Mum reveals her ‘penny a day’ hack which can help you save over £650 by the end of 2023 if you follow it too

A savvy mum has revealed how she saved more than £650 in 2022 using a simple saving hack - and you could save the same by the end of 2023 by using it too.

Kate Richards, aged 33, has used the same money saving trick for the last three years and has used it to pay for the festive season for her and her family.

She starts by saving 1p on 1 January 1, then 2p on 2 January, and so on - reaching the highest amount of £3.65 on 31 December. This adds up to an impressive total of £667.95 which has been saved by the end of the year.

“You don’t notice it coming out of your bank account”

The mum-of-one, from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, said: "There’s an app and it automatically moves money into your account for you. By the end of the year you’ve got £667.95 and you don’t notice it coming out everyday.

“I’ve done it since 2019 and used it every year for Christmas shopping. They also do it in reverse and start with £3.65 and go down. It links up to the bank and you get a notification each day, you don’t have to think about it and it’s great. I already have all my presents wrapped and everything, it’s all done."

Kate uses the app IFTTT which automatically saves an increasing amount of money every day - to help control her spending.

Thinking ahead to Christmas 2023

As Kate’s 1p hack proves it’s never too early to start thinking about the next festive period, even though we may have only just said goodbye to Christmas 2022.

If you want to be a super saver and a savvy shopper for Christmas 2023 then Kate also has two other money tops to share.

She used another idea touted by money saving expert Martin Lewis - a secret Santa with her relatives instead of buying each person a gift. Where she was previously spending £20 per person on seven people, totalling £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.

She also uses a website called thingstogetme.com to organise Christmas lists for her son.

The site allows people to enter their Christmas list and links to items, meaning it can be sent around to friends and relatives and everyone can see what’s been asked for.

Once a gift has been reserved by someone, it shows everyone who looks at the list too, meaning there’s no risk of duplicates.

Kate said: “I was buying for seven people at £20 each and instead this year we’ve done secret Santa with a £50 limit so you’re only spending £50 rather than £140. It’s more fun as you have to think about one person and what they would really like – with one person you can think a bit more.

“I also use a website called thingstogetme.com - you put your Christmas list in and send it to everyone and they can reserve an item which ticks it off so there are no duplicates.

“You find the item on Amazon, stick the link in and any extra info like colour or size and people can just tick it off, buy it, and it’s sorted.

“You can do a good range of prices – some presents were £4 and some were £40 - and I had loads on the lower end so people could pick and choose what they could afford and reserve it.”