1p saving challenge

AlaskaThunderfuckHiiiiiiiii · 2022-01-08T13:04:47+00:00

Hi everyone Stupid question incoming but I have seen this and have decided to give it a go and have so far put 8p away. Now by the end of the year I should have paid £3.65 but how does this then equate to the £667 or whatever the figure was that they say you’ll have saved? I just can’t seem to work it out?

Thatsplentyjack · 08/01/2022 13:09

Is it not
Day one 1p
Day two put 2p
Day three 3p

And so on. So after 3 days you would have 6p

Original poster

AlaskaThunderfuckHiiiiiiiii · 08/01/2022 13:10

Yes so we are in day 8 so have put 8p in is that not right? I feel I’m not following how it works at all but really like the idea of it

OP posts:

Rose789 · 08/01/2022 13:10

Today you should have put in 8p and should be on 33p in total

GlacindaTheTroll · 08/01/2022 13:11

It's starts with 1p, then you add a penny to the amount you save each day. So right now you should have:

Day 1 - 1p
Day 2 - 2p plus previous day = 3p
Day 3 - 3p + 3p = 6p
Day 4 - 4p + 6p = 10p
Day 5 - 5p + 10p = 25p
Day 6 - 6p + 25p = 31p
Day 7 - 7p + 31p = 38p
Today - 8p + 38p = 46p

Just be glad no-one set a challenge with doubling!!

TheChip · 08/01/2022 13:12

Thats right. Yeah day 8 is 8p

But I've got no idea how it works out by the end of it. My brain and numbers just don't work at all. My son said it makes perfect sense and ran some numbers by me, but my brain just melted. I just have to trust that it does, and if not, I'd still have saved a wee bit.

elelel · 08/01/2022 13:12

Do it backwards, start saving the higher amounts now and count down towards Christmas so you are only putting pennies into your pot in December when your outlay is higher.

AllThatFancyPaintsAsFair · 08/01/2022 13:13

Got to smile that you thought it was a penny every day

NuffSaidSam · 08/01/2022 13:13

It's day one 1p. Then day two 2p (so you now have 3p total). Then day three 3p (so you now have 6p total). Then day four 4p (so you have 10p total). And so on.

GlacindaTheTroll · 08/01/2022 13:13

Ignore my previous - typo in Day 5

Corrected version

Day 1 - 1p
Day 2 - 2p plus previous day = 3p
Day 3 - 3p + 3p = 6p
Day 4 - 4p + 6p = 10p
Day 5 - 5p + 10p = 15p
Day 6 - 6p + 15p = 21p
Day 7 - 7p + 21p = 28p
Today - 8p + 28p = 36p

Just be glad no-one set a challenge with doubling!!

BarbaraofSeville · 08/01/2022 13:14

In the last month you put away 3.65 + 3.64 3.63 etc etc. That is over £100 in December, similar for November and to a lesser extent October, so about half the money isn't saved until the last 3 months of the year.

To me the 1 p challenge is a pointless gimmick that probably almost no-one will see through in full.

If you want to save for Christmas, just set up a £50 pm standing order and forget about it.

DropYourSword · 08/01/2022 13:14

So today you’ve put in 8p, and in total you would have 36p in there (1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8).

It accumulates daily, so on day 365 you would put in 3.65, but the day before you would put in 3.64.

Original poster

AlaskaThunderfuckHiiiiiiiii · 08/01/2022 13:15

@AllThatFancyPaintsAsFair no no I didn’t think it was a penny a day as I put the 8p in the account today I just couldn’t work out how that gets you £600 odd by December as @TheChip says my numbers brain isn’t great at working things at face value in my head!

OP posts:

NuffSaidSam · 08/01/2022 13:16

@BarbaraofSeville

In the last month you put away 3.65 + 3.64 3.63 etc etc. That is over £100 in December, similar for November and to a lesser extent October, so about half the money isn't saved until the last 3 months of the year.

To me the 1 p challenge is a pointless gimmick that probably almost no-one will see through in full.

If you want to save for Christmas, just set up a £50 pm standing order and forget about it.

Agree with this.

elelel · 08/01/2022 13:16

You thought OP you would put away £3.65 and it turn into £600?

elelel · 08/01/2022 13:17

@BarbaraofSeville

In the last month you put away 3.65 + 3.64 3.63 etc etc. That is over £100 in December, similar for November and to a lesser extent October, so about half the money isn't saved until the last 3 months of the year.

To me the 1 p challenge is a pointless gimmick that probably almost no-one will see through in full.

If you want to save for Christmas, just set up a £50 pm standing order and forget about it.

That's why I suggest doing it backwards, but you are right, £50 a month is a much better way.

Original poster

AlaskaThunderfuckHiiiiiiiii · 08/01/2022 13:17

@elelel no this is what I can’t work out all the money saving expert stuff says about the 1p a day challenge and saving £600 by the end of the year and couldn’t work out how that is

OP posts:

Porfre · 08/01/2022 13:18

Well on day 365 you'll put in £3.65.
And on day 364 - £3.64

So for the last 2 months that's at least £3 a day.

So 3x60 is £180.
In the the last 2 months you'll put in around £180.- most of the money goes in at the end

whatnumber · 08/01/2022 13:18

Yes just put £50 a month away set up with your bank automatically! Much simpler and easy to stick to.

AllThatFancyPaintsAsFair · 08/01/2022 13:18

[quote AlaskaThunderfuckHiiiiiiiii]**@AllThatFancyPaintsAsFair* no no I didn’t think it was a penny a day as I put the 8p in the account today I just couldn’t work out how that gets you £600 odd by December as @TheChip* says my numbers brain isn’t great at working things at face value in my head![/quote]
I don t understand you post obviously as you said so far you'd put 8p away, thatworks out at a penny a day

TheChip · 08/01/2022 13:18

I understand that by saving daily in this way, it all adds up and by day 365, it will have mounted up quite nicely.

But my brain can't work out how to even do the math to figure out how they know it adds up to the 600 and odd quid it adds up to by the end.

I'm guessing OP is the same.

Original poster

AlaskaThunderfuckHiiiiiiiii · 08/01/2022 13:19

@Porfre ok thank you that makes more sense. I already have a save the change thing on my account so this was just a way of buffering that a bit, not saving for anything in particular like Christmas or anything it was just something for myself

OP posts:

Original poster

AlaskaThunderfuckHiiiiiiiii · 08/01/2022 13:20

@TheChip weirdly I can work out medication calculations but this sort of thing just throws me off 🤷‍♀️

OP posts:

NuffSaidSam · 08/01/2022 13:22

@TheChip

I understand that by saving daily in this way, it all adds up and by day 365, it will have mounted up quite nicely.

But my brain can't work out how to even do the math to figure out how they know it adds up to the 600 and odd quid it adds up to by the end.

I'm guessing OP is the same.

It's just adding.

It's literally just 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10+11+12+13+14 etc. up to 365.

DropYourSword · 08/01/2022 13:25

[quote AlaskaThunderfuckHiiiiiiiii]@elelel no this is what I can’t work out all the money saving expert stuff says about the 1p a day challenge and saving £600 by the end of the year and couldn’t work out how that is[/quote]
You can quickly figure out how to total a run of numbers (starting from 1) like this:

Say you want to add all the numbers from 1 to 10. You can do it on a calculator pretty quickly, but you could also figure it out by doing it this way:

(n/2)*(n+1)

So adding 1-10 is
(10/2)(10+1)
(5)(11)
55

You CANT add 1-365 quickly on a calculator but you can use this equation to figure it out
So
(365/2)*(365+1) = £667.95

cornflakegirl · 08/01/2022 13:27

The trick for working out how to add it up is quite nice.

On day 1 you put in 1p, on day 365, 365p. 1p + 365p = 366p.

Similarly, pair up day 2 and day 364. 2p + 364p = 366p.

You can do this all the way to day 182 and day 184.

So that's 182 pairs totalling 366p.
182 x 366 = 66,612
Plus 183p in the middle.
66612+ 183 = 66,795p = £667.95

The general formula for 1 + .... + n is
n (n+1) /2