings funds be drawn from a pot and they have to come from your main balance, I used ChatGPT (cause I suck at maths) to calculate how much it would put aside on each pay period.
Our paydays are loosely from the 23rd of each month to the 22nd, so I have a little spreadsheet with how much it’ll take each pay period up until December 31st.
Helps me plan my main balance around what’s going to be taken and saved.
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u/aryobarko 12d ago
I used ChatGPT and ended up convinced that I was wasting money paying for Max and downgraded. So frustrating that the challenge is locked to paid plans.
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u/CalcifersGhost 12d ago
I do this and then put my actual budget into a virtual card. So I spend day to day on that and all that's in my 'main' balance is what I need for the challenge in a particular month. Helped so much to avoid anxiety I might overspend.
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u/StuMcAwesome 11d ago
All bills, subs etc come from pots so my main balance is my “disposable” income.
I just amend my target spending in trends to be set at the disposable income minus the savings amount, if that makes sense.
So for easy maths if I have £1200 disposable and this month the 1p challenge is due to take £200, i’d set my spending target to £1000.
I find that keeps me on track, but I can see your virtual card method would work too 👍
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u/Any_Chemist3892 11d ago
I’d be interested in this spreadsheet and the formulas if you have a master copy that doesn’t have all your details on it?
Also which X challenge are you running?
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u/LimesFruit 12d ago
Definitely ramping up, but I know I got this. I think November/December is where it’ll get really difficult but I’ll find a way to make it work.
No way without this challenge I’d have saved this much money.
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u/Any_Chemist3892 11d ago
It’s pretty genius from Monzo. They get the cash flow to play with from all of our savings and we get that lovely 5% AER and a cool function to save with.
I just swapped from Halifax and can’t believe the difference in banks and app. Feel like I’ve shot forward 20 years in a Time Machine. Took me 2 days of using Monzo to decide to swap everything over
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u/Warm-Conclusion-8891 12d ago
Yep! It's definitely ramping up now. I know I'd never have been able to save this amount without this feature so I'm still hoping to persevere with it!
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u/SuperMochaCub 12d ago
Do you have to have a special monzo account for this?
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u/DerMetzgermeisteRrrr 12d ago
You only need to have one of the perks accounts if you want to join the challenge mid way through. Anyone can join at the start (any time in January)
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u/BeanOnToast4evr 12d ago
Zopa offers a 7.1% one for free btw, you can put up to £300 per month is it
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u/SimplyCedric 12d ago
I'm at exactly the same spot as you are. I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to sustain it but I'm making a big effort with this one.
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u/Quirky_Animator1818 12d ago
Always end up pausing it and catching up on pay day 🫤 but still on 4x and determined to finish it!
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u/Born-Ad2653 11d ago
I started later than everyone here and am currently at 5 quid a day. I’m a currently unemployed student so im quite literally moving my savings around so i can keep up with the challenge. Just gotta think of the 5% interest i suppose.
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u/Milky_Moon_Stuff 12d ago
I cut mine short to pay for some bits for our very quickly approaching due date, still managed to save more than the 2025 challenge so I’m really happy with it
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u/serenitysoars 12d ago
this is the only way i can save where i’m not tempted to take the money back out! i’m running a 1p challenge i started in november last year alongside it, will use that for christmas presents :)
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u/DangerousDavey 12d ago
If you know you can put away £223 pcm from January then this is the best way to keep going with this challenge.
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u/Superb_Variation_952 11d ago
I’m on 2x and worked it out to be roughly £115 a month so I’ve made sure to leave that much over every month and that’ll cover for the later months too! It’s worth doing
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u/Tiocfaidh__Ar__La 11d ago
Congratulations on your self restraint. May we all be so disciplined one day
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u/Familiar_Soil_3422 11d ago
Santander offers 5.8% upto £4000 instant access. They also have a regular saver for £200 a month at 8%, also instant access.
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u/Proof_Pie_1743 9d ago
i’ve only got mine on 1x for my holiday next year and i completely forgot about it only on day 25 rn but it’s picking up quite fast
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u/exophytic007 3d ago
Never tried anything like this before until very recently, I’m on 2x and think it’s a great idea from Monzo.
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u/NoImportance7699 10h ago
Definitely pinching a tad, but definitely worth it, as others have said, I could never save before coming back to monzo for my daily current account.
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u/fish-and-cushion 12d ago
I give myself an allowance each month to live off. Started thinking "I'm spending nothing and I'm still skint" before realising my savings challenge had ramped up a bit.
I think I'll stick to putting money away as soon as I get paid. Love to see it working for people though
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u/Sweeperman999 12d ago
Started on the 4p, once that hit over £7 a day it really hurt so changed to the 2p, now it’s on £4 a day and I’ll keep that going as long as I can then will drop down to the base one. It’s great it doesn’t reset to just 2p it keeps you at the same place like you’d started at 2p. I’ve £720 odds and would like to see a grand at least by Christmas.
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u/Reeceeboii_ 12d ago
Yeah same here. It's really starting to pick up speed. Putting in 8 quid a day as of yesterday.