The best thing about staying at home is knowing you're helping to stop the spread of coronavirus and protect the NHS.
But an added benefit could be that you're spending less. Staying at home, eating the food in your fridge, and watching TV or hanging out with your housemates has always been a sure fire way to cut down your spending!
So if you're fortunate enough that your income hasn't changed and you've found yourself spending less while social distancing, why not try to Save at Home? 🏠
We also know this is a tough time financially for lots of people, so we're here and ready to support you with your money. And we'll be publishing tips and information you might find useful.
How you can Save at Home
1. Find out how much you usually spend in an average month 💰
Make a list of all the things you'd usually spend money on during your average month. Transport to and from work, a morning coffee from Pret, drinks out with friends, cinema tickets, the list goes on.
Use Monzo to find out how much you spend every month:
Open Monzo and tap the pie chart in the top right
If you're using an iPhone, tap 'this period' underneath 'Summary'. Or tap the calendar icon in the top right if you're using an Android
You'll be able to see how much you spend every month
Tap on a month to see how much you spent in each category, like shopping, transport and groceries
Work out how much you're saving by staying home:
Work out which expenses you won't have any more because you're staying home.
That might be:
Transport if you're working from home
Entertainment, like going to the cinema
Eating out
Then work out if you're spending more on other things like groceries, because you're staying home.
Next, work out the difference between these two numbers to see if you're spending any less than before.
Then you could choose to commit to save that amount every week!
2. Open a Pot in your Monzo app 🍯
Create a new Pot and name it 'Save at Home'
Schedule a payment into your Pot every week for the amount you aren't spending.
You can also choose to add money as and when you like and you can stop the automatic transfer whenever you like too.
Every week, we'll move the money from your main account into your new 'Save at Home' Pot.
You can even choose to lock your Pot, to help you stick to the challenge by making it harder to dip in. Don’t forget that locking a Pot means that you won’t have access to the money in your Pot until the date you’ve set. You can read more about saving money with Monzo here!
3. Save money while you stay at home 🏠
You'll be saving money just by staying at home - the oldest trick in the book!
Here are some ideas for what to do with your savings
Donate the money to a cause that's supporting people through coronavirus
Start building up an emergency fund
Save up for a dream holiday when we can travel again
Join the Monzo Saving Squad on Facebook to share tips with other savers and keep each other motivated.
Good luck! 💪